Biscotti - definitely twice baked

Twice baked - and I mean it! And that's got nothing to do with the regular procedure to bake them, slice them, and then return them to the oven for added crunch and a golden glow.

Having seen lots of biscotti recipes in blogland, I wanted to know if they were really that good. My only encounter so far had been the rock-hard store bought kind that almost cost me a tooth. So, one of these days, I decided to give them a go. However, these biscuits turned out to be not quite as easy to make as I had thought. Not willing to be conquered by some cookies, I decided to start again a few days later, albeit again with mixed results.

But let's start with the first batch. Emerging from its first stint in the oven, it looked just perfect - from above, that is. Once I had the logs sliced up, I noticed that I almost burned the bottom sides. Cursing under my breath - it clearly must be the oven's fault - I returned them to the heat but carefully laid them out side wise as not to brown the bottoms any further.

For the second batch, I decided to turn down the heat and use the fan-bake setting. But disaster struck once more. When I took the logs out of the oven - pale golden but with darker edges - to be sliced up for the second browning, it turned out that this batch wasn't even done all the way. I quickly returned the uncut logs and peeped anxiously through the oven door. Luckily the baking powder was still doing its job and the logs rose some more. However, a little too much as it turned out. When fully baked, this batch with its cracked surface and less than smooth texture had a rather "rustic" charm to it - at least that's what I think smart people call their baked goods that aren't picture-perfect...

Taste-wise though, I almost preferred the charred batch. The over-the-top caramelization of the crust added more depth of flavour. Therefore, a third batch is in order some time soon - once I'm done with all the Christmas baking - and then with a double-layer of baking sheets!

Almond Biscotti

I started out with a recipe from delicious days and kept to its instructions but made a couple of modifications regarding the ingredients, most notably the addition of maize flour.

The ingredients

90g unpeeled almonds, partly whole and partly chopped
100g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
50g lemon caster sugar (in a jar, mix sugar with lemon zest and let it sit for a few days)
2 eggs
5 drops of bitter almond essence
pinch of salt
200g flour
80g fine maize flour

Granola Trifle - by no means a trifle

As Y has put it so well, I have been on the longest short trip ever - and now that my in-laws are back in Germany and the most urgent of my work projects are finished, I find myself with only one batch of Christmas cookies baked and only one present bought so far - and Christmas is only a short week away...
Anyway, let's get back to the riddle: Tanna was pretty close, however, it's not a pecan, it's an almond! That said, the following recipe contains pecans as well as you can see..;-)

When thinking about the ending year 2008 in food-related terms, one thing comes to my mind: it was the year of the seemingly endless quest to make my own granola. Sounds like a pretty simple affair, doesn't it? Well, I'd better not say how many batches of substandard granola I had to eat before finally coming up with the winner recipe. Not that there aren't enough tried-and-true recipes for this breakfast staple out there. There are plenty and I've googled for them all.

But when something looks so deceptively easy to do, I can't help myself but tinker with every single one of them. Which resulted in many batches of either overcooked, not-so-tasty or just plain bad granola. In the end, I loosely based my recipe on the two granolas you can find at Butter Sugar Flour; and at long last, I finally figured out how not to burn my granola with my very uneven oven, as well as how not to make it either too dry, too wet, too sweet or not sweet enough.

Once that was done, I could finally reward myself with a beautiful granola trifle - inspiration courtesy of Zarah Maria - with homemade quark and store-bought apple sauce. Hey, there's only so much you can do yourself at a time...

My Granola

The dry ingredients

3 cups of rolled oats
1 cup of almonds, partly chopped
1 cup of pecans, partly chopped
2 tsp of cinnamon

The wet ingredients

1/4 cup grape seed oil (or any other oil of your choice)
1/2 cup runny honey
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 tbsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

1
Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl.

2
Lightly heat the wet ingredients in a small pot and stir to combine. Mix into the dry ingredients.

3
Fan-bake at 120 degrees Celsius for an hour until golden and crispy. Don't forget to stir every 10-15 minutes.

Keeps in an airtight container for several weeks.

