Tag: Pistachios

Phyllo to Baklava with Daring Bakers …layers of fun!

“We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.”
Aristotle Onassis

BAKLAVA, importantly homemade phyllo pastry has been on my list of things to do forever. I am SO GLAD I made this exquisite dessert. It’s the best ‘from scratch fine pastry dessert‘ I’ve made of late, one I meant to do for ages. A Daring Baker challenge I had no intention of missing, yet I very nearly did! The process seemed intimidating, but was eventually a beautiful experience; the end result bowled me over!

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

It was many years ago. Tweeting in 2009 with Peter @ Kalofagas got me inspired and I headed over to check out the first of his inspirational Baklava series. He’s also done one on making phyllo from scratch {his version uses yeast in the dough} ending in a delicious looking Spanakopita made under the watchful eye of his Mum. { This man is the Greek god of good food!}  This was one thing I had to master but life got the better of me, and time whizzed by, somewhat out of control.

I haven’t been on the net for ages… no twitter, no face-book, no blogs and it’s all down to the kids summer vacations! Out of town for 2 weeks {a trip to HKG and Down Under} and many to-do’s have been lost – my ‘have to do macarons for Mactweets. I struggle to feed the blog, get a pup for the kids, reply to an infinite number of mails … I’m clearly beginning to feel the pressure!

But this I HAD to make and the process was absolutely joyful. I love the rolling pin, and the dough was silky beautiful. As we are a country that makes fresh thin flat bread for practically every meal, rolling was fun and the only thing that took a little while. The trusted Thermomix kneaded the dough in a flash …thank heavens for it! It also chopped the nuts as fine as could be in nano seconds … a blessing in disguise.

Baklava, a sweet rich pastry made with layers of phyllo dough and nuts sweetened with simple syrup. It is widely knows as a Greek dessert, but it’s origin has really never been pinpointed as many Middle Eastern countries also name it as their own. There are local versions from Iran, Turkey, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia and Cyprus.

The end product was as exquisite. The phyllo was easy to handle and layered to perfection. I made the whole portion of the dough {didn’t read the fine print} so fell slightly short of layers, but that wasn’t a problem. Layered deserts are always easy to fiddle around with! I halved the filling and the syrup.  This has been one of the best Daring Baker challenges I’ve enjoyed so far.

The phyllo from scratch recipe was similar to the pastry we made for the earlier ‘Strudel‘ for Daring Bakers 2 years ago. The filling was an endearing blend of nuts, sugar and cinnamon all balanced beautifully… an Alton Brown recipe {I forgot the cloves… sigh}.  The soaking honey syrup with orange and cinnamon completed the Middle Eastern charm …. left us longing for more!

It looked ever so pretty as well though I didn’t stray from the challenge recipe and typical appearance. I loved pouring the cool syrup over the hot, freshly baked baklava, the crackling sound music to the ears! I have to make this again one day, and try the many charming different versions at Kalofogas including Baklava cigars or Baklava Daisies.

Thank you Erica for an outstanding daring challenge; it was a beautiful one, very fulfilling. Thank you as always Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice for hosting this fab kitchen!! Do stop by here to see the beautiful baklava our other daring bakers have rolled from scratch!

[print_this]Recipe: Baklava

Summary: Baklava, a sweet rich pastry made with layers of phyllo dough and nuts sweetened with simple syrup. Exquisite and outstanding make ahead dessert.{Minimally adapted from following recipes}

Phyllo Dough Recipe – Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers
Baklava – Adapted from Alton Brown, Food Network

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours + overnight rest
Ingredients:

  • Phyllo Dough:
    *Note 1: To have enough to fill a 9” x 9” baking dish with 18 layers of phyllo I doubled this recipe.
    *Note 2: Single recipe will fill a 8” x 5” baking dish.
    *Note 3: Dough can be made a head of time and froze. Just remove from freezer and allow to thaw and continue making your baklava
  • 185gm all purpose {plain} flour
  • 1/8tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup less 1 tbsp water, plus more if needed
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
  • 1/2 tsp cider vinegar, {could substitute white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar, but could affect the taste}

