Chocolate-Almond Biscotti: Daring Baker...At Last

Chocolate-Almond Biscotti

Please don’t get confused with the title. I haven’t turned out to be a wonderful bakers like the ones in Daring Bakers overnight and I have no plans of joining that group for many more days (read years;) But still I am pleased to say that I did a daring thing during weekend and I actually baked!!!

The idea of baking used to scare the hell out of me! I always felt the oven staring at me icily (mmm… of course it feels cold when its ‘never’ used right;) as I walked back and forth past it. I did try my level best to ignore its threatening look. It demanded me not to use it as my extended kitchen cabinets to store few more vessels and Dabbas. It coughed and twisted its nose when we popped frozen pizzas and chips into it and turned itself into one agonising aunty when I used it to ‘ferment’ Dosa and Idli batter. It almost went into strike when I, err, used it to heat my kitchen when our central boiler conked off. Gosh, isn’t it easy and quicker to walk to a nearest bakery, buy and gorge that bread or baked goodies than actually measure that cup of self raising flour!!! Well, ahem, I do think so or rather used to think so that now I actually have baked and found some pleasure in it.

I always felt that I am not a person with enough patience when it came to baking. First, I never managed to follow the instructions to the word as I like changing and modifying ingredients to suit my taste and preference. Unfortunately it’s a big no-no in baking. You see the rebellious cook in me wouldn’t budge an inch and transform herself into a baking fairy. Well, you better follow the recipe step-by-step, cup-by-cup, spoon-by-spoon if you really don’t want to end up baking soggy cake, flat muffin or hard to bite cookies.

Next, I couldn’t simply stop myself from opening the oven door to take a quick peek to check if my cake is baking well or not. It took me sometime to realise it is another big no-no in baking world. Well, with my ancient gas burner with dark oven I have no option of actually seeing from outside if it’s baking well or not. And my hubby dear is not to ready to stick a bulb inside our oven which is plugged from out. Men, what more can you expect!!!

Other thing I had to keep in my mind is not to try to be too creative, especially when you are a newbie. Last time I used condensed milk in place of milk and egg thinking it will work beautifully and ended up one sad looking cake which stuck to my mouth top and was damn difficult to swallow. And no prizes for guessing that it ended up in waste bin. Well, I have come to terms with the bakers that there is a damn good reason as why milk and egg is used in baking.

Armed with all these tips from my previous failed attempts at baking, I decided to follow step-by-step instructions and used proper cups and spoons to measure each and every ingredient. The result is this wicked looking Chocolate & Almond Biscotti baked following the recipe posted at The Joy of Baking. This website has wonderful collection of baked goodies which are simple to follow and you actually end up baking something that look like the one photo posted there. I have already tried few recipes from this site and none of them have failed to impress me. I would highly suggest this site for any foodie, especially amateur like myself, who wants to try their hand at baking.

The Italians use the term biscotti to refer to any type of cookie. In North America, biscotti is used to describe a long, dry, hard twice-baked cookie with a curved top and flat bottom designed for dunking into wine or coffee. The name biscotti is derived from 'bis' meaning twice in Italian and 'cotto' meaning baked or cooked.

(Source: The Joy of Baking)

I chose Chocolate-Almond Biscotti to try first as it has two of my favourite ingredients, chocolate and almonds. There are two things I tweaked a bit. One I didn’t de-skin the almonds as I didn’t have patience to do so. I simply roasted them with skins and chopped them. Next I used half-half of chocolate chips and dark chocolate as I had these chocolate chips which I was reaching its expiry date. Initially, I was hesitant to make changes to the original recipe but went ahead with these modifications and it worked quite well ;) The end result was simply amazing and we have a big canister of these wonderfully ‘twice baked’ biscotti sitting proudly on our kitchen counter.