The source
Inspired by Butter Sugar Flour

CU soon!

I'm going on a short trip and - of course - didn't manage to put up a new post before that. However, I've got already something lined up for you. Can you guess what it is about..;-)

Time to change...finally

Had it not been for Nora's comment, I would have promptly forgotten about this blog's third birthday - it does seem to be some sort of recurring theme... Especially when yesterday's post would have been quite suitable to double as anniversary post....ah, never mind!

Being time-poor as usual, any culinary adventure fit for an anniversary was out of the question, so I decided to finally do something about the long-planned make-over of this blog. Yes, that's right, it was planned for a long time with designing new headers, fighting with the template, trying to understand Html and CSS (still not much of an advance in that respect) and all the cursing that comes with it. However, I didn't really like any of my earlier attempts. The day-long shooting for the perfect new header photo somehow never came - and the project was abandoned - shame on me...

So, on a whim, I decided to turn yesterday's cheeseckae photo into my new header and played around with the new blogger-template (luckily it worked out this time). There are still a few odds and ends to fix up - haven't figured out how to change my column width or how to convert to three columns and many more things like that.

However, this blog got new clothes to start afresh into its third year! Feel invited to come along with me and please tell me what you think of the new look!

Delicious Stuff from Delicious Days

One fine day, about two and a half years ago or so, my friend Nora introduced me to the wonderful world of foodblogs - guess, I've mentioned that fact before, have I? Anyway, what I might not have mentioned is the sad fact that some food blogs come and some go simply because I'm not able to keep up with all of them - no matter how much I'd love to. However, there's one that I clearly remember from this first awakening and that has stuck with me ever since. I'm sure you know this one already: it's Nicky's Delicious Days - a wonderfully written and photographed food blog from Munich.

During my recent trip to Germany, I had the good fortune to meet up with her for breakfast and, it being the final days before the release of her first cookbook, I also had the chance to get a sneak peak into it! I probably asked her all the questions about it everyone was asking as well..;-) Add to this that we happen to come from the same small town in Eastern Bavaria (with lots of regional specialties) plus the fact that we both experience(d) living abroad and you can imagine one lively conversation!

After having seen her book, it was only a matter of days until I could finally go to the bookshop and get it. However, deciding which one of the recipes to make first took me a while. Reading it from cover to cover first (there's not only recipes but lots of stories to go with them, too) and then leaving through it two more times, I finally had made up my mind that it had to be something sweet. Well, maybe not so surprising after all, is it?

Being an avid cheesecake lover, I decided to try Nicky's cheesecake that comes from her favourite cafe in Munich (definitely need to go there next time...) and it was every bit as promised: creamy, moist, and with a little tang from lemon juice. Usually, I would make souffle-like cheesecake batters with stiff meringue that would naturally crack and sink upon cooling. So if I need to get a sturdier cheesecake that will stand up without tasting of flour or cornstarch, that's the way to go!

And in case you wondered, it didn't take me quite as long to determine what to try next..;-) So far, we've had the apple-and-bacon mini-quiches that got rave reviews as well as the goats cheese salad with green nut-dressing - which my vinaigrette-drinking husband (a trait he incidentally shares with Nicky) heartily approved of.

Next in line was the oven-baked pancake with sauteed apples (un-sauteed strawberries and nectarines in our case). Luckily this recipe proved to be even more than foolproof: Running out of time, I didn't make four separate pancakes as specified but dumped the entire batter into my Dutch oven to crisp up on the stove and bake further in the oven while we were wolfing down the main course. Luckily, the recipe stood up to this rather unconventional method and I might have even turned it into something clafoutis-like - lucky me, I've always wanted to try this classic French dessert.

There's still so much more to try...
Sorry, no recipes this time, you might just have to go buy the book!

PS: The original cheesecake recipe isn't crustless but when serving cheesecake with an accompaniment like this strawberry-rhubarb compote, I prefer to have it without the shortcrust.