Cookbook of the week #22 : Sweet Food, including a recipe for Almond, orange and cardamom biscotti

I’m back. I have had a lot going on in my life since I last posted, but now I am ready to pick up where I left off.



This week’s cookbook was published by Murdoch Books, part of a series of themed books that are in equal measure recipe collections and unabashed food porn. There is a photo of every dish, each one designed to make the reader hungry. The book is divided into chapters for baked goods, desserts and pies & tarts, and other than the chapter divisions, there is no rhyme or reason to the way the recipes are collected, so that for example, the 5 cheesecake recipes in the book are to be found in two chapters and none of them on adjacent pages. This makes for interesting browsing. I have found that I can open this book at random and be almost certain to find something I want to try. I have had to eliminate several recipes I would have liked to try because of hard-to-find ingredients.

Note: The tbs called for are 20 ml tbs, rather than 15 ml ones.

The first recipe I chose is Almond, orange and cardamom biscotti

In Italian “biscotti” means “twice baked”, but according to Wikipedia, in Italy the term is used for any type of cookie. In North-America it refers to twice-baked pastries like the ones in this recipe, which in Italy are called “biscotti di Prato”, “cantoucchi” or “cantoucchini”.

I would like to imagine that when J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about lembas, he had something like biscotti in mind.

Makes about 40.

2 eggs
155 g (2/3 cup) firmly packed soft brown sugar
125 g (1 cup) self-rising flour (if you don’t have self-rising flour, use 1 cup plain flour and add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt)
90 g (3/4 cup) plain flour
125 g (1 1/4 cups) almonds
1 tbs finely grated orange zest
1/4 tsp ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 160°C (315°F), or lower temperature as indicated for convection ovens. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Beat the eggs and sugar until light and creamy. Sift the flours into the bowl, add the almonds, zest and cardamom and mix to a soft dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, divide in two and shape into two loaves, about 5 x 20 cm (2 x 8 inches) in size.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until lightly golden. Cool on a wire rack. When cool, cut the loaves into 1 cm (2/5 inch) slices with a serrated bread knife. The biscotti will be crumbly on the edges, so work slowly and if you can, hold the sides of the loaves as you cut.

Arrange the slices on baking trays in one layer and return to the oven for 10 minutes on each side. If the slices look like they are not completely dry when removed from the oven, don’t worry – they will become crisp when they cool. Allow to cool before serving.

Great with coffee.

Edit:

Recipe review:
I made this recipe yesterday after I posted it. The dough was EXTREMELY sticky, so sticky that I ended up just forming it into one rough loaf and then I went to scrape a thick layer of gluey dough off my hands. Next time I will wet my hands before handling the dough. The raw loaf looked like a misshapen lump of lava, but it baked up smooth and when I sliced it it looked like biscotti should. In the instructions it says to cool the loaf – I would just let it cool for about 10 minutes and then slice it, because fully cooled it was hard to cut because the crust was so hard. The biscotti are very good, with a mild orangey flavour and just a hint of cardamom.

Soft golden syrup spice cookies

This is an adaptation of a recipe for molasses cookies from The Silver Palate Cookbook. I tried it yesterday and the cookies are delicious, soft and chewy. Using golden syrup was an emergency measure, since I couldn’t get molasses anywhere (not even treacle, which is the same thing, only in British English), but it worked out fine. I will make them again when I manage to find some molasses/treacle and report on the difference. I think they would also be great made with honey.

170 g (12 tbs or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup or molasses/treacle
1 egg
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 175°C/350°F (165°C/330°F if you have a convection oven).

Melt the butter and add the sugar and molasses. Mix throughly. Lightly beat egg and add to butter mixture; blend well.

Sift the flour with the spices, salt and baking soda, and add to butter mixture mixture; mix. Batter will be wet.

Lay a sheet of foil or baking paper on a cookie sheet. Drop tablespoons of cookie batter on foil, leaving 3 inches between the cookies. They will spread during baking.

Bake until cookies start to darken, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven will still soft. Let cool on foil.

Recipe of the week from Cookies: Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints

Due to unforeseen circumstances I have been unable to test more than one recipe from the book as i had planned, so this stands as recipe of the week.

Prep time: 45 minutes
Chilling time: 60 minutes
Baking time: 14 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Makes about 42 cookies.

