Saturday, December 02, 2006

Biscotti

Another gem from James Martin's Winter cookbook.


The recipe isn't difficult but rather annoyingly fiddly. Lots of in the oven, out the oven, lower the temperature, cut the slices, in the oven, out the oven, turn over, in the oven, out the oven, leave to cool. Combined over three baking sheets.

Also, the first step of mixing beaten eggs to flour and sugar to get a doughy consistency beguiled me. He warns that you may not need all the egg, but I'm just so used to baking cakes with a batter of soft dropping consistency that I fell into the trap and overegged it. In every sense. Some resurrection but remain ultimately stumped as to how to make a dough of any form without making an almighty mess. The biscotti are supposed to be very much thicker, but the wet dough spread far more than any of us expected. They look scrummy, but I fear they lack the crunch and the density of my Italian faves.


Another not-quite-how-I-intended-but-think-it-may-just-be-passable-to-friends-who-don't-see-the-recipe-picture event.



Post Script: For the sake of market research, took the tin into the front room last night with the DVD and a cup of peppermint tea. I ate 5. I think they're going to be fine.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Peppermint tea! You need to get yourself a bottle of 'vin santo' pronto quick. The ONLY acceptable accompaniment to biscotti.