One Biscotti, Two Ways

MERRY CHRISTMAS (EVE)!!

I pulled out all the stops with these biscotti.



After having to throw away a batch, I knew I had to come back stronger. I had to knock my socks off. I had to use as much chocolate as I possibly could. I needed a glass of wine (but it was 9AM). I had to make killer biscotti.



This proved to be easier than I thought. I tossed in some of this and a lot of that, and ended up with two flavors of biscotti that I declared the best I've ever eaten. The first, simply chocolate hazelnut, is slightly sweet with just enough cocoa richness and a wonderful nutty bite. They also make fantastic coffee dippers, letting little chocolate puddles swirl through your drink, disappearing into caffeinated bliss.





The second, chocolate gingerbread, is more than I could have asked for; I literally dumped random amounts of ingredients and hoped for the best. Luckily, it has just a hint of spice that gets into a little fight with the cocoa powder, tantalizing your taste buds with two different, but complimentary flavors. Even though these weren't half dipped in chocolate, I think they were my favorite.


Basic chocolate biscotti
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup flour (I used white whole wheat)
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt

- 3 flax eggs (1/4 cup flax, 1/2 cup water)
- 1/2 tsp almond extract

- 1/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

After I made this dough, I divided it in half. To make chocolate hazelnut, I simply added 1T of strong room temperature coffee and half-coated the final product with melted semisweet chocolate.

To make chocolate gingerbread, I added: 1 1/2T molasses, 1/2T ground ginger, 1/2T cinnamon, and 1/4T each of ground cloves and nutmeg. I also sprinkled the top with sugar before baking.

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Fold in hazelnuts.
- In another bowl, combine sugar and flax eggs. Beat with a whisk for 2-3 minutes, or until sugar is dissolved and mixture forms ribbons when you lift the whisk.
- Add sugar mixture to dry ingredients and combine until dough begins to come together. Divide dough in half and add appropriate mixins.
- Form each dough into logs on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, then allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.
- Reduce oven to 325. Cut into 1/2" slices then bake for 10 minutes on each side. Biscotti will last a long time in an airtight container, as they contain no fat, unless you're me and your hand mysteriously always reaches for the cookie jar.

Makes 24 biscotti


Blogger tested, cat approved.

Day in the Life

In the past 48 hours I have:

- Seen an elderly woman almost get arrested on a bus.
- Had a tiramisu truffle


and can now die happy.
- Threw away a batch of biscotti. Let's not talk about it.
- Almost set my apartment on fire by dropping an oven mit on the coil.
- Woke up at 3AM, on my couch, with the Golden Girls on TV and a chocolate chip stuck to my cheek. What, that hasn't happened to you?
- Forgotten my towel while taking a shower and raced to my room to retrieve it. This, of course, led me to doing a slip & slide down my hallway.
- Discovered the beauty of free samples at Whole Foods. The whole "one sample per customer" thing doesn't really apply to me.
- Had an amazing epiphany of what I'm making for my Christmas dinner after giving up and deciding to just make it a day of biscotti and hot caprese dip eating.
- Hit my head while getting a little too overzealous in half moon pose. This almost rivals the time I fell into a closet while bending too far forward in dancers pose. Yoga is way more dangerous than I thought.
- Made more biscotti:




One dough, two flavors. Recipes to come.

I can feel chocolate coming out of my pores. Maybe I'll eat a vegetable today. Or buy bigger pants.

Peanut (Flour) Trail Mix Cookies

I've had Trader Joe's peanut flour in my pantry for months. Initially, I bought it because it was cheaper than protein powder. I used it a few times, was unimpressed, and didn't look at it again until today. I had a baking itch but was extremely low on flour, so my mind started to stir. As I was sitting on the bus coming back to my apartment, I had this moment, like in cartoons, where a light bulb appeared above my head. I wasn't sure if my idea would work - in fact, I had many doubts. I guessed on a lot of the ratios. I've never baked with peanut flour before. I almost set my microwave on fire while heating up coconut oil. Really, it could have been a horrible disaster.