The cookies:
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup raspberry jam

The glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar (icing sugar, confectioner’s sugar)
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
2-3 tsp water

Beat butter, sugar and almond extract together in a large mixer bowl at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy (2-3 minutes). Reduce the speed to low and add the flour, beating until well mixed (2-3 minutes). Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Shape the dough into balls, about 2,5 cm (1 inch) across. Put the balls on ungreased cookies sheets, about 2 inches apart. Make an indentation in the centre of each cookies with your thumb (don’t worry if the edges of the indentations crack slightly). Fill each indentation with about 1/4 tsp of raspberry jam.

Bake for 14 to 18 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let stand for 1 minute, then place on a wire rack to cook. Let cool completely before glazing.

To glaze, stir together the glaze ingredients with a whisk until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled cookies.



Notes and review:

These cookies (or pastries), even when only halfway well-made like mine, are real showstoppers because it is obvious how much work went into making them. In my case the glazing went a bit wild, and no wonder because I used a spoon to dribble it onto the cookies. Next time I will use my Wilton decorating bag and the tiniest piping tip I can find.

It is obvious to anyone who compares their own final product with the lovely perfection of the photo in the book that the jam was added to the cookies after they were baked – another secret of food photography revealed:



I made the cookies as instructed in the book, even down to making the balls an inch across, but I still only got about 30 cookies out of the recipe. The only reason I can guess is that the flour I use must be different from what they use in the Land O‘Lakes test kitchen so the dough turned out denser, or perhaps I beat it for too long? It‘s hard to tell with shortbread, because it is so dense anyway.

The cookies are every bit as good as they look. They are dense and a bit crumbly and have a slightly sandy texture. The cookies themselves have only a mild almond flavour, but the glazing has a lot more that is prevented from becoming overbearing by the fruity flavour of the raspberry jam.

Sample recipe from Cookies: Butterscotch Crisps

This looks interesting. I will have to see if I can find the butterscotch-chips. I have seen them in some supermarket, but I can't remember which one.

Prep time: 45 minutes
Chilling time: 2 hours
Baking time: 5 minutes

Makes about 72 cookies.

1 cup butterscotch-flavoured baking chips
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped pecan nuts

Melt butterscotch chips in a 1 litre (1 quart) saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted (3-5 minutes).

Put the butterscotch mixture in a large mixer bowl and add the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the pecans. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (1-2 minutes). Fold in the pecans by hand.

Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a 20 by 3 cm (8 by 1 1/2 inch) roll. Wrap the roll in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm – at least 2 hours.

Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Using a sharp knife, cut rolls into 3 mm (1/8 inch) slices and place on ungreased cookie sheets about 2,5 cm (1 inch) apart, and bake for 5-7 minutes or until set. Cool for 1 minute and remove cookies from the sheets.

Cookbook of the week #17: Cookies: Favorite recipes from the Land O’Lakes Test Kitchens, and a recipe for Cashew Butter Cookies

Following on from the recipe of the week, I decided to go for one of my two cookie books. Christmas is coming in just over three weeks, and one of the things Christmas means to me is cookies. My mother didn’t generally make cookies from scratch when I was growing up, being more of a cake person, but she always baked cookies for Christmas. When I was a child the staples she would make were cornflake mounds, air cookies, vanilla rings and vanilla sandwich cookies, crisp chocolate chip and nut cookies, coconut cookies, meringue drops, pepper cookies and gingersnap sandwich cookies, not to mention the experiments that were never repeated or that she made a for a few years and then stopped making, like oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies. (She would also make brown cake, dream cake and devil’s cake, but that’s another story).

The number of types of cookies has dropped down to four now, plus the one type I always make which are more like confections than cookies. My appetite for these lovely little nibbles has not diminished (although I have to be careful now how many I eat in one session), and therefore I am looking forward to testing some of the recipes in this book. I will probably make at least a couple of the sample recipes, perhaps more, and review them as I go along, rather than post one review at the end of the week.



Land O’Lakes is a dairy company based in Minnesota in the USA and the book is a promotional publication to push their products, especially butter and sour cream. Neither is imported to Iceland, so I will be using Icelandic products instead. In addition to recipes, the book has plenty of useful advice about how to get the best results when making the various different kinds of cookies.

The first sample recipe is for Cashew Butter Cookies:

The recipe is supposed to make 54 cookies.

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cup chopped salted cashew nuts

Salted cashew halves for decorating

Heat oven to 190°C (375°F).

Mix together the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl.

