From Mary’s Kitchen
In
my other life as a scientist, I routinely develop ideas about how things work
and test them. Cooking is no different. Collect a few related recipes from
cookbooks, friends, your own experience, and/or the internet and use those as a
base to make a new recipe, and then test it. Meg likes to say that Google
is a terrific cooking tool not only loaded with recipes but also definitions
and descriptions of unusual techniques and ingredients and where to find them.
Who knew?
I like to bake biscotti, and particularly like dense, crunchy biscotti full of interesting flavors, so my experimentation often involves biscotti recipes.
One happy success was an adaptation of a recipe for Cantucci di Prato, an almond biscotti, from The Il Fornaio Baking Book by Franco Galli. Over several trials, I arrived at a nice balance to the modified recipe that accommodated coconut and dried sour cherries. To achieve that and maintain the biscotti texture I prefer, I scaled up the dry ingredients, leavening agents and butter, and used 3 large eggs instead of the 2 eggs plus one egg yolk called for in the original recipe. All this allowed me to add more nuts, plus the coconut and cherries. Here is my final recipe:
Measure the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl, then whisk together:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 3/8 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
Rub 4 Tbsp softened butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers.
Stir in 1 cup unsweetened coconut, 1 1/2 cups sliced almonds, and 1 cup dried sour cherries and lightly mix to incorporate.
In a small bowl, lightly beat together 3 large eggs (best at room temperature) and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, and mix by hand with a wooden spoon until just combined. The dough mixture will be quite stiff.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board or countertop. Knead a few times to bring the dough into a cohesive brick. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces, then roll each into a log about 12" long. Place the logs crosswise on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake the logs in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30-33 min. The logs will spread a little and lightly brown. Remove from the oven and let the logs cool on the baking sheet for about 10 min. Leave the oven set to 350 degrees. When the logs are just cool enough to handle, transfer to a cutting board and cut each crosswise at an angle into 1/2" wide slices. A sharp, serrated bread knife is useful here. Place the slices cut side down onto parchment covered baking sheets, and then bake again for 10 min. If you like really crisp biscotti, as I do, turn the slices over and bake again for 4-5 min. Let the biscotti cool completely on a rack. Store cooled biscotti in a covered container for up to 2 weeks.
Well, as in the laboratory, the "goodness" of new ideas or adaptations in cooking - and so the results - are sometimes spectacular and rewarding. On the other hand, sometimes not... My attempt to morph a lovely recipe for Ricciarelli - Italian almond macaroons - which used almond flour into one using coconut flour was NOT a success. I learned that success is more likely if you know your ingredients or do sufficient homework in advance. Funny...just like science.
That's a story for another day…
I like to bake biscotti, and particularly like dense, crunchy biscotti full of interesting flavors, so my experimentation often involves biscotti recipes.
One happy success was an adaptation of a recipe for Cantucci di Prato, an almond biscotti, from The Il Fornaio Baking Book by Franco Galli. Over several trials, I arrived at a nice balance to the modified recipe that accommodated coconut and dried sour cherries. To achieve that and maintain the biscotti texture I prefer, I scaled up the dry ingredients, leavening agents and butter, and used 3 large eggs instead of the 2 eggs plus one egg yolk called for in the original recipe. All this allowed me to add more nuts, plus the coconut and cherries. Here is my final recipe:
Measure the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl, then whisk together:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 3/8 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
Rub 4 Tbsp softened butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers.
Stir in 1 cup unsweetened coconut, 1 1/2 cups sliced almonds, and 1 cup dried sour cherries and lightly mix to incorporate.
In a small bowl, lightly beat together 3 large eggs (best at room temperature) and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, and mix by hand with a wooden spoon until just combined. The dough mixture will be quite stiff.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board or countertop. Knead a few times to bring the dough into a cohesive brick. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces, then roll each into a log about 12" long. Place the logs crosswise on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake the logs in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30-33 min. The logs will spread a little and lightly brown. Remove from the oven and let the logs cool on the baking sheet for about 10 min. Leave the oven set to 350 degrees. When the logs are just cool enough to handle, transfer to a cutting board and cut each crosswise at an angle into 1/2" wide slices. A sharp, serrated bread knife is useful here. Place the slices cut side down onto parchment covered baking sheets, and then bake again for 10 min. If you like really crisp biscotti, as I do, turn the slices over and bake again for 4-5 min. Let the biscotti cool completely on a rack. Store cooled biscotti in a covered container for up to 2 weeks.
Well, as in the laboratory, the "goodness" of new ideas or adaptations in cooking - and so the results - are sometimes spectacular and rewarding. On the other hand, sometimes not... My attempt to morph a lovely recipe for Ricciarelli - Italian almond macaroons - which used almond flour into one using coconut flour was NOT a success. I learned that success is more likely if you know your ingredients or do sufficient homework in advance. Funny...just like science.
That's a story for another day…
Meg’s Response
OK, I try really hard to be gluten free not because I am celiac
(that I know of) but because my joints feel better when I stay away from wheat
flour. I have both of America’s Test
Kitchen’s (ATK) gluten free cookbooks and compared their biscotti recipe to
Mary’s. The ingredient amounts between
Mary’s recipe and the ATK recipe were very similar so I decided to give Mary’s
recipe a go with the substitution of gluten free flour (I used Trader Joe’s gluten
free flour mix) and the addition of 1 tsp Xanthan Gum (this is an ingredient
that helps gluten free flour stick together somewhat like gluten does).
Otherwise, I followed Mary’s recipe. Oh, except I substituted hazelnuts for the almonds and dried cranberries (unsweetened) for the dried cherries. And in the middle of measuring and mixing I discovered that I was out of almond extract. Since I had already been to the market to fetch more eggs I decided to substituted hazelnut liquor for the vanilla. Opps, another change… I pulled out my standing mixer instead of mixing the dough by hand. But I maintain that I followed Mary’s recipe fairly closely.
I admit that I had some baking issues in that a couple of my logs did not bake through on the first baking (obviously dividing the dough evenly is important). They sliced up very crumbly and I kind of squished the pieces together. This worked well and I made sure that they were well baked on both sides. Crunchy and delicious. I am not a coffee drinker so I had some friends try out dunking my version of the biscotti to see how they held up. The verdict was that it needed to be a quick dunk to ensure that there would not be lots of floating crumbs (gluten free baked goods tend to be very crumbly).
Otherwise, I followed Mary’s recipe. Oh, except I substituted hazelnuts for the almonds and dried cranberries (unsweetened) for the dried cherries. And in the middle of measuring and mixing I discovered that I was out of almond extract. Since I had already been to the market to fetch more eggs I decided to substituted hazelnut liquor for the vanilla. Opps, another change… I pulled out my standing mixer instead of mixing the dough by hand. But I maintain that I followed Mary’s recipe fairly closely.
I admit that I had some baking issues in that a couple of my logs did not bake through on the first baking (obviously dividing the dough evenly is important). They sliced up very crumbly and I kind of squished the pieces together. This worked well and I made sure that they were well baked on both sides. Crunchy and delicious. I am not a coffee drinker so I had some friends try out dunking my version of the biscotti to see how they held up. The verdict was that it needed to be a quick dunk to ensure that there would not be lots of floating crumbs (gluten free baked goods tend to be very crumbly).
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