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Chocolate-Almond Biscotti
Prep Time: 20-30 mins
Baking Time: 60-90 mins (depends on Oven type)
Makes: 16-18 Biscotti
Recipe Source: The Joy of Baking

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Ingredients:
¾ cups (110 gms) blanched whole Almonds, toasted and chopped coarsely
4 ounces (110 gms) Semi-sweet or Bitter Chocolate, chopped in ½ inch pieces (I used semi-sweet Chocolate Chips and Dark Bitter Chocolate in equal quantity)
1¾ cups (245 gms) All Purpose Flour
2/3 cup (135 gms) Granulated White Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
¾ tsp Baking Powder
1/8 tsp Salt

Chocolate & Almonds

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
Meanwhile, toast almonds for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let them cool and then chop coarsely. Set aside.
In bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the sugar and eggs on high speed until thick, pale, and fluffy (about 5 minutes. With my hand mixer it took little longer). Make sure that when you slowly raise the beaters the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons. At this point beat in the vanilla extract so that it is blended well.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the egg mixture and beat until they are well combined. Next, gently fold in the chopped almonds and chocolate.
Transfer the dough to your parchment lined baking sheet and form into a log, about 12 inches (30 cm) long and 3½ inches (9 cm) wide. Dip your fingers in a cold water if you find it too sticky and difficult to manage.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until firm to the touch.
Once it’s baked, remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Transfer log to a cutting board and using a serrated knife, cut log into slices of 3/4 inch (2 cm) thickness on the diagonal.
Place these biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake 10 - 15 minutes, turn slices over, and bake another 10 - 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container. Serve them with hot cup of coffee and enjoy.

Chocolate-Almond Biscotti

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Final Call for WBB-Summer Feast (Just one more day to go)

Friends,

If you have already posted an entry for WBB-Summer Feast and yet to mail me, please make sure you do it by tomorrow. This is a final call for all you lovely bloggers to participate in WBB-Summer Feast.

For this edition of WBB, your challenge is to cook anything with summer fruits and vegetables. Yes, the theme is WBB-Summer Feast. Go to your town/city’s Farmer’s Market and pick fresh season’s produce and make your favourite breakfast or brunch and join in the Summer Feast.

Deadline: 31st July, 2008

Please go through the guidelines and include all the required information in your post and mail when sending me your entry. Don't forget to add Your Name, Your Blog Name, Name of the Dish you cooked, Perm Link of the entry along with the gorgeous Photo of final dish.

Click Here or on the logo to find out more information on this event.

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Reminder for JFI-Soya:

I invite you all to celebrate Jihva for Ingredients with this month’s theme JFI-Soya. Choice of Soya products, the recipe, ingredients, method etc is entirely left to you. I would greatly appreciate if you can send me any Vegan or Vegetarian recipes but I leave it to your choice. Soya foods include tofu, tempeh, textured vegetable protein (chunks, mince etc), miso, soya sauces, soya oil and margarine, and soya dairy alternatives.

Deadline: 31st August, 2008

Please go through the guidelines and include all the required information in your post and mail when sending me your entry. Don't forget to add Your Name, Your Blog Name, Name of the Dish, and Perm Link of the entry along with the gorgeous Photo of final dish.

Click Here or on the logo to find out more information on this event.
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Kashi Halwa

My MIL has so many traditional recipes in her magic hat and always surprises me with one thing or the other. I always wonder if I will have that kind of enthusiasm, patience and energy to cook complicated and very time consuming delicacies. She always makes me speechless with her delicious parade of dishes. I feel like an amateur when I compare my cooking with that of my Amma and Atte. I guess most of us will have same kind of feeling. The extra oomph comes with the love with which they cook and serve.

Kashi Halwa

Today is a time to share one of the very few sweets I love. (Oh yes!!! I am not a sweet person but my hubby compensates that part for me.) This delicacy is popularly known as Kashi Halwa. Ok!!! Now I need a favour from you guys. I have no idea as why it’s called as Kashi Halwa. Is it because it’s served as Prasad in Kashi or these are some other reason? All I know is its made using white pumpkin and its tastes heavenly. So here is the recipe.

Kashi Halwa

Ingredients:
1 kg Ash Gourd
2 cups Sugar (Adjust according to your taste)
2 cups Ghee
Few Cashew Nuts

Kashi Halwa

Method:
Remove the skin and seeds of the ash gourd and grate it.
Cook it till it looses all its moisture and becomes dry.
Now add sugar and again keep stirring till it becomes dry and changes its colour to golden brown.
Now add ghee and keep stirring continuously till the ghee floats on top.
Add cashew nuts and mix well.
Remove from fire and transfer it into storage container once it cools.
You can serve it hot or cold as desired.