Method:

  1. In the bowl of your stand mixer combine flour and salt. Mix with paddle attachment.
  2. Combine water, oil and vinegar in a small bowl.
  3. Add water & oil mixture with mixer on low speed, mix until you get a soft dough, if it appears dry add a little more water.
    Change to the dough hook and let knead approximately 10 minutes. You will end up with beautiful smooth dough. If you are kneading by hand, knead approx. 20 minutes.
  4. Remove the dough from mixer and continue to knead for 2 more minutes. Pick up the dough and through it down hard on the counter a few times during the kneading process.
  5. Thermomix: Place all ingredients in the bowl of the TM. Process on Speed 6 for 7 seconds. Then knead on bread setting for 3.5 minutes. Turn onto counter, roll into a neat ball.
  6. Shape the dough into a ball and lightly cover with oil
  7. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let rest 30-90 minutes, longer is best {Mine rested for 2 days and it was still perfect}
  8. Rolling your Phyllo
    ** Remove all rings and jewelry so it does not snag the dough**
    Use whatever means you have to get the dough as thin as you can.
  9. Unwrap your dough and cut off a chunk slightly smaller than a golf ball. While you are rolling be sure to keep the other dough covered so it doesn’t dry out. Be sure to flour your hands, rolling pin and counter. As you roll you will need to keep adding, don’t worry, you can’t over-flour.
  10. Roll out the dough until it is as thin as you can it. Don’t worry if you get rips in the dough, as long as you have one perfect one for the top you will never notice.
  11. When you get it as thin as you can with the rolling pin, carefully pick it up with well floured hands and stretch it on the backs of your hands as you would a pizza dough, just helps make it that much thinner. Roll out your dough until it is transparent. NOTE: you will not get it as thin as the frozen phyllo dough you purchase at the store, it is made by machine
  12. Set aside on a well-floured surface. Repeat the process until your dough is used up. Between each sheet again flower well. You will not need to cover your dough with a wet cloth, as you do with boxed dough, it is moist enough that it will not try out.

Ingredients for Syrup:

  • 150ml honey
  • 150ml water
  • 140gms sugar
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 pieces candied orange peel {or fresh}
  • A few cloves or a pinch or ground clove {I forgot this}

Method:

  1. When you put your baklava in the oven start making your syrup. When you combine the two, one of them needs to be hot, I find it better when the baklava is hot and the syrup has cooled.
  2. Combine all ingredients in a medium pot over medium high heat. Stir occasionally until sugar has dissolved.
  3. Boil for 10 minutes, stir occasionally.
  4. Once boiled for 10 minutes remove from heat and strain cinnamon stick and orange, allow to cool as baklava cooks.

Ingredients for Filling:

  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 85gm blanched almonds
  • 80gm raw walnuts
  • 75gm raw pistachios
  • 75gm sugar
  • Phyllo dough {see recipe above}
  • 100gm {1/2 cup} melted butter

