Biscotti

I love biscotti.  I don't even need coffee to dip it into.  I love how crunchy it is, and I especially love the traditional anise and almond flavors that are so popular.  But, what I love most about biscotti is that it is essentially a twice baked cookie.

Biscotti means "twice baked," in fact, so what I decided to do was make white chocolate macadamia nut biscotti, because who doesn't love white chocolate macadamia nut cookies?  I looked up a few recipes online, and the main difference between regular cookies and biscotti is one stick of butter.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Beat together 1 stick of room temperature butter with 3/4 cup of white sugar and 1/4 tsp of salt.

Add 2 eggs one at a time and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Next combine 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 2 cups of flour.

Now for the bits.  Combine 1/2 a bag of white chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of chopped macadamia nuts.

I lined a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and formed the dough into a log.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Once these are out of the oven they need to cool for 30 minutes.  Slice diagonally and bake again for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Or dark brown, whoops.

Once these are baked a second time you can dip them in chocolate or leave them be.  I left them be.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe, I'm hoping to do more new recipes, I know I have been doing repeats (if they taste good, I make them often).

Enjoy!

One of the Most Wonderful Times of the Year

So, again, this is late, but I did make my Carbomb Cupcakes yet again!  This time for a Warhammer Tournament I was participating in on St. Patty's Day.  I do love the magical liquid that it Guinness, and this year I decided to make my frosting from scratch, using cream cheese as the base.  These were very much appreciated, and nearly all were eaten!

You have all seen my recipe for these delicious cupcakes, but for those of you who are visiting for the first time, you can see my original post here!  I'll just show you some highlights of this year's batch.

I hope everyone had a safe and fun St Patrick's Day.  Enjoy!

It's (well was) Purim Time!

Ok, so this is a very late post, but these were still very delicious!

Last year I made a delightful little post about the holiday Purim, and a very special confection that is served.  Hamentaschen or Hamantaschen are a triangle shaped cookie said to represent the pocket, hat or ear (depending on who you ask) of Haman, the villain of Purim.  This cookie is eaten in effigy of him because he was oh so wicked.  This year I wanted to make something special, something I am shocked that I haven't tried yet.  Hamantaschen with Nutella.

If you have never had this stuff before, I feel so badly for you.  This is Peanut Butter in Europe, and it is fan-freaking-tastic.

So, this year, I tried out a new recipe from here.

I beat two eggs until they were light yellow.

Next I beat in 3/4 of a cup of white sugar, 1/2 cup of oil and instead of 1 1/2 Tbsp of Cognac, I used a special liqueur.

This is a delicious Hazelnut liqueur called Frangelico.  It comes in a very distinct looking bottle.  I used this because I wanted to have an extra bit of hazelnut flavor in these cookies.

Once these are combined I gradually beat in 2 tsps of baking powder and 3 1/4 cups of flour.

After a while the mixer wasn't cutting it so I had to use my hands to bring the dough together.

Once combines I rolled out the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper and rolled it into a cylinder.

I wrapped it up and refrigerated it overnight.

The next day I took out the cylinder and set the oven for 350 degrees.

Because this dough was so dry, I used some water to knead the dough.  This did the trick!

I rolled it out and cut out circles using a juice cup.

Next I added the Nutella, and folded the cookies into triangles.

Bake for 15 minutes

And presto!  Tasty cookies.  Happy Belated Purim, and Enjoy!