I have just received the most wonderful news ... My brother and his gorgeous wife had a little boy this morning. I have not stopped smiling. They are all really doing well, although a little tired, my brother sounds blissfully happy.
Normally when friends have babies I cook a few meals to keep them going for the first few busy days. As my brother and his wife live in Toronto I can not pop a food parcel on their door step ... I don’t think Spag Bol would taste the same after a ten hour flight and I think customs may have a few issues ...
So to keep my self busy while I wait for them to wake up and skype (they are five hours behind so were off to bed when they rang). I have been cooking for the childrens school cake sale tomorrow.
I have made Biscotti, I was inspired by Green Figs & Ham a wonderful blog written by two sisters. So thank you to Lorna and Mel and a big Welcome to by nephew ...
ORANGE & ALMOND BISCOTTI - Makes 24
Ingredients
125g Plain Flour, 125g Caster Sugar, 1 Teaspoon of baking powder, 1-2 eggs, 2 Heaped Tablespoons of Flaked Almonds, 2 Heaped Tablespoons of Candied Orange Peel (diced)
- Heat the oven to 180
- Place the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and mix thoroughly
- Beat the egg and add it to the flour a little at a time until it forms a dough. If the dough is too dry add more egg, if the dough is to too wet dust with a little more plain flour.
- Add the almonds and orange peel to the dough and mix
- Divide the dough into two and create two sausages of dough. They should be about 2-3cm in diamter and roughly 20cm long
- Transfer the dough sausages to a lined baking tray, make sure they have at least 5cm space around them as they spread, place in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden
- Remove the biscotti from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes
- Turn the oven down to 140
- Once the biscotti has cooled and firmed up slightly, place the biscotti sausage on a chopping board and cut the sausage into 1cm stripes. Do this on an angle with a bread knife
- Place the biscuits on their sides on the baking tray and pop back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes till they are golden all over
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool
- Once cool store in an airtight container ... or pop in bags ready for the cake sale
Cooking notes
The biscotti spread quite a bit during the first cooking so I tend to make my sausage, transfer it to the baking tray and then lightly press the sides inwards to correct any squashing that might have occurred during the transfer.
Adapting
You can change the ingredients you use to flavour the biscotti ... if you don’t have any almonds then pistachios would be great.
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