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.
  2. Combine nuts, sugar and spices in a food processor and pulse on high until finely chopped. If you do not have a food processor chop with a sharp knife as fine as you can. Set aside.
  3. Thermomix: PLace all ingredients in TM bowl. Process on Speed 6 for 5 seconds. Repeat 3-4 times till you get the consistency you desire.
  4. Trim your phyllo sheets to fit in your pan.
  5. Brush bottom of pan with butter and place first phyllo sheet.Brush the first phyllo sheet with butter and repeat approximately 5 times ending with butter. {Most recipes say more, but homemade phyllo is thicker so it’s not needed}
  6. Sprinkle 1/2 of the nut mixture on top.
  7. Continue layering phyllo and buttering repeating 4 times.
  8. Sprinkle 1/2 of the nut mixture on top.
  9. Continue layering phyllo and buttering repeating 4 .
  10. On the top layer, make sure you have a piece of phyllo with no holes if possible, just looks better.
  11. Once you have applied the top layer tuck in all the edges to give a nice appearance.
  12. With a sharp knife cut your baklava in desired shapes and number of pieces. If you can’t cut all the ways through don’t worry you will cut again later. A 9×9 pan cuts nicely into 30 pieces. Then brush with a generous layer of butter making sure to cover every area and edge.
  13. Bake for approximately 30 minutes; remove from oven and cut again this time all the way through. Continue baking for another 30 minutes. {Oven temperatures will vary, you are looking for the top to be a golden brown, take close watch yours may need more or less time in the oven}.
  14. When baklava is cooked remove from oven and pour the cooled {will still be warmish} syrup evenly over the top, taking care to cover all surfaces when pouring. It looks like it is a lot but over night the syrup will soak into the baklava creating a beautifully sweet and wonderfully textured baklava!
    Next morning all syrup is absorbed.
  15. Allow to cool to room temperature. Once cooled cover and store at room temperature. Allow the baklava to sit overnight to absorb the syrup.
    Serve at room temperature.

[/print_this]

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MANGO KULFI … Traditional Indian Ice Cream

“Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:”
Alfred Lord Tennyson 
We spend a lifetime teaching the kids not to give in to temptation, not to be unreasonable.  That there are lots of things in the world that one would like to do but self restraint is a virtue that needs to be exercised … blah blah blah. After all, we’ve been there, done that … and we know better! The lines from Tennysons ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, which we studied in school eons ago, flood my mind often, especially the word ‘reason‘!  I really do like the lines now. Hated them in school though as they sounded like gobblygook then!
Food blogs these days are tempting, to put it mildly, and in some ways I am ever so glad to be the empress of the kitchen! No mother to tut tut at me while I succumb to temptation, no one to question why I cannot resist what I see, and no one to check my free run amidst pots and pans! One day, I fell into Spice Spoons blog post virtual trap, and saw the kulfi which was served in enviable shot glasses, coloured stirrers used as sticks. Predictably, I fell into a dreamy trance, knowing just where I was headed … ‘our’s not to reason why, ours but to do and die‘! I HAD to make the Shayma’s kulfi,  a traditional Indian style of ice cream that needs no churning, is dense and creamy, and sublime to the very last bit.
While in the kitchen, here’s a sneak peek of our kitchen remodeling – a simple country style kitchen, with a warm wooded look that I love. Things are looking up finally, with work progressing at more than snails pace now. Still can’t bake as much, but have become quite passionate about frozen desserts … Fresh Cherry Fro Yo, Plum Fro Yo Popsicles, Peach-Ginger & Plum-Vanilla Granita to name a few. So the kulfi was  one I could not let pass by. I sneakily bought a litre of low fat cream. A tin of condensed milk has been sitting with me forever because it wanted to be made into Dulce de leche but never quite got there. Figured this was destiny’s plan!
The pictures on Shayma’s post called my name, and I soon made them. The kulfi, a dessert which is very popular across the sub-continent, was absolutely divine. With the low fat cream, I didn’t need to simmer it for more that 15 -20 minutes, but I did err in that I forgot to give it the odd stir every few minutes, so it got slightly caught on the base of the pan. Didn’t matter because I got this beautifully burnt caramelized flavour … a little more apathy and I would have been crying over disaster. Take heed dear readers, don’t forget to stir!
The idea of using pistachios and almonds slightly ground or rather finely chopped in the blender is certainly novel. I’ve never heard of it before, and it’s quite genius. It helps thicken the cream, and distributes a beautiful nutty flavour though out the ice cream, making it almost luxurious, a royal serving! The teeny nutty bits get sort of soft with the cooking and plump up enticingly making the end result deeply satisfying.
I added some pureed mango to about a quarter of the batter after it was cooked and set some kulfis with half plain half mango mixture, others with a layer of mango etc.  I used a variety of metallic moulds from my collection, and saw at Cherrapeno that silicon works well too. I had fun and the flavours were fabulous. This is a recipe I shall make often. Taking pictures was a downright pain as it was sweltering hot, cloudy and humid that day, but the taste made up for everything!

