I'm with Zoe, Zelda, and Zooter
and Zelda is making Lemon Almond Biscotti.
Earlier, we watched as Zelda
made Cranberry Walnut Biscotti.
While that biscotti was baking,
Zelda started on Lemon Almond Biscotti.
Here's Zelda's basic recipe for biscotti:
Almond, Currant, and Spice Biscotti
3 cups sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
4 large eggs
2 TB dry Marsala
Zelda omitted the Marsala.
2 tsp orange peel
2 tsp lemon peel
Zelda used the zest of a lemon.
I didn't remember seeing an orange.
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp minced anise seed
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
6 cups flour
2 cups chopped toasted almonds
Zelda used unchopped slivered almonds.
1 cup currants
Zelda used golden raisins.
This is the fun part of making biscotti.
You start off with the basic batter
and you can tailor the ingredients
to whatever you like.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Beat sugar and butter until combined.
Add peels, baking soda, ginger, salt, anise seed.
Mix in half of flour, nuts, and currants.
Carefully add remaining
flour, nuts, and currants to dough.
Divide dough into 4 equal pieces
and form into 3 x 8 inch logs.
Place 2 logs on a baking sheet
spacing apart, since these will spread.
Brush with egg wash.
Bake until golden brown and just firm to touch,
about 1 hour.
Cool.
Cut into 1/2 inch slices.
Bake until crisp and golden brown.
Zooter, wanting one of Zelda's
homemade dog biscuits.
By the way, Zelda makes doggie muffins too.
She gave me a bag to take to Dixie
and I had one and it was delicious.
That says a lot about a cook.
I liked her dog food.
Zelda is starting on the flour and butter.
The recipe called for softened butter,
but Zelda hadn't taken the butter out of the fridge yet,
so she ended up nuking it and melting it.
It worked.
Zelda is using an Orange Cream flavor oil.
Just a few drops.
Oh, Zzzadig?
Care to guess where that little puncture wound came from?
Plus terrific hands.
And Zelda has those in spades.
This is one of my favorite pictures
from our afternoon together.
This dough is different from the first.
The first biscotti dough was quite moist and sticky.
This dough is drier and crumblier.
So Zelda improvised a bit.
She oiled her board a bit
then turned out the dough
and started kneading,
incorporating the oil into the dough
and working the dough until she had
a nice cohesive mass.
She's only using 3 of the doughs
for cooking today,
saving the 4th for later.
As before,
Zelda took her time shaping the loaves
and pressing the dough,
tightening the texture.
This is an important step
in producing a proper biscotti.
1 comment:
Dear Rosie, I love all of the ingredients in the biscotti. I shall try making these this weekend. Blessings, Catherine
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