Honey Almond Biscotti

I knew biscotti was fairly easy to make and just hadn't attempted it yet.  I'm fairly turned off by the packaged biscotti that you get at the cafes.  It always seems to be rock hard and dry, but I know it's meant to dip in coffee as well (thus the convenient dipping shape).

I made some recently and decided to try to make it a nicer texture/consistency than the cafe variety. I chose a honey almond recipe and decided to dip and drizzle it in white chocolate as opposed to milk or dark chocolate.

Then, I had some with my coffee...

They turned out nice and chewy. Maybe it was how long I baked them or maybe it's just the recipe with the addition of the honey. But, I loved them.

The original recipe called for whole almonds which seemed like a bit much, so I used some toasted sliced almonds.

Shaped them, as indicated, on the Silpats.

Baked them and sliced them (and then baked the slices again).

Then dunked them in and drizzled them with melted white chocolate and let them dry.  This is quite the delectable treat to get away with for breakfast.

Recipe for Honey Almond Biscotti

Adapted from a recipe in Bon Appetit

Ingredients:

2 1/2 C. All purpose flour

1 1/2 C. plus 1 T. sugar

2 t. baking powder

3/4 t. salt

5 large eggs

1 T. honey

1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

1 C. toasted sliced almonds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Whisk flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl to blend. Make well in center of dry ingredients. Add 4 eggs, honey, and vanilla to well. Stir egg mixture until blended; gradually mix in dry ingredients. Mix in almonds.

Drop dough onto prepared sheet by tablespoonfuls, forming two 12-inch-long by 2-inch-wide logs. Space logs 3 inches apart (or place on separate sheets). Using moistened fingertips, shape logs neatly. Beat remaining egg in small bowl. Brush logs generously with egg; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake logs until golden and firm to touch, about 15 minutes. Cool logs on baking sheet 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.

Transfer warm logs to work surface. Cut on slight diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange slices, cut side down, on 2 clean baking sheets. Bake until pale golden, about 8 minutes. Cool completely. Store airtight up to 1 week.

For chocolate dipping, melt down chocolate disks or chips, dip the biscotti in and place on wax paper to dry.

Peach Tart with Mascarpone Cream

I was meeting some friends for an outdoor concert and wanted to take a fresh summery dessert for us to share for our picnic.  With peaches in season in Michigan, this was probably the perfect recipe that I could have found and we all enjoyed it immensely.  I found the recipe using my Epicurious app on my iPad, but you can access it online also. How can you go wrong with fresh peaches tossed in sugar and lemon zest, raw sliced almonds for a little crunch and a honey glaze. It was still warm when we ate it at the picnic and was topped with the rich, sweet mascarpone cream. 

 The peaches were so pretty. I just love the orangey/red fuzzy peaches and they smell so fresh even before they're cut open. But when you pit them, the flesh of the fruit is just as pretty as the outside.

The tart pastry was a perfectly pliable and smooth pastry with the addition of a little powdered sugar for sweetness. The edges were folded over to smooth it out and it made the side of the tart nice and thick.

I grabbed a few photos at home before I went to the concert for our picnic.  I don't have any photos of the tart cut and topped with  mascarpone cream. But trust me, it was decadent. And, we all had smiles on our faces....from the tart, the good music and great friends.

Raspberry and Red Currant Crumble Tart

I think I visited the farmer's market at least three times wandering past the stands with the pints of beautiful shiny red currants. I would ponder different uses of them, come home and research some recipes and I just didn't want to settle on using them to make jam. I decided that I had to bake with them. I didn't want to make a boring pie with such an exciting fruit and I had just made a cherry pie. So, after a few suggestions to mix them with raspberries, I settled on making a raspberry and red currant tart. I didn't want to just make one big impersonal tart, but instead I made tartlets with their own little collection of red currants and raspberries meant for individual enjoyment. Plus, this isn't just any tart, it's a crumble tart with a custard filling.

I had the fruit in my kitchen for a few days before I made these and was just taken aback by its beauty and vibrant color.

And, when baked inside these amazing oatmeal and almond tart shells that I made, I knew this dessert would be one to remember. This tart shell will probably be one that I make again for other fruit tarts. It's a combination of ground almonds, oats, brown sugar, flour and butter. After I ground the almonds, it was very easy to make and even easier to work with. I spooned it into the tart shells and used the same spoon to flatten it up against the sides and bottom. These were baked first and then I flattened them back down after baking make sure they filled the shell and made room for the filling.

After I washed and prepared the fruit, I put several red currants and raspberries in each shell, covered it with a custard batter to finish off the filling and it was topped with a crumble topping of almonds, flour and sugar.

While they baked the kitchen smelled of warm sugar, cooked berries and custard. Yum....I'm glad I had an extra one for us to sample! I thought the heavy use of ground almonds and sugar with the custard filling would be too rich, but it ended up being the perfect sweet compliment to the tart tastes of the red currants and raspberries. This was perfect warm out of the oven on its own or would be fantastic with fresh warm custard or vanilla ice cream.

French Macarons

I've always admired french macarons when I saw them featured on different cooking shows and recently read about them on the Bakerella blog that I follow. That's where I was pointed to read this guide to making macarons that I reviewed several times before trying to make them (written by the author behind the Tartelette blog, another fabulous food blog). Macarons are gorgeous when colored to match their flavor and almost look too pretty to eat. In fact, I hadn't even tasted a french macaron until I recently went to Florida and sought out Le Macaron in St. Armand's Circle when I went shopping with my cousin. I ordered a french vanilla macaron and talked her into getting a chocolate one to try and we were both so pleasantly surprised at the chewy texture and amazing taste!

