One slice, two slices, ten slices – Almond biscotti from Mrs. Lucia

silvia — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:08:20 +0000

Una fetta, due fette, dieci fette – Fettine con mandorle della Signora Lucia

That is a traditional Italian “dry”cookie, maybe what is called in the US, “biscotti” – Biscotti in Italian literally means cookies, and is more a generic word for cookies than for that type of sliced bread shape with almonds.

Growing up, we loved to bake those and made them all year long, not for any particular occasion. There is always a container filled with fettine at my parents’ house to offer anyone who drops by to have a coffee since that’s what people do, they stop by for a coffee and chit chat. Thing that no one has ever done in my house, stop by for a coffee, maybe that’s not an American thing. Besides Starbucks is right around the corner. They opened a few Starbucks in Paris and people love it. I think Starbucks concept of what they serve is more what I call a dessert rather than coffee, sure they do sell coffee but the large variety of the other items on their menu is definitely dessert-type of drink.

Like any other cookies, those can be stored in a air-tight container for a long time, so when you have a made a batch, you have enough biscotti to entertain half an army. Those are great with coffee or tea, you can also dip them in sweet white wine, or Vin Santo which is a Tuscan dessert wine (and also available in the US).

Ingredients for about 30 fettine

14 oz (or 400 g) flour
3 eggs
7.5 oz (or 200 g) sugar
7.5 oz (or 200 g) whole almonds unpeeled
1.76 oz (or 50 g) butter, melted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs anise seeds or zest of 1 orange

Preparation

In a mixing container mix flour and baking powder, then add sugar, eggs and butter. Add orange zest or anise seeds, and almonds at the end. Roll the dough to get 2 baguettes shape and bake in oven for 30 min at 360F.

Remove from the oven, let it cool a little and slice while still hot in small slices about 1 cm thick (0.4 inches). Place them back on your tray and put in the oven to let it dry for another 5-10 minutes. Remove from the oven, let it cool and place in air-tight container.

Little corks for little hunger – chocolate and coconut "corks"

silvia — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:41:15 +0000

Petits bouchons pour une petite faim – bouchons au chocolat et noix de coco

Originally this dough was made to bake chocolate madeleines, then I changed my mind and decided to use some other molds instead. So if you wish, you can use them as madeleines. Those days, I just cannot help changing my mind as far as food is concerned. I don’t know if this has to do with the fact that I am a libra, but it might. I don’t know much about astrology, but I heard that is one trait of the Libra sign.

Nothing very original, since we’ve seen this combination of chocolate and coconut thousands of times, but this particular mixture only has egg whites and no yolks and no baking powder so they’re quite light.

I am quite a contradictory person, I don’t eat sweets, I don’t care for sweets but I cannot help baking them. I don’t eat them and give them away. Thinking about it, it’s more of an impulsive behavior. Oh well, better baking than stealing!

I bought so many of those silicon molds when I was in France that I filled my kitchen with them. I love those little round ones, they’re so perfect for large dinner celebration, because they have 20-36 individual molds per tray. So you can bake a lot at once, and serve them with fruit salad at the end of the meal. They’ve been so popular in my house, that I adore baking them…even if I don’t really eat them.

If you look at the size of the raspberry, you’ll realize that the size of those little “corks” is quite small and two would fit in one’s mouth without any problems.

Ingredients for about 20 corks

2.11 oz (or 60 g) butter, melted
2. 11 oz (or 60 g) bittersweet chocolate
1.41 oz (or 40 g) white flour
0.88 oz (or 25 g) almond powder
3 tbs coconut flakes
3 tbs coconut milk
1.58 oz (or 45 g) powdered sugar
3 egg whites
1 tsp honey
20 raspberries for decoration

Preparation

Melt chocolate and butter at very slow temperature, when it’s all melted add honey. In a mixing container, mix flour, almond powder, coconut powder and sugar all together. Add melted chocolate and butter mixture. Mix well and add coconut milk. At this point, you should have a smooth consistency and not liquid.

Beat egg whites to a stiff consistency and add to the mixture.

Butter small individual molds such as madeleines or mini muffin molds, and add batter. Cook in a pre-heated oven at about 360-370F for about 15-20 minutes, until the bouchons have risen and cooked all the way through.

Let them cool down, decorate with some coconut flakes, and raspberries.

» Desserts

One slice, two slices, ten slices – Almond biscotti from Mrs. Lucia

Little corks for little hunger – chocolate and coconut "corks"