Cakes & Bakes: Cranberry almond biscotti

Are you a biscuit dunker? I’ve never been one for dipping my biscuits into hot liquid. However, these cranberry almond biscotti have made me change my ways!

I’ve seen biscotti being produced on the Great British Bake Off but I’ve never tried my hand at making a batch.

Biscotti are Italian, twice-baked almond biscuits usually served with Vin Santo – a dessert wine from the same region of Tuscany. It’s this liquid that you dip your biscuit into before eating – I’ve only tried it with coffee so far – but give me time!

The traditional recipe is flour, sugar, eggs, pine nuts and almonds. However, there are updated versions that include an array of ingredients such as dried fruit, hazelnuts, pistachios, spices, lemon, coffee and chocolate.

Biscotti is the plural of biscotto but I’ve never heard that term in my life. Perhaps it’s because it’s impossible to eat just one!

Researching recipes, I discovered that there is such a thing as a biscotti tin. I don’t think I’ll be making biscotti often enough to warrant getting one – I used my 18cm/7-inch square brownie tin and it was more than adequate at tackling the job.

For its second bake, I sliced and transferred the cranberry almond biscotti on to a baking sheet and used stainless steel knives (don’t use knives with wood or plastic handles) to prop them up on their sides.

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest!

Cranberry almond biscotti

2017-08-23 15:58:33

Yields 15

Ingredients

70g/2½oz butter, melted
135g/4¾oz granulated sugar
½tsp salt
2tsp baking powder
2tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
120g/4oz plain flour
120g/4oz semolina flour
115g/4oz dried cranberries
115g/4oz chopped almonds

Add ingredients to shopping list

If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350°F/ Gas mark 4
Grease a biscotti pan or large baking sheet
Stir together the melted butter, sugar, salt and baking powder
Beat in the vanilla extract and then the eggs
Blend in the flours, cranberries and almonds
Place into the prepared biscotti pan, leaving a 2cm/¾-inch margin free on each side of the pan, to allow for expansion. If you're using a baking sheet, form the dough into a flattened log about 28 x 10cm (10½ x 4 inches).
Bake for 30-35 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool for an hour
Slice on the diagonal into 4cm/½-inch thick pieces. Place them back on the baking sheet, standing them on edge if you can; this will ensure they bake evenly
Reduce the oven temperature to 160ºC/325°F/Gas mark 3 and bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden
Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on a wire rack
They can be stored in an airtight container for several weeks (if they last that long!)

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Home-made tomato sauce

Justin doesn’t normally get involved with the Thursday recipes – well, apart from taking the photos! However, this week, he’s actually done the cooking too. Don’t worry though, you’re in safe hands – as he was a chef for about 15 years before re-inventing himself as Mr H is for Home – and he does most of the savoury dishes in our household anyway.

We mentioned this lovely all-purpose tomato sauce in last week’s pizza post. Most people list tinned tomatoes in their store cupboard essentials, but we always have batches of this home-made tomato sauce in the fridge or freezer.

It’s quick – only taking about an hour – and very straightforward too.

It’s so flexible. The addition of ground black pepper and Parmesan makes for a simple yet delicious pasta sauce. It also provides the base for a myriad of other recipes. You can add all sorts of ingredients to it for some wonderful dishes – meatballs, chicken, fish, olives, roasted aubergines & peppers to name but a few. If you reduce it down and concentrate it a little further it makes the perfect tomato sauce for pizza topping. The recipe can be scaled up to suit requirements. You can also tweek quantities to suit your own taste – more garlicky, more olive oily etc… and add other herbs if you like too.

We make up a batch of home-made tomato sauce every few weeks and put a couple of two-portion containers into the freezer – ready to grab as required.

Click here to pin the recipe to Pinterest for later!

Home-made tomato sauce

2018-08-09 06:42:54

Ingredients

4 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
6-8 tbsps olive oil
6 cloves garlic
1 tbsp tomato pureé
1 tbsp granulated sugar
bunch fresh basil
salt to taste

Add ingredients to shopping list

If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

Put the olive oil in a thick bottomed pan with the chopped garlic
Gently heat until the garlic starts to colour
Add tomato pureé, tinned tomatoes, torn basil leaves, salt and sugar
Simmer very gently for approximately 1 hour
Remove from the heat and strain.
Put through a second, finer sieve for an even smoother consistency

Notes

Quantities of ingredients such as the olive oil and garlic can be adjusted according to strength preference
Other herbs such as oregano, rosemary, thyme and parsley can also be added if desired

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Pizza

It’s pizza for this week’s Cakes & Bakes post. We’ve got a great pizzeria here in Todmorden – and we certainly can’t match their huge, wood fired oven… but we like to eat it in the house sometimes too!

There’s a very simple list of ingredients for the dough – flour, yeast, salt, olive oil, water.

With sub zero temperatures outside, the yeast mixture found the perfect place to come to life beside the fire.

The dough is simple to make and easy to work with.

Size and thickness is a matter of personal choice. In this house, Adelle has deep pan tendencies – Justin is a more thin & crispy kinda guy!

We rustled up a lovely tomato sauce. Olive oil, garlic, tomatoes & basil – cooked through, seasoned, reduced and strained.

This sauce was spread evenly over the pizza dough. Adelle then added roast aubergine, mozzarella and olives. Justin very similar, but he substituted Gruyère cheese for the mozzarella and also added red onion.

Both turned out very well – delicious in fact. We’ll continue experimenting with dough thickness, toppings and oven temperatures ’til we have absolute perfection!

If you have a garden, you can build your own wood fired pizza oven. You will make a unique pizza without leaving your home.

Easy pizza base

Print recipe Pin recipe

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 3 medium-sized pizza bases

Ingredients

2 tbsp fast acting yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
300 ml lukewarm water
500 g strong flour
½ tsp sea salt

Instructions

In a measuring jug mix the oil, lukewarm water, sugar and fast acting yeast
Leave in a warm place for 10 minutes for the yeast to begin foaming
In a large mixing bowl combine the flour and salt and make a well in the middle
Add the yeast mixture and combine to a smooth, firm dough
On a floured work surface, knead the dough for 5 minutes and form into a ball
Put the ball into the large mixing bowl, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place to prove until it doubles in size - about an hour
Tip the dough back out on to the floured work surface, divide into 3 equal parts and flatten each into 1cm circles
Leave to rest for 15 minutes before adding toppings and cooking

Keyword pizza, pizza base