Combine butter, sugar, honey and egg in a mixing bowl and beat at medium speed, scraping the bowl often, until creamy (2-3 minutes). Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture. beat until well mixed (1-2 minutes). Fold in the chopped cashew nuts by hand.

Using two teaspoons, drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Top each cookie with a cashew half. Bake for 6-9 minutes or until golden brown.

Recipe of the week from The Big Ready Steady Cook Book: Snappy Ginger Biscuits

I had a very busy day yesterday and today is a let's-eat-leftovers day, so I decided to make something simple and easy: ginger biscuits (cookies to Americans).

Creator: Thane Prince
Found on page 177
Makes 20



100 g (4 oz) unsalted butter
100 g (4 oz) caster sugar (I used regular)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
175 g (6 oz) self-raising flour ()
Juice of 1/2 orange

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Put butter, sugar, ginger and flour in a food processor and blend until crumbly. With the motor running, pour in enough orange juice to make a soft dough.

Put teaspoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet with about 5 cm (2 inches) between balls of dough. Wet a fork and flatted each ball with it. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.



Review and notes:

First of all: substitutions. I used regular sugar instead of caster sugar, and regular flour, baking powder and salt instead of self-rising flour (1 1/4 cup flour + 1 3/4 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt). It took the juice of one whole (admittedly rather small) orange to make the kind of dough needed, so if you make this recipe, keep more on hand just in case.

The cookies are quick, extremely easy to make and nice warm with cold milk. There is a slight bitter flavour to them that suggests I could safely cut down on the baking powder in my self-rising flour recipe. Another time I would use more ginger and perhaps a 1/4 tsp of orange essence to get a stronger flavour of both. as it is, the cookies are mild and nice with milk, and probably great with tea. They go hard around the edges but stay soft in the center when cooled.

Sample recipe from The Spice Cookbook: Old-fashioned coriander cookies

I am used to coriander as a spice for soups, eggs, meat and vegetable dishes, but definitely not in baking, so this seems an interesting recipe.

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
5 tsp ground coriander seed
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk

Cream together shortening, salt, baking soda and coriander. Add the sugar gradually. Beat in the egg. Add flour and milk in small dozes, alternating each until everything is used up. Mix well.
drop dollops of dough from a teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet, about 5 cm apart. Try to keep the blobs round and equally sized. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 15 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Cool on a wire rack.
Store in an airtight container.

Recipe of the week from Chocolate: Petits Madeleines au Chocolat

Originally posted on September 25th, 2007, as a sample recipe from the book.

A chocolate variation of the little cakes that sent Proust into raptures.

200 g flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
240 g sugar
100 g Síríus Konsúm chocolate or dark, sweet-bitter baking chocolate
finely grated rind of one orange
4 eggs
200 g sweet butter, melted
1 tbs baking cocoa

Mix all the ingredients except the melted butter until you have a smooth mass. Gently stir in the butter. Put one heaping teaspoon of dough into each shell of a Madeleine pan, smooth down and bake at 180°C for 10-12 minutes (less if you're using a pan with really tiny shells).


Not very nice looking, but they taste heavenly!

Edit:

The Madeleine tin I have is for making miniatures, meaning that a whole recipe would be many times too much, so I made half a recipe. Half a recipe was still too much, but because the baking time is so short (10-12 minutes) I decided I could probably use up the dough before the baking powder stopped working. I was right: I baked three rounds of 20 cakes each, and each round lifted beautifully. I could have baked two more rounds from that half recipe, but I didn’t feel like continuing. I must admit I did eat some of the raw dough, which is yummy and has the flavour and consistency of soft orange-chocolate fudge.

Since I have not made or even eaten Madeleines before, I can not say if these are like the genuine article, but they didn’t turn out looking like the picture in the book, or indeed any of the photos I found by googling. I spite of generous greasing of the tin and the cakes sliding out of it when I turned the tin over and shook it, the cakes did not have the distinct shell-like fluting of the sample in the photo. The colour was right, though. The cakes are spongy, airy, light and fluffy, like good sponge cakes should be, but the shell pattern is indistinct. If anyone has a suggestion as to why they tuned out looking like this, I would appreciate a comment.

The flavour is heavenly: chocolate with a hint of vanilla (the chocolate contains vanilla) and orange, and not too sweet. I get the feeling they would be lovely dipped in vanilla sauce. I think the recipe would make a nice cake, topped with fresh strawberries and Zabaglione or whipped cream.


You can just barely see some fluting at the edges, otherwise it's just an oblong lump.