Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie: Biscotti


Happy Tuesday!

This week we made Lenox Almond Biscotti for Tuesdays with Dorie, courtesy of Gretchen of Canela & Comino. I have never been a fan of biscotti because I don't get the point of a hard crunchy cookie that usually doesn't have any chocolate in it. What a waste of calories! I'm more of a chewy and gooey kind of cookie girl. But maybe it's the time of year, or maybe I'm secretly a little burned out with chocolate after brownie week, (don't worry, I'll recover by tomorrow for sure) but I think I fell in love with my pumpkin spice biscotti. I had it for breakfast this morning dipped in my caramel hot chocolate. It warmed me right up after being outside in the 36 degree weather. Yes, 36 degrees is what my car said at 7:30 this am. At least the snow melted from yesterday's storm. I'm still a little new to Utah weather, but isn't it a little early for this??? I swear fall only lasted like, 3 days! Back to my biscotti...this was some seriously good stuff. I also made chocolate craisin biscotti and it was pretty good, but I'm not going to miss it when it's gone like I will my pumpkin spice ones.

I had a little bit of a hard time with the form of the biscotti though. The recipe tells you to bake the dough in a loaf, let it cool, slice it, and then bake it again, only this time when you bake the slices, you have them standing up like a marching band. Mine started out in great formation, but then you know how in the movies when someone in the first row of the marching band stops suddenly and then no one is paying attention so they all bump into him and everyone falls over with their big tubas and drums and stuff, well that's kind of what happened to my biscotti once they got in the oven. They all fell over on top of each other, so they don't look exactly like most biscotti you might find, but don't judge a book by it's cover. It's the taste of them that counts.

Remember: For the full recipe of Dorie's Lenox Almond Biscotti, you'll have to get the cookbook. Believe me, it's worth it. It's the Dorie Greenspan Baking From My Home to Yours. (see amazon's link on the right side of my site for more info) You can also get it from Gretchen's Blog. But here's how I did my own renditions:

Pumkpin Spice Biscotti

Add 1 tsp pumpkin spice to flour mixture before adding wet ingredients

Chocolate Craisin Biscotti

Add 1 T cocoa to flour mixture
Add 1/3 C craisins to dough


I chose to reduce the almond extract to 1/2 tsp and omit sliced almonds altogether for both recipes

I'm definitely looking forward to another round of pumpkin spice biscotti and caramel hot chocolate tonight before I crawl into bed. Happy dunking!

Don't forget to check out the other Tuesdays With Dorie bakers on the blogroll.


ps. a special happy birthday to my good friend, Laina! You know how sometimes you have friends that no matter how much time has passed, or how different the paths of life have taken you, you will always have that tight friendship? She is one of those friends of mine. Love you, Lai! Hope you have a great day!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

YUM! I have never made biscotti before but have always wanted to!

Laura W said...

My hubby will love this! And don't worry, fall will come and go here in Utah for a little bit. :) It's not totally gone yet.

Ammieloris said...

Mmm. Pumpkin and chocolate sound great together. (I think biscotti is best dipped in hot cocoa, too.)

Corinne said...

I love biscotti. I make them all the time and everyone thinks like what I did, but they are so easy. I love chocolate chip and I also love cranberries with slivered almonds. The pumpkin sounds delicious. You were absolutely right, I love your cousins furniture and style. Where in SD is she? Does she have a store?
Corinne

Maria said...

Happy birthday to your friend! I love biscotti and yours looks wonderful!

Jenny said...

Yummy biscotti, it looks wonderful!

Anonymous said...

You were a bit more adventurous than I was - it was my first home made biscotti so I stuck to the recipe pretty closely.

I completely agree with your original assessment of biscotti - give me chocolaty, chewy, warm and gooey cookies every time - but I can't say the biscotti was a complete disappointment :)

Thanks for sharing your variations!

The Food Librarian said...

Love the pumpkin spice addition!! Yummy. 36 degrees??!?! Eeck!

Mindy said...

Yeah, I'm sorry about the whole Utah weather thing. I have loved here my entire life and the fact that my favorite season literally lasts, like you said, 3 days is such a bummer!
Biscotti has always been a little of a mystery to me. I have never tried making it but you have given me courage. Yours looks great!

Prudy said...

I love your variations! Great ideas. Brownie week was super fun! I loved them all and am just deciding which to try first..hmmmm...
Thanks for noticing the article in the Daily Herald!

vanillasugarblog said...

I will take 6 of each please. And please send overnight express so I can have them with my morning coffee. :-P

Katrina said...

Love what you've done with the biscotti! I loved this stuff and didn't think I would. I thought it was only for dunking in coffee.

Laina said...

OMG that was reallllly really sweet of you to give me a special birthday shout out!!!! You know I read EVERY word of your yummy recipes but of course the day you shout out to me for my b-nizzle I didn't read it all b/c I don't like biscotti!!!! I looked at the pics though!! Sorry I didn't see it sooner! Oh and I just went home and told my Halloween Obsessed roommate Greg about the yummy halloween recipes you posted. He's excited for me to make em!!! Love you!