Thursday, December 16, 2010
These biscotti were whipped up short notice to fill a sudden craving my mom had for something sweet. I've had quite a few biscotti recipes bookmarked and was really intrigued by all the different methods used. Some recipes used butter, others oil, or even both. And a few recipes I came across used neither. For my purpose, I decided to go the traditional route and make my biscotti with olive oil.
Now, if you know me well enough by now, I hardly ever make a full recipe. However, this time I went one step further and actually didn't complete the full list of instructions. Biscotti gets its crunchy texture from a "twice-baked" method. The dough is formed into a log, baked, removed from the oven, sliced, then baked again. This makes biscotti the perfect dipping cookie for coffee, teas, or simply milk. However, I don't drink coffee or milk and although I love tea, I don't have it all too often. So I decided to make "soft-baked" biscotti. After baking the dough as a log, removing it from the oven, and slicing it, I allowed the cookies to cool and left it at that. Then I dipped the bottoms in white chocolate...well actually, I tried to dip them, but without success. What I found worked better and yielded a more aesthetically pleasing result was simply spooning the melted chocolate onto the bottom of the biscotti, then spreading it cleanly with a small angled spatula. Then I set them carefully down on their rounded (undipped) side and allowed them to dry.
Well, whichever way you decide to make these--crisp or soft, dipped or spread with chocolate--I assure you, you'll love the combination of delicate
Below I'm posting the recipe in its entirety. Including the steps that I decided to skip. Because I tend to adapt recipes, I often make mistakes when retyping them into my blog. So please if you see any discrepancies, let me know and I will amend it as soon as possible.
White Chocolate Lemon Biscotti (adapted from here and here)
1/4 cup light olive oil
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract (or to taste)
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cups (6-ounce) bar premium white chocolate, chopped
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together oil and sugar until well blended. mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts and zest, then beat in the eggs. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder; gradually stir into egg mixture.
Divide dough in half. Form two logs (12x2 inches) on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Dough will be very sticky; wet hands with cool water to handle dough more easily.
Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until logs are light brown. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 275 degrees F.
Cut logs on diagonal into 3/4 inch thick slices. Lay on sides on parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake approximately 8 to 10 minutes, or until dry; cool.
Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in a double boiler or using your preferred method. When the biscotti is cool, dip, spread, or drizzle white chocolate and allow the cookies to dry on a cookie sheet before storing in an air tight container.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
One of my favorite cookies there is the simple Lemon Pout. A soft, chewy sugar cookie with an undeniable lemon zing, perfectly offset by the crunch of sparkling sugar. I finally convinced myself into buying a microplane zester just so I could make these cookies. The recipe I found yields the most perfectly soft and chewy cookies. But beware: "store them in an airtight container to keep them nice and soft" is not a suggestion, it is a must. I left a few of the best looking cookies on a paper plate and covered them in plastic wrap so I could save them for picture taking later and within a few hours they lost their delicate texture. Nothing a quick zap in the microwave won't fix, but not ideal nonetheless.
Another note, I didn't have any lemon extract on hand (but after this incident, I will soon), so I took a cue from here and substituted four tablespoons of lemon juice. The result? Sadly not at all lemony. More like sugar cookies with a subtle hint of zest. Good, but just not tempting enough to cram down my mouth. I will, for certain, try this recipe again as soon as I get my hands on some lemon extract. Until then, for all you lemon lovers...don't settle for a substitute!
On a lighter, purely aesthetic note: next time I would definitely opt for rolling these cookies in sparkling sugar. Again, I only had granulated on hand, which lent nothing to the texture. Well, there was turbinado in the pantry, but I didn't want to risk discoloring the cookies with caramel-colored flecks. Just another reason to try it again, I'm missing out on that delicate crunch!