Mango Kulfi {Indian Ice Cream}

Adapted minimally from Spice Spoon
Serves 12-15 if using kulfi molds. {You will need a heavy-bottom pan to prepare this, otherwise the cream and sugar will stick to the base of the pan and burn.}
1/2 cup almonds, skins removed
1/2 cup pistachios, shelled; unsalted
1 litre half-and-half {I used 25% low fat cream}
300 ml condensed milk {about 2/3rd of a 400ml tin was enough for me}
1 large mango, pulp pureed in blender till smooth, strained
Method:
Grind almonds and pistachios in a blender {not a food processor} by pulsing a few times. At the base of the blender, where the blade is, some of the nuts will turn into a flour like powder. This will help thicken the kulfi.
Place pan on medium heat on the stove. Pour in half-and-half.
Add almonds and pistachios.
As the temperature of the half-and-half rises, start adding in condensed milk. You will have to do this by a taste test. I used about 2/3rd of the tin. Once the mixture starts to bubble, turn the heat to low. STIR!!
A skin will form on top, just keep stirring it in. You will continue to stir for 20-25 minutes {one hour if using half and half} till the mixture thickens and reduces, becoming thick.
Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes. Add the mango puree to half, or the whole, and stir in to mix uniformly. Pour slowly into popsicle moulds {or shot-glasses}.
Place moulds/glasses in freezer. At the 30 minute mark when the kulfi has started to form, place popsicle sticks in each mould/glass.
Freeze overnight or for at least 8 hours.
To unmould, dip quickly in warm water.
Serve with a scattering of pistachios and almonds.
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{Baking} CORNMEAL DROP BISCUIT PEACH COBBLER … for times when the mason doesn’t show up!

“There’s your karma ripe as peaches.”
Jack Kerouac

Even while the hammers rain blows down, and the kitchen is in shambles, I have a list of things to do. A cobbler was on my must bake list before the stone fruit season bid us adieu. It’s been bookmarked ever since I saw it on Leites Culinaria when I stopped by attempting to try and bake a recipe off the site for a photography competition. This cobbler was high on my list, until Monsieur Lebovitz’s Absolute Best Brownies knocked me off my perch!

Not one to stay knocked off for so long, I was soon winging my way back to my must bake list. We’ve had some minor issues while the kitchen renovation goes on … stuff like minor flooding {never touch the plumbing if it works fine!!}, and then a day with minimal work done when the mason took a rainy day off! For me, minimal work being done was a golden opportunity to get down to baking. If the mason doesn’t show up, it’s cobbler time!

