Forum Replies Created
-
This Wednesday evening, I'm baking biscotti. This recipe, for Ginger Biscotti with Pistachios, came from a restaurant, Fifty Seven Fifty Seven in New York, and was published in the R.S.V.P. column of Bon Appetit (June 1997), p. 26. I baked it last fall and was somewhat disappointed as it did not have much ginger taste. The only change I had made at that time was to use dried orange peel in place of freshly grated orange peel. For me, I'm not sure that orange and ginger go together, but I wanted to give it a try. I don't recall tasting much of the orange flavor either.
This time, I omitted the orange peel. I added 1/2 tsp. of lemon extract and 1/3 cup minced, crystalized ginger. I made that change because a Ginger Shortbread recipe I like, by Ken Haedrich, uses crystalized ginger and lemon extract in addition to vanilla. (That recipe also uses grated lemon zest, I did not add lemon zest because I want the ginger taste to be primary.) I'm now doing the second bake. I'll add a note to this post tomorrow about taste and if this recipe has the zing I seek.
Promised Note: The ginger flavor from the crystalized ginger is exactly what I wanted. I'll add this recipe to my biscotti repertoire.
I was going to bake Milk Chocolate Egg Cookies, from the March/April 2018 issue of Baking from Scratch, but I felt that it would be a waste of high-end chocolate (see thread on when to use or not use expensive chocolate). However, I had a package of Cadbury mini-eggs I'd bought to use in the recipe. So, I baked Deep Dark Brownies from the KAF website, and crushed the Cadbury mini-chocolate eggs and sprinkled them over the top of the brownies before I baked them this morning. They should be ready to cut for dinner tonight. I'll add a note to this post about what we think of my innovation.
I use a 10x10 ceramic square dish for this recipe because the center never cooked through before the sides were done in a 9x9 inch metal pan. I also find that these brownies are better if they have a long rest period before cutting. Eight hours should do it, but I usually bake them the day before I plan to serve them.
Added Note: The crushed mini-eggs make an attractive top next to the dark chocolate and give a nice crunch. It's a nice way to vary a brownie recipe.
I was able to locate it at the magazine's website:
The magazine is overly fussy, although I've gotten a few good recipes from them. I couldn't do any of the recipes in their British Baking issue (Jan/Feb) because they refused to give any possible substitutions for ingredients not readily available.
The other recipes in the chocolate section are items that if I were to bake them, I'd probably spring for more expensive chocolate, but not for these cookies.
