December 28 2016

Choco-Cranberry Almond Biscottis

Biscottis

Biscottis are just the cookie for the holidays. They are hard, but soften when dipped into coffee. Mmm. . .breakfast. . .

This recipe can be adapted to any flavor combination you like. Pure Almond, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Cranberry, Cherry. . . you name it. The result is a substantial cookie.

If you buy biscottis at the store, you’ll notice that they’re very light and almost always fall apart when introduced to coffee or hot cocoa. These will not immediately fall apart. They are also not -quite- as hard. Both of these traits are pluses as far as I’m concerned.

Biscottis
Choco-Cranberry Almond Biscottis
Print Recipe
Biscottis - a hard cookie perfect with coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.
Servings Prep Time
2 Loaves 20 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
40 minutes 10 minutes
Servings Prep Time
2 Loaves 20 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
40 minutes 10 minutes
Biscottis
Choco-Cranberry Almond Biscottis
Print Recipe
Biscottis - a hard cookie perfect with coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.
Servings Prep Time
2 Loaves 20 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
40 minutes 10 minutes
Servings Prep Time
2 Loaves 20 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
40 minutes 10 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: Loaves
Instructions
  1. Cream your butter and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix well.
  2. Add dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, salt. Combine into a soft dough.
  3. Add your chocolate chips, almonds, cranberries, or other chosen biscotti ingredients. Mix until they are evenly dispersed through the dough.
  4. Form your dough into two loaves. Place the loaves a few inches apart on a medium baking sheet, and bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The loaves should be lightly brown.
  5. Let the loaves cool for about 10 minutes (or longer, as desired), and then slice into inch thick slices. Slice diagonally for larger biscottis.
  6. Lay the slices out on baking sheets, and bake again for 15 minutes. This will dry out the cookies. For a harder biscotti, bake longer (but don't burn them!).
  7. Enjoy with coffee!
Recipe Notes

You will get awkwardly shaped end pieces from each loaf. You should absolutely eat these to test your biscottis during the baking process.

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Category: Cookies, Sweet Things | 1 Comment on Choco-Cranberry Almond Biscottis
December 11 2016

Macaroons

Light, fluffy, and coconutty – macaroons are an easy and delicious treat!

I tracked down this recipe a few years ago when I had too much coconut. The cookies are pretty small, so doubling the recipe is entirely reasonable. Right? Right.

Macaroons
Print Recipe
Coconut cookies.
Servings Prep Time
12-14 cookies 10 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Servings Prep Time
12-14 cookies 10 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Macaroons
Print Recipe
Coconut cookies.
Servings Prep Time
12-14 cookies 10 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Servings Prep Time
12-14 cookies 10 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: cookies
Instructions
  1. Beat the egg whites, vanilla, and almond extract together until the egg whites are fluffy and soft peaks form.
  2. Mix the sugar, flour, and salt, then add the coconut flakes. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. The coconut flakes need to be sticky enough to hold together while baking.
  3. Form dough into balls, about one tablespoon each. Bake for 18-20 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Category: Cookies, Sweet Things | LEAVE A COMMENT
November 30 2016

Almond Custard Upside-Down Pie

In my pie making adventures, I’ve tried quite a few recipes whose results were questionable (Shoofly Pie with blackstrap molasses; do not do this!) or which mysteriously morphed into something else. Such it was that I started with the notion of making chess pie and ended up with this Almond Custard Pie.

I’m not entirely sure how one thing led to another anymore, but this is a delicious almondy confection. I’m not entirely sure it counts as a pie, as the almond crust has the interesting habit of rising to the top of the pie instead of remaining on the bottom as crust.

Almond Custard Pie
Print Recipe
A delicious almond custard which may or may not be a pie. . .
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Almond Custard Pie
Print Recipe
A delicious almond custard which may or may not be a pie. . .
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Ingredients
For Crust
For Filling
Servings: people
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
  2. Chop your almonds up in a food processor. Once they are finely chopped, add the butter and almond extract and continue processing until well mixed. If the butter starts out soft, then the almonds should start clumping together in a loose dough.
  3. Press your almond dough into the bottom of a pie plate, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
  4. While your crust is cooking, cream together your butter and sugar until smooth.
  5. Add in the eggs, flour, whey, almond extract, and nutmeg. Mix well.
  6. Pour the filling into your pie plate, and bake for an additional 60 minutes.
Recipe Notes

On the whey - the first time I made this recipe, I had really thick whey from one of my cheese-making experiments.. It was a bit like soft yogurt. You can also use buttermilk, OR 1 cup of whey/milk with 1/2 cup of yogurt.

On the pie crust - 1 cup of almonds only makes enough to cover the bottom of the pie plate. I like limited crust, but if you want it to go up the sides as well, double the crust recipe.

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Category: Custards and Puddings, Pies, Sweet Things | LEAVE A COMMENT