Lemon Sugar Cookies (adapted from Crepes of Wrath)
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup granulated or raw sugar for rolling cookies (I used raw sugar, which I think was an awesome choice)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or tin foil and spray lightly with Pam.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Rub together the zest and granulated sugar until the sugar is a pale yellow color. This helps to infuse all of the oils in the zest into the sugar and gives your cookies an even more lemony flavor. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy (about 3-5 minutes).
Beat in egg, vanilla extract, and lemon extract.
Gradually blend in the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.
Roll rounded tablespoons of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly golden and set.
Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks. As soon as the cookies have cooled, store them in an airtight container to keep them nice and soft. Makes around 20 cookies.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
With one week until school begins I find myself lamenting how quickly my five weeks of vacation flew by and how little free time I actually had. I blame it on the constant cycle of work that made the days go by faster and faster as they became indistinguishable. Work, eat, sleep, repeat. Now I'm saddened that I, once again, did not get to doing all the fun things that I had planned and day dreamed about instead of being attentive during last semester's classes. But I can't deny that I am excited for school and clinicals to start, so one could say that the fun has just begun for me.
Now these madeleines were something I whipped up in the few hours in between waking up and heading to work at noon this morning. Just had to satisfy my baking fix. Now, I've made madeleines once before with great success. They're my father's favorite, he loves the ones baked up by the Sugar Bowl Bakery in San Francisco that are sold in Costco, so I wanted to see what he thought of these. I was delighted to hear from my sister the next day that they were devoured by the familyin one sitting. My one qualm about that batch of madeleines was that I slightly overfilled the pan, which ruined the ideal shell shape. So I noted that I would have to make them again properly in order to document them here.
However, this time around I used a different recipe from 101 Cookbooks. That looked promising and was deemed "fail-safe", but I couldn't help but notice the lack of baking powder and refrigeration in the recipe. Now, baking powder I know is not a MUST in all madeleine recipes, but in my previous research I came up on a lot of emphasis regarding refrigeration, sometimes anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. But I pressed on and followed the recipe regardless. Now maybe it was my use of a handmixer as opposed to a stand mixer, but when I pulled the first tray of madeleines from the oven I was discouraged to find that they had not developed that signature hump nor had they risen at all. The backs were sunk in and they stuck to the pan. So, crossing my fingers, I sprinkled a small amount of baking powder into the remaining batter, gave it a good fold and hoped for the best. I even stuck the filled madeleine pan into the freezer for a good ten minutes. To my relief they came out much better, not humpy, but nicely puffed up. Now, I want to say that it must have been something that I did wrong that caused the problem, because I'm sure that the recipe, which has given others so much success, can't be flawed. But I'll be sticking with my original madeleine recipe, which is what I'll be typing up here. For the other recipe, see here.
Madeleines (adapted from Baking From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan)
2/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 Cup Sugar
Grated zest of 1 Lemon
2 Large Eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
3/4 Stick (6 Tbsp) Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Working in a mixer bowl, or in a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl. Working with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. With a rubber spatula, very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days. This long chill period will help the batter form the hump that is characteristic of madeleines. (For convenience, you can spoon the batter into the madeleine molds, cover and refrigerate, then bake the cookies directly from the fridge; see below for instructions on prepping the pans.)
Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400˚F. Butter 12 full-size madeleine molds, or up to 36 mini madeleine molds, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Or, if you have a nonstick pan (or pans), give it a light coating of vegetable cooking spray. If you have a silicone pan, no prep is needed. Place the pan(s) on a baking sheet.
Spoon the batter in the molds, filling each one almost to the top. Don't worry about spreading the batter evenly, the oven's heat will take care of that. Bake large madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, and minis for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are golden and the tops spring back when touched. Remove the pan(s) from the oven and release the madeleines from the molds by rapping the edge of the pan against the counter. Gently pry any recalcitrant madeleines from the pan using your fingers or a butter knife. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature.
If you are making minis and have more batter, bake the next batch(es), making certain that you cool, then properly prepare the pan(s) before baking.
Just before serving, dust the madeleines with confectioners' sugar.
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