Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Biscotti.....

Our treat this week was Lenox Almond Biscotti chosen by Gretchen of Canela & Comino. I usually get biscotti in those holiday baskets and they always seem a bit cement like (probably because they have been in that basket for months) and the one time I tried to make them, well, they were just not great. I know there are wonderful biscotti out there, I just don't want to buy a jar full when all I want is something with my tea. I was curious about the cornmeal in these and after reading the reviews was happy to see my cornmeal was on the fine side. I really liked Dorie's recipe for biscotti, they were not hard and had a nice crunch from the cornmeal.

I used this recipe to try out my new BeaterBlade for my K/A. I saw this blade in the latest Chefs catalog and just HAD to try it out. The blade is an after market paddle attachment that has flexible wipers on the edges; so no more scraping down the sides of the bowl. Did it work? YES, I didn't have to scrape down the bowl at all with this recipe. My only concern is that it is made from a high impact plastic not metal and I am not sure how durable (comes with a 1 year guarantee) it will be, but it does save a lot of time. I am puzzled why K/A has not come out with a wiper paddle like this! You can also purchase it at Amazon , it got great reviews!

I had no problems with this recipe the dough was sticky but not hard to form into the rectangle; I did draw an outline on the parchment to be sure it was 12 x 1.5.

I wanted to make 2 different flavors from this recipe so I cut the dough in half before adding the flavoring. I made a Lemon Biscotti by using lemon extract, the zest of one lemon and added Macadamia nuts. For my Pumpkin Pie Biscotti I used 1 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice, orange extract and pecans. I dipped the ends of a few biscotti from each batch in white chocolate, because it just sounded good. I liked both versions equally and will make Dorie's recipe again!

13 comments:

vibi said...

Beautiful participation! From your pics everything seems to have gone perfectly!
The marching band must not have lasted very long... (all that loud music anyways! LOL)
Great Job!

Lori said...

ooh, very nice variations!! i'm doing lemon next time, it just sounds great. beautiful biscotti!

Engineer Baker said...

Those look wonderful, and I love both variations. I'm going to have to look into that blade scraper though...

Libby said...

I don't know what I like best-- the biscotti or the beater blade! Nice work!

Anonymous said...

Those look great! I love that beater. Going to have to get one.

Katrina said...

Yum! Both add-ins sound great. That is the amazing thing about this recipe, there's just so many endless variations. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Katrina said...

Oh, and thanks for the heads up on that cool paddle/scraper for the mixer. Gotta get one of those!

TeaLady said...

They were good weren't they. And soooo easy. Pumpkin Pie biscotti. Yummy!!!

Shelby said...

Love your flavors!

Unknown said...

Yours look fantastic. Glad the Beater Blade works for you - I've been eyeing them for a while!

Anonymous said...

Ooh, I like that beater blade. I may have to get one.

Your variations sound yummy; I'm definitely going to try one next time I make these.

LyB said...

What a cool attachment! Your biscotti look wonderful. :)

Shari said...

Biscotti and tea - sounds great!