So, here's my first go at macarons! After reading the macaron guide and checking it against a few other recipes, I made sure I had all my ingredients. Some recipes call for almond flour instead of using blanched almonds that you ground yourself. But, after seeing almond flour in the grocery store for almost $11 and realizing it was just ground almonds, I decided to put my food processor to use and just make it myself. There are very few ingredients and while some recipes used typical cup measurements, I chose to weigh out all the ingredients as recommended in the macaron guide to make sure I was making it with the exact amounts indicated. So, here are the four simple ingredients: 50 grams of superfine sugar, 200 grams of powdered sugar, 110 grams of blanched almonds and 100 grams of egg whites (a little less than three egg whites).

I used my Kitchenaid to whisk the egg whites and superfine sugar together until I had this nice thick glossy meringue. I was worried I may have beat it too much, but it seemed to work out just fine.

I ground my almonds in the food processor to make my almond "flour" and mixed it in the processor with the powdered sugar. This was added to my meringue and carefully folded in together to make the cookie batter below. This is the really tricky part as if you mix it too much, your macarons will not bake properly, so I was hoping I did it correctly.

I had to make it complicated, of course, so I divided the batter to make some plain macarons and some chocolate macarons. I added a few tablespoons of cocoa powder to the batter for the chocolate version.

This was a handy tip from Tartelette to place the pastry bag with the tip in a tall glass to make it easier to spoon the batter in. I searched high and low for the right tip to use. Ateco 807 or 809 was recommended (a BIG plain tube tip), but I ended up finding the Wilton 1A tip to use that worked just fine.

I also got these new tips when I was at the bakery supply store and can't wait to try to decorate cupcakes or a cake using these!

I piped the batter onto Silpat lined baking sheets that were about 3/4-1" in diameter and ended up spreading to about 1 1/2" diameter and they had to sit until they hardened on top (about an hour).

They baked at a low heat (300 degrees) for about 12 minutes and I was excited to see that it looked like they were baking perfectly! They rose just a little to have the "feet" on the bottom and a nice smooth top.

All my chocolate ones did end up cracking a little bit. They still tasted great, but it must have been due to adding the cocoa and mixing the batter further.

Now that the cookies were baked, I made some filling to make the sandwiches. I chose to make a white chocolate ganache. I made the plain ganache and then added a little bit of raspberry jam (after I removed the seeds) for a white chocolate raspberry ganache. I could have just spooned this over chocolate or vanilla ice cream at this point!

I added the plain white chocolate ganache to the chocolate and used the white chocolate raspberry ganache for the plain macarons. I did make a little chocolate mint ganache as well, but I preferred the lighter flavor of the white chocolate. After I assembled all the macarons, I put them in the refrigerator to set. While they weren't perfect, it was my first attempt and I was quite proud of the way they looked and very proud of the way they tasted - yum! You would imagine these being crispy cookies, but they are so nice and chewy and soft on the inside and the different fillings really add to the taste of the cookies. Next time I make these, I'll try to make some different flavored cookies and fillings to experiment more.

My First Attempt at Marzipan

Can you believe that you can start with almonds and sugar and end up with a creation like this? That's what I love about baking and pastry. You can use such simple ingredients and precisely mixed together with a bit of creativity, you can do amazing things that just happen to taste wonderful as well. All my family knows that I LOVE marzipan. Whether it's plain, sugar covered, fruit shaped, draped in chocolate or topping a cake, I have always liked the texture and lovely almond flavour of marzipan. In fact, I can't recall a Christmas when I haven't received marzipan in some form. However, I have never attempted making it myself and now was the time. It was fun and sure was an experience, but it was no easy feat.

Here are the ingredients I started with: blanched almonds, granulated sugar and powdered sugar. I used a full pound of each that I weighed on my kitchen scale. The glittery granulated sugar was so pretty with the bare blanched almonds and I was so excited to be trying to turn this into a smooth paste.

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The first step was to grid the almonds and sugar together in the food processor. It was ground finely and I was able to clump it together, but it was no paste. The recipe in my Marzipan book indicated to slowly add powdered sugar and knead it into a smooth paste. Easy, right? No.... After a LONG time of kneading, I needed a break! I reviewed other marzipan recipes online (the ones that do not require cooking it) and realized that I should probably add in some egg whites. So, that is what I did and I also turned to my trusty Kitchenaid mixer to help me do some kneading.

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After adding the egg whites and using the mixer, it was FINALLY coming together - yes! I created several small balls of marzipan at this point so it was easier to work with. I continued to knead it at this point, and put it on some plastic wrap to keep it moist and help it to stay together.

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After all the kneading, came the fun part - colouring it! I used my new gel paste food coloring and used green since it's just before St. Patrick's day and I'm out to make marzipan shamrocks.

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I added several drops, but wanted a brighter green, so we added more color. This was a happy process though now that we have our marzipan paste!

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Then, I rolled out the colored marzipan to the thickness I wanted and was ready to create shamrocks. But, I don't have a little shamrock cookie cutter. I tried to freehand the shamrocks, but they just didn't look good. So, I used a maple leaf cookie cutter and used a toothpick to push it out and keep it intact. Then, I cut off a few edges of the leaf shape and formed them into cute little shamrocks.

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Yeah - I did it! Not only was I able to create the paste and make something out of it, it tasted wonderful. I wrapped all the other marzipan in plastic wrap and foil and I'm attempting to freeze to see if I can thaw it later to use for more decorations. Get ready to top cupcakes you cute little shamrocks!