Biscotti Anyone?

Welcome to my latest baking interest--biscotti.  My goal is to improve on the break-your-teeth coffee shop variety and come up with a very crunchy, but not hard product.  These are Chocolate Tangerine Biscotti and the recipe needs some work yet.  I shall increase the tangerine or orange flavour and mellow the chocolate by adding more vanilla.  While I achieved the crunchy result, they were more crumbly than I'd like so I also plan to bake them 5 minutes less next time.  Stay tuned!  

F is for Finland

F is also for fika and Finnish coffee, which is all that's needed to go with these Lemon Anise Biscotti for a special treat.  To perfect these all I need to do is substitute anise extract for the ground anise seeds. Unfortunately, the anise seeds I used were a little stale and lacking in flavour intensity. I'm also planning to increase the nutritional value and add oat bran next time. Here's the recipe. 

Lemon Anise Biscotti

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon anise seed extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons grated lemon rind

Beat eggs & sugar for 2 minutes.  Add oil, extracts, and lemon rind. Mix well. Sift flour, baking powder & salt. Add to liquid mixture and beat. Divide dough in half.  Shape each into 12 inch rectangle on parchment lined baking sheet and flatten to 1/2 inch thickness. Sprinkle with a little flour to prevent sticking to hands or rolling pin, if used. Bake at 350º for 35 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut into scant 3/4 inch slices. Place cut side down on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 5-7 minutes until firm and golden brown. Cool on wire racks.  Store in airtight container. 

Caramel Cravings Anyone?

Having mastered the molten chocolate cakes I decided to try variations so last night it was caramel.  The trick with this one is to cut down on the sugar, unless you like really sweet desserts.  Here is my version of the recipe.

Molten Caramel Cakes

112 g  caramel sauce including water if too thick

1/3 cup butter

2 eggs at room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 400°.  Generously butter 4 custard cups and dust the inside with sugar.  Set aside.

Melt butter into caramel. Set aside to cool.  Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer unti
l it turns pale, and doubles in volume, about 6 minutes. On low speed, blend in the caramel mixture and vanilla.  Add the flour and mix for 1 minute.  Divide batter among the cups and place them on a baking sheet. 

Bake for about 14 minutes.  Immediately invert each cake onto a plate and unmold. The center should be slightly runny.  Serve with vanilla yogurt/coolwhip topping or vanilla whipped cream.

The Rise of Yorkshire

My first attempt at time lapse photography resulted in this little movie. While not the best quality images were produced, it was fun all the same.  At my house, Yorkshire Pudding is not just reserved for roast beef dinners.  I enjoy serving it with pork, chicken, turkey and sausage.  Did you notice their jumbo size?  For some reason I have a designated Yorkshire Pudding Pan, used only for baking these monsters.  

Happy New Year!

As promised, here is the revised version of Ricardo's Molten Heart Cakes from my November 23rd post.  I prefer to use chocolate with a higher cocoa content for a more bold and less sweet taste.  This dessert is light yet rich and satisfying for the discriminating palate of chocololics such as myself.  Note:  It is for 4 servings instead of the original 8.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

4 oz. (112 g)  chopped Callebaut 70% bittersweet chocolate

1/3 cup butter

2 eggs at room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 400°.  Generously butter 4 custard cups and dust the inside with sugar.  Set aside.

Melt chocolate and butter. Set aside to cool.  Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer until it turns pale, and doubles in volume, about 6 minutes. On low speed, blend in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla.  Add the flour and mix for 1 minute.  Divide batter among the cups and place them on a baking sheet. 

Bake for about 15 minutes.  Immediately invert each cake onto a plate and unmold. The center should be slightly runny.

Note: Cake batter can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for 2-3 days.  The cooking time for cakes with cold batter will be 3-5 minutes longer, directly from freezer 25-28 minutes.

Last Minute Decorating

It's Christmas Eve afternoon and I just added the finishing touches to my Christmas Fruit Bread gifts for family.  The tradition of giving bread began the year I couldn't afford Christmas gifts.  Now they count on it every year and of course I'm happy to oblige.  My tip to make the glaze more interesting is to add both vanilla and almond extract.  Merry Christmas, Hyvää Joulua and God Jul everyone!

Pulla: O Glorious, Heavenly, Delectable Pulla!

Showcased With My Finnish Dishes

I'm half Finnish but often I feel more like three-quarters. 1971 was the first year I visited Finland and although I was a only a child, I have many vivid memories of that experience.  It was new and exciting in so many ways, especially meeting family I had only heard about or seen in pictures.  There is nothing like Finnish coffee table adorned with fresh pulla.  If you like cardamom, this is the ultimate way to enjoy it, with a cup of coffee.  On extremely rare occasions when a loaf is becoming stale after a few days (usually it doesn't last that long), I make it into toast and savour each bite all over again.