Cobbler is a traditional dish in both the United States and the United Kingdom, although the meaning of the term is quite different in each country. In the United States, it is usually a dessert consisting of a fruit filling poured into a large baking dish and covered with a rolled pastry dough, then baked in an oven. In the United Kingdom it is usually a savoury meat dish, typically a lamb casserole, which is covered with a savoury scone-like topping, each scone (or biscuit) forming a separable cobbler. Fruit-based versions are also increasingly popular in the United Kingdom, although they still retain the separate cobbler (or biscuit) topping of the meat version, and savoury or meat versions are not unknown in the United States. The Crisp or Crumble differ from the cobbler in that the cobbler’s top layer is more biscuit-like. Grunts, Pandowdy, and Slumps are a New England variety of cobbler, typically cooked on the stove-top or cooker in an iron skillet or pan with the dough on top in the shape of dumplings; they reportedly take their name from the grunting sound they make while cooking.
Jeanne @ Cooksister had an Apple Pecan Cobbler posted just recently, and I knew the time had come. for me to try the peach cobbler. This was one fruit dessert I hadn’t tried so far.  A fridge full of peaches, a few plums too, soon I had a pie dish full of fruit. I chopped the peaches instead of slicing them, all done in haste, but cobbler I made! It’s not a beautiful thing to photograph, but I took a shot. I love the rustic fruity look the cobbled top offered, somewhat like a mosaic, with colourful fruit and juices peeping through. I threw in some pistachio nuts in the biscuit topping, just to add to the taste and, maybe colour!
This particular recipe is from the cookbook The Lee Brothers Simple Fresh Southern by Mat & Ted Lee. Very ‘Simple, Fresh and Southern’ as the book title goes, it is a versatile one too. I added a few plums for colour with the peaches. I think like in most cobblers, apples, blackberries, blueberries etc  all work wonderfully under the drop biscuit crust. The fruit juices get cooked and combine with the sugar to form a thick syrup which rises above the biscuit edges to give a cobbled stone like appearance. The cobbler was rustic beautiful and moorish, and full of bursting good flavours.

I’m glad I made the cobbler. It was delicious and ever so fruity. Mr PAB said, ‘What is this ‘thing’ Deeba? It’s delicious!‘ The daughter said, “I love this mushy, ugly thing. Can I have some more?”, and the son loved it too, especially the biscuit crust {anything with butter is!}. I served it chilled because it’s still summer here and we’d rather have cold dessert than warm. Also, chilling it meant that all the fruit juices thickened up nicely and the flavours matured. Of course, it wasn’t very picture-worthy, but heck… My first cobbler was downright delicious, and is off to the Food Photo Competition @ Leite’s Culinaria!

Cornmeal Drop-Biscuit Peach Cobbler
Recipe from Matt and Ted Lees book, The Lee Brothers Simple Fresh Southern

Adapted minimally from recipe @ Leites Culinaria
For the peach filling
1 kg ripe peaches, stoned , chopped {or sliced}
3-4 plums, stoned, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar {or more, depending on your peaches and your sweet tooth}
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the biscuit dough
3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fine cornmeal
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup pistachio nuts, shelled
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon iodized salt or fine sea salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for the baking dish
1/2 cup cold buttermilk {I used low fat}
Method:
Preheat oven to 220C. Butter a 9″ pie dish
Place all filling ingredients in a large bowl, and toss to mix well. Allow to stand for ten minutes while you make the drop-biscuit dough
Drop-biscuit dough
Place the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder, pistachio nuts and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse for a few seconds till the nuts are chopped fine, and the mixture blended. Add the butter and give 2-3 short pulses till the butter cuts through, and the mixture becomes like coarse meal with pea size bits of butter. Add the buttermilk and stir with a rubber spatula just until a tacky, wet dough comes together, which should take no more than a few seconds.
Gently plop spoonfuls of the biscuit dough on top of the peach filling or, if the dough is too sticky to plop, simply spread it unevenly. The dough should be patchy and should not cover the entire surface of the filling.
Bake until the cobbler’s syrup is bubbly and the biscuit top is alluringly browned, 20 to 25 minutes.
Scoop the warm cobbler into small dessert bowls, ramekins, even cocktail glasses. Serve warm.

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STIRRING UP SOME TURKISH DELIGHT!

