SMS: Sour Cherry and Almond Biscotti

It's been a couple weeks since I've been able to bake along, so I was glad to be back with the gals at SMS this week. This week's recipe was hosted by Tracey at Made by Tray-Tray.  The first time I made biscotti was just this past year for The Cookie Carnival, and my husband loved them. He's a crunchy cookie guy, so it's not too surprising that he likes them. He's also been bugging me for the past couple months to make some more biscotti, so I thought these would make the perfect treat to leave for him after I had to come back to NE.

I wasn't for sure what I would think of these. Normally, I'm not much for nuts in my dessert. I like nuts, just not in my cookies, brownies, etc. Nevertheless, I have to say this dough was AWESOME! I'm quite sure that I could have sat down with the bowl and a spoon :-)

As for my verdict on the final cookies, I'm not quite sure. I really, really liked the flavors in these, but I'm still a chewy cookie girl at heart. Even my self-proclaimed crunchy-cookie lover husband thought that these would be a little better if they hadn't been quite so done. They weren't too brown, just a little hard for our tastes. Nevertheless, this dough has a lot of potential! I think we'll be trying these again soon, but it may be in more of a traditional cookie form next time :-) 

A big thanks to Tracey for hosting this week. Check out the comments on the blog post to see how the other ladies did this week!

Pumpkin Pie Biscotti

I bookmarked this recipe about a month ago when I saw it here on My Baking Addiction. The cookie for The Cookie Carnival in October was my first time making biscotti, and I have to say it's been a good experience! My husband really likes them as he likes a crunch to his cookie, so they may be making repeat appearances in different forms :-)

Having not made too many biscotti recipes, I was a little worried about this one. The dough was quite bipolar - too dry at first and then seemingly too moist after baking. Even with the pumpkin puree, the dough was definately dry! I probably kneaded it for 5 minutes before everything looked like it was incorporated. This worried me for 2 reasons. 1) Why was it so dry? Did I add too much flour? 2) Are the cookies going to be really tough from all this manipulation of the dough.

See how dry it looks. I wasn't quite sure that I hadn't done something wrong because I had just finished a major exam that afternoon. Regardless, I proceeded. As mentioned above, I did finally get all the flour incorporated, made my dough logs, and baked for the first 24 minutes. After letting the dough cool for 15 mintues, I discovered my next problem. This biscotti was not completely crunchy already like the last ones I had made. In fact, the middle of the log was quite doughy. This made it a little harder to cut nice strips, but it worked okay overall. The orginal recipe only bakes the biscotti for 15 minutes in the second bake. After 15 minutes, my cookies still seemed a little soft, so I flipped them and put them back in for another 8 minutes. That seemed to do the trick; they set up pretty nice after cooling. They are still a little softer than the other recipe that I made (likely due to the pumpkin and brown sugar), but I had thought the others were too crunchy anyway.

Despite the troubles, this recipe was AMAZING! If you like fall flavors like pumpkin, I promise you will love these. Bring them along to Thanksgiving as a more portable form of pumpkin pie. They'll work better in that form to watch football anyway! Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Pumpkin Pie Biscotti - Adapted from My Baking Addiction

3-1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1-1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/8 tsp. cloves

1/2 c. pumpkin puree

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. butter

1/2 pkg. vanilla almond bark

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl; stir well. In another bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla, stirring well with a wire whisk. Slowly add pumpkin mixutre to flour mixtrue, stirring until the dry ingredients are moistened. The mixture will be crumbly. It will gradually come together if you keep stirring.

Melt butter in a small bowl in the microwave. Add butter to dough mixture and knead until the dough looks uniform. Place dough on a floured surface and divided into two portions. Lightly moisten hands and shape each portion into a 2x10" log. Place logs 3 inches apart on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 24 minutes. Reduce oven to 300 degrees and cool logs for 15 minutes on the pan.

Move the loafs to a cutting board and cut diagonally into 1/2" slices using a large serrated knife. The interior of each biscotti will still be a little moist so cut carefully. Place the biscotti cut side up on the baking pan and bake for 8 minutes. Flip the biscotti over and bake for another 8 minutes. Repeat once more for a total of 24 minutes for the second bake. Set all the pieces on a wire rack to cool making sure none of the pieces are touching.

While biscotti are cooling, melt white chocolate on the stove or in the microwave. When cool, dip one end of each piece of biscotti in the melted white chocolate. Place on waxed paper until the chocolate is set.

October Cookie Carnival: Chocolate Citrus Biscotti

This month's Cookie Carnival recipe is from Giada De Laurentiis. Once again, biscotti is a new venture for me. In fact, every single recipe I've made along with the other bakers in the Cookie Carnival has been a new recipe. Not bad. It has definately allowed me to expand my horizons which I am enjoying!

The recipe can be found here on the food network website. Giada even has the recipe linked to a video which I did actually watch. Having never made biscotti before I wanted to make sure I wanted to make sure that I followed the recipe PRECISELY. When it says to beat the egg and sugar together for about 3 minutes, I set my running watch for three minutes and stopped at the beep :-)  I actually made only 1/3 of the recipe for a couple of reasons: 1) I've been baking quite a lot lately and did not want a whole bunch of sweets sitting around for awhile, 2) I wasn't sure if I would like it. In reference to the second one, I am a self-proclaimed chewy cookie fanatic, so I wasn't really sure what I would think of the crunch in biscotti.

As far as making the recipe, everything went really smoothly! I used my stoneware pans since I don't own a silpat mat. The biscotti stuck to the pan a little bit when I went to slice it after the 1st bake, but it came off just fine when I slid a metal spatula underneath.

In the video, Giada says that you could use either white chocolate or milk chocolate in place of the semisweet chocolate that she uses to dip the biscotti. I had a few extra white chocolate chips from a different recipe, so I decided that I would try both because I am not the biggest chocolate fanatic (GASP!) As far as the verdict, I enjoy these as a change up from the usual cookie, but I think my husband liked them more. The 1/3 of a recipe only made about 10 biscotti, and my husband is already requesting more! In both of our opinions, the white chocolate-dipped ones were better, so I think I would do it all that way next time.

(Printable Recipe)

Chocolate Citrus Biscotti- Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. fine yellow cornmeal
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. orange zest
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
1-3/4 c. semisweet chocolate chips (can use milk chocolate or white chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Stir the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar in another large bowl until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the orange and lemon zests to the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture to the eggs and sugar and beat until just blended (the dough will be soft and sticky). Let stand for 5 minutes.

Using a rubber spatula, transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet, forming two mounds spaced evenly apart. Moisten your hands with water and shape the dough into two 11x4-inch logs. Bake until lightly brown, about 35 minutes. Cool the logs for 5 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs crosswise into 1/2-inch thick diagonal slices. Arrange the biscotti cut side down on the same baking sheet. Bake until the biscotti are pale and golden, about 25 minutes. Cool the biscotti on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Using a medal spatula, transfer the biscotti to a rack and cool completely.

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring every 20 seconds, about 1-1/2 minutes total. Dip 1 cut side of each biscotti into the melted chocolate. Gently shake off excess chocolate. Place the biscotti on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. REfrigerate until the chocolate is firm, about 35 minutes.

The biscotti will keep in an airtight container for 4 days or frozen in foil and resealable plastic bags for up to 3 weeks.