Kashi Halwa

I love eating it as it is as it simply melts in your mouth. Or if you want to make it more interesting you can serve this with a dollop of vanilla or any other ice cream. I have figured out that it tastes divine with saffron ice cream. Although it’s very time consuming the end result is simply superb.

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Badam(Almond) Halwa

Badam Halwa is a traditional dish from the northern region of India delicacy that does full justice to the creamy texture and flavor of almonds.

Lip Smacking Badam Halwa

Ingredients:
1 cup Badam/Almonds
11/2 cups Sugar
30 gms Ghee
3-4 Cardamom
1/4 cup Milk
Few stings of Saffron

Badam Halwa

Method:
Soak the Badam for 1/2 hour in hot water and peel the skin off.
Grind them to smooth paste with milk and keep it aside.
Take sugar in a kadai, add some water to it and boil it until you get a thin string.
To this add ground paste and mix it well.
Then add the ghee little by little and stir it well. Keep the gas in medium flame.
After 8 minutes switch off the gas and remove the kadai from heat and keep on stirring.
As it starts getting cold it will become solid.
Then spread it in a plate and sprinkle almond flakes.

Badam Halwa

Tip:
While stirring, the halwa will become thick and it will come along with the spatula you are stirring with without sticking to the bottom, that is the sign for the halwa being done.
If stirred for a longer duration, you will be able to enjoy delicious almond barfi pieces.

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Panasa Thonalu

Panasa Thonalu is a South Indian sweet dish which i found in food blogger buddy KrishnaArjuna's Blog. Its such a simple dish and can be prepared when you dont have much time and your friends are about to bang your door. The ingredients used are same which I use to make Malpuri (Soon I will Post). You can always try giving different shape to this sweet and give your own name.

Panasa Thonalu

Ingredients:
Maida(all purpose flour) - 2 cups
Ghee(clarified butter) - 4 tbsps
Water - enough for kneading the flour
Oil - For frying
For the Syrup:
Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup

Panasa Thonalu

Method:
The syrup making process: Mix the sugar and water in a skillet and let it sit on medium heat stirring it every couple of minutes. In about 20 mins the syrup should be ready. Its always recommended to prepare syrup ahead of time.

Mix the maida(all purpose flour) and ghee by adding a little water . Knead the dough for a few minutes(consistency should be similar to chapathi dough). Cover the dough with wet kitchen towel and let it sit for a half hour.
Take walnut sized balls of the flour and roll them flat like a roti(shape doesn't matter). Make a few slits lengthwise keeping the ends intact. Now roll each of the rotis into a bundle and slightly press the ends so that they would look similar to the one in the following picture.. and there, you have a panasa thona! Repeat the process for the whole dough.
Heat oil in a kadai and when the oil is hot enough. Fry the panasa thonalu till they turn light brown. Take them out of the oil and drain the oil on a paper towel. Transfer them immediately into the sugar syrup.
Let the pananthonalu cool off a little bit before transferring them into a storage container.

Panasa Thonalu

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Gajar(Carrot) ka Halwa

As today is Vijaya Dashami I felt like cooking some authentic Indian sweet. What else can be better than Carrot Halwa which hardly takes anytime... My mom is a expert when it comes to Gajar ka Halwa... there are different ways of making it...Here is my mom's recipe...

Gajar(Carrot) ka Halwa

Ingredients:
3 Cups of grated carrots
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of sugar
1-2 tblsp of Ghee
Few strings of Saffron
Few Cashwes and Raisins
4-5 Cardamom

Ingredients

Method:
Take grated carrots and milk in a pan and cook.
When the carrot is almost cooked add sugar and cook for few more minutes.
When the sugar is melted add a spoon or two of Ghee.
Fry cashews and raisins in ghee and add them to the halwa mixture.
Atlast add cardamom powder and mix them well.
Transfer the halwa into a serving dish and garnish them with cashwes and raisins. Serve it hot or cold.

Gajar(Carrot) ka Halwa

Tip:
You can serve hot carrot halwa with vanilla icecream which compliments each other vey well.

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