Homemade Stella Doro Anisette Toast Anisette Sponge Breakfast Treats Trial Runs!
Submitted by 4paws2go on December 09, 2012 at 11:18 am

DESCRIPTION
Anise Biscotti

SUMMARY
Yield 0 File under anise, Biscotti

INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups bleached AP
1 cup sugar
2 tsp honey, or invert sugar
2 whole eggs, plus two egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder ( I used Clabber Girl)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baker's ammonia
1 1/2 tsp anise ( I used a bakery emulsion, can sub anise extract, or anise oil)

I based this on the ingredients list on the package of the Anisette Toast...I used Gold Medal bleached flour. I used Clabber Girl, as the leaveners listed were baking soda, Sodium Aluminate Phosphate, (which is what Clabber Girl consists of), and Ammonium bicarbonate...they also use lecithin, as an emulsifier, I did not add that, nor any preservatives, or coloring.

Here's the ingredient list for Anisette Sponge...differs only in the type of flour, the leaveners used, and would only be baked once.

Coffee Treats Anisette SpongeIngredients: Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Sugar, Eggs, Egg Yolks, Invert Sugar, Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Aluminum Sulfate), Salt, Calcium Propionate Added To Preserve Freshness, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier), Anise Oil, Artificial Color (Yellow 5, Yellow 6).

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350F
parchment lined sheet pans

Whisk eggs, with a pinch of salt, and continue whisking, adding sugar gradually, until eggs are extremely fluffy, and reach ribbon stage. Whisk in flavoring, and honey.

Have all dry ingredients mixed together...I sieve them all into a bowl.

Add flour mixture to egg/sugar mixture, and combine...will make a very soft, sort of sticky dough. Use either a flexible dough scraper, or a spatula, to transfer dough to pans, and form into either two wider and longer logs, or 4 shorter, thinner logs...the shorter ones bake about 5 minutes less. You can pipe out the batter, too, using a 3/4 inch tip, two lines parallel to each other.

I bake biscotti on parchment lined, perforated sheet pans.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes, remove, cool about 10 minutes, slice, and return to a 300F oven, for about 15 minutes.

For Sponge, I would use 'regular' baking powder,double-acting, and unbleached flour...only bake one time, or, place in turned off, cooled down oven, if you want them a bit dryer.

I'm still 'playing around' with these, so feel free to add any advice! I think the commercial version must be extruded, perhaps that's how the top of the dough remains so smooth. It could even be the result of using the lecithin, which I've not tried. I'll have to give that a try.

Just read up on lecithin use, in commercial cookie production, and it does seem to be required, to get the smoothness, and the 'loft' in the commercial version, also extrudability...the info I'd read stated 1% against flour weight, so I'm gonna try it in an upcoming batch.

From the PDF...:
Crumb Structure
Lecithin is well known for its ability to improve the crumb structure of chemically leavened baked goods. In
cakes it results in a finer, consistent grain with fewer open cells.

12/11..I'm switching the flour type to either pastry, or cake flour...the GM AP makes for a slightly heavier texture than I want. The first time I ever made the egg/sugar ones, I used White Lily,which I can't get down here, and they were extremely light, and delicate. I noted that KAF's biscotti mix is a blend of their pastry/ap flours.

Enjoy your anise-scented kitchen!

comments
Submitted by Huey on Mon, 2013-08-19 08:24.
I was at a Farmers Market in NJ yesterday and bought some biscotti which tasted just like Stella D'Oro breakfast treats. The man told me he uses SPELT FLOUR ; I'd never heard of it. Perhaps its the ingredient you're looking for. I'm going to try your recipes.