‘Eat sweet and speak sweet’
Turkish proverb

Another PINK for October, and this time it’s candy! When Ilva said she was making Turkish Delight last month, I jumped right in too. Another opportunity to use Indulge – 100 Perfect Desserts by Claire Clark which I reviewed for BloggerAid recently. This would mean 3 down , 97 to go, as I had done an Apple & Black Grape Bande Aux Fruit & a basic chocolate sponge from the book recently. Getting to a 100 desserts, page by page! Claire Clark is counted among one of the world’s best pastry chefs, and has been a celebrated chef at The French Laundry. She has an easy style of writing, & a personal touch which offers a little culinary connection with each recipe. Turkish Delight is part of the Petits Fours section of the book, and at first glance I thought, ‘Cool, will sail right through’. It was another thing that I was eating my words pretty soon. Delightful as this Turkish delicacy might be, it comes with it’s baggage of work. Ilva tried once, not quite right, and then went on to her second try, which she did beautifully. Turkish Delight ((Rahat) Loukoum) or Cyprus Delight (Loukoumi) is a confection made from starch and sugar. It is often flavored with rosewater, mastic or lemon; rosewater gives it a characteristic pale pink color. It has a soft, jelly-like and sometimes sticky consistency, and is often packaged and eaten in small cubes dusted with icing sugar or copra to prevent clinging. Some types contain small nut pieces, usually pistachio, hazelnut or walnuts.
Well I managed something, something tasty, but not exactly how it should have been. Was a little sticky & gooey, and got labelled TD Slugs by none other than my good friend Jamie. Am waiting for her to have a go, but knowing her French expertise, she’ll have perfect ones, so I shall hold my breath! I hope I will get it looking better next time. It tasted very nice,; a tad too sweet for me though.
I used some rose extract to flavour them that Man Friday got for me from his nephew who works in a rose factory. Excellent stuff. It lent a mild flavour to the TD, and I also added some blanched & peeled pistachios and almonds. The Turkish Delight did taste good! By the way, I always thought rose extract was pink in colour? Well, discovered that it’s not!! it’s actually a very light creamish white, almost like whey!Offered candy to the kids when they came home, & both jumped on them. ‘Oooooh they’re like the ones in Narnia’, hollered the son & wolfed down a whole slug, almost choking. Then the daughter descended into the chaos. ‘PRETTY!‘, Madame declared, ‘very pretty!’ I was like ‘bow scrape’. She took one, savoured it, licked her chops, took another. ‘These are good you know. Mmmmmm, very addictive too!’ By piece number 5, I had grabbed the box & done away with it. Too late, I was already peeling sugar high kids off the ceiling by the evening!
TURKISH DELIGHT or LOUKOUM
from Indulge by Claire Clark
Makes about 40 pieces
450 g/ 1 lb caster sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
145 g/ 5 oz corn starch/cornflour/Maizena
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp rose water
To finish:
250 g/ 9 oz icing
50 g/ 1,75 oz corn starch/cornflour/Maizena
– Line a 15 cm/6 in square baking tin with cling film, then oil the film lightly. Make sure the sides of the pan are lined as well as the base.
– Place the caster sugar, lemon juice and 250 ml/9 fl oz water in a large, heavy-based pan. Stir over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved, the turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Put a sugar thermometer in the pan, reduce the heat and simmer without stirring until the sugar reaches soft-ball stage (118 C/ 245 F). Remove from the heat straight away.
– While the sugar is boiling, combine the corn starch and cream of tartar, then mix to a smooth liquid with 250 ml/9 fl oz water. Place in a heavy-based sauce pan and bring to the boil over a medium heat, whisking continuously (start to heat the corn starch mixture as soon as the sugar has reached the 118 C/ 245 F and is resting; this allows the sugar to sit just long enough to cool but not so long that it gets to thick to pour). Pour the hot sugar syrup into the corn starch mixture and continue to simmer over a low heat for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring frequently to prevent it sticking. It will change to a very light golden colour. As it reaches the last 15 minutes of cooking time, you will need to stir it continuously to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning. (This was the tough part for me to figure out. Should have given it more time)
– Stir the rosewater and add a few drops of red food colouring, if desired. (I added some blanched chopped pistachios & almonds). Pour into the lined tray and spread evenly. Leave to cool in the tin, uncovered, overnight.
– The next day, sift the icing sugar and corn starch for finishing on to a sheet of baking parchment on a tray. Cut the Turkish Delight into cubes and roll them in the mixture on the tray.
Claire’s Notes:
I like to leave my Turkish Delight for a day once it has been coated in the icing sugar, so it firm up on the outside a little. Leave in a cupboard, uncovered, on a tray.
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Posted by Deeba @ PAB

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NUT, SEED & RAISIN BISCOTTI…Preciously jeweled cookies!

“Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who decided to stand their ground.”
Unknown

Doing rounds of blogs is never easy when you have to run a regular life too, full of routine stuff like laundry, grocery & school trips galore. Junior goes to a new grade in another week, so half the days were scheduled with PTA’s, orientations, new books & uniforms etc. The past week has been even more hectic with the kids at home (Spring Break), & I’ve had little or no time to blog hop. One blog that I often attempt to stop at is Heidi @ 101 Cookbooks because it’s always got some path breaking stuff that you get hypnotized to try. The pictures are mesmerising, & the gentle persuasive nature of her posts have you literally eating off her blog. The ‘Nut & Seed Biscotti‘ or jewelled biscotti was such one case which I chanced by about a month ago. Heidi posted a ‘cracker’ of a biscotti, the ‘Nut & Seed’ Biscotti which looked very pretty & maybe easy to slice thin, or so I thought. Should have known better, because nuts are nuts after all, but she had me chopping the nuts of my bookmarked recipe at a frantic pace the next morning after the kids left for school. The recipe itself is simple & ‘packed with nuts’…very jewel studded indeed, like the Queen’s crown. However, it wasn’t as simple to slice thinly as the jewels had a mind of their own. I managed fairly well, but didn’t get anywhere close to the thin, gorgeous slices that Heidi did. Maybe it was because I added raisins too, or my knife wasn’t good enough, or the loaf was undercooked, though it tested done. As Helen says in the recipe “Bake for 45-50 minutes – or until the loaf tests done. If you under-cook the loaf at this stage, it makes slicing difficult.” I shall definitely give this a try again as it was deliciously studded & very YUM! Healthy & hugely successful with the kids too.
My nut mixture was a blend of 1 cup lightly toasted almonds, 1/3 cup each of lightly toasted pistachio nuts, and pumpkin seeds, and 1/2 a cup each of green & black raisins. We don’t get wholewheat pastry flour here, so I used a third cup of oatmeal flour. NUT, SEED & RAISIN BISCOTTI
adapted from 101 Cookbooks
Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup oatmeal flour
2 cups mixed nuts,raisins etc (almonds, pistachio nuts, pumpkins seeds, green & black raisins)
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup light brown sugar, fine grain
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 150C. Lightly butter or oil a 1-pound loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
  • Combine the flour, nuts and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a separate large bowl whisk together eggs and sugar.
  • Add the flour-nut mixture to the egg mixture and stir until combined. The dough will be quite thick. Scoop into the prepared pan and press the dough into place using damp fingertips.
  • Make sure everything is nice and compact, level on top, with no air bubbles. (I sprinkled some left over oatmeal flour on top).
  • Bake for 45-50 minutes – or until the loaf tests done. If you under-cook the loaf at this stage, it makes slicing difficult.
  • Remove loaf from the oven, and turn the oven up to 220C.
  • Immediately run a sharp knife around the perimeter of the loaf, remove it from pan, and set the loaf upside down on a cutting board. Using a thin serrated knife (or the thinnest, sharpest knife you have), slice the loaf into 1/4-inch thick slices.
  • Place the slices on a baking sheet. brush tops with a bit of olive oil and bake for 3-4 minutes or until the bottoms are a touch golden and toasty. Pull them out of the oven, flip each one, and brush the other side with olive oil. Bake for another 4-5 minutes or until nice and crisp. Let cool.
  • Makes 1 1/2 – 2 dozen.

Another recipe for Bookmarked Recipes, an event started by Ruth @ Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments. This week’s host is Laurie @ Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska.

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Posted by Deeba @ PAB
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