But it wasn't.





These cookies are amazing. Jumbo sized, hearty but soft and moist inside, with a lot of crunch from the bits of nuts, dried fruit and chocolate throughout. The peanut flour adds a subtle nutty taste but isn't too overpowering, which I liked. It allowed every ingredient in the cookies to take some of the spotlight; I could taste the roasted almonds, the touch of coconut from the oil and the tart burst of dried cherries.



In short, these cookies rock. They're also vegan, wheat-free, made with healthy ingredients and will completely fill you up with just one. So, if you're not completely sick of cookies by this point (shame on you, if you are) then give these a shot.


Peanut (flour) trail mix cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut flour
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup spelt flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1 flax egg (1T flax, 3T water)
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 cup trail mix (I used a mix of almonds, cashews, cherries, golden raisins, pistachios and chocolate chips from TJ's)

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Add wet to dry and stir until dough is combined. Fold in trail mix.
- Using a 1/4 cup scoop, place cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown on the edges. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Makes 8-10 cookies

Zaletti: Venetian Christmas Cookies

Confession time: I'm really enjoying butter lately. Growing up my mom only used margarine, and for the longest time I was afraid of butter. Yes, afraid. I thought using it would make me fat or unhealthy. Well, maybe this is my inner Paula Deen talking, but I love butter. Butter is fantastic. No matter how much Earth Balance I used in baking, my recipes never came out this good. The flavor of real (organic) butter can't be beat.



Zaletti are lusciously creamy Italian polenta cookies. I'm not sure of their true identity because they don't seem to be certain, either. They're kind of a shortbread, kind of a biscuit, and, as my friend said, "a cross between a chocolate chip cookie and a corn muffin". Whatever the case may be, they're fantastic little holiday cookies that would make a great addition on any cookie tray.



Now, traditional zaletti are made with grappa soaked currants or raisins. While this is fantastic, I had neither grappa nor currants on hand, and I wanted chocolate. Thus, chocolate chip zaletti were born.



These cookies were the reason why I was smelling my hands for minutes, unable to bring myself to wash them. All that filled my nose were the scents of butter and sugar. Friends, there is no better smell than butter and sugar, especially when they're being freshly creamed. Just stick your head in your mixer and find out for yourself.



I ate one of these cookies after they cooled and it just seemed to float away and disappear on my tongue. Light yet heavy, decadent yet tiny, creamy yet coarse, these cookies are neither here nor there. And, at this rate, they won't be anywhere but my stomach.


Chocolate chip zaletti
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup flour (white spelt, per usual)
- 1/2 cup polenta
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips

- 1/3 cup (5 1/2 T) butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1-3 T cold water, as needed

Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Cream softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about a minute. Slowly add egg, then vanilla, and mix until combined.
- Mix dry ingredients into wet and combine until mixture just begins to come together. It will be crumbly. If it looks too crumbly, slowly add one tablespoon of cold water. Continue adding until mixture comes together but isn't wet.
- Place dough on a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a large ball or log. Refrigerate for an hour.
- Pinch off chestnut sized balls of dough. On a parchment lined baking sheet, roll cookies in 1" ball, press down slightly and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

*Dough will keep in the fridge for a week and freezes exceptionally well, so you can make the dough ahead and use it as needed.

Makes about 30 cookies

Stubborn Flourless Chocolate Cookies

Happy December! Or should I say Merry December? What better way to kick off the month than with a new cookie recipe?

I call these stubborn because no matter how perfectly round I poured the batter, they always had a mind of their own and formed shapes I didn't think were possible. In fact, some of the shapes were so obscene that I can't show them on the blog. I wonder if that's the cookie's way of telling me something.

I digress.



These are greatly inspired by François Payard's recipe, which you can find here. They're beautiful (albeit misshapen) shiny, cracked topped cookies that almost stick to the roof of your mouth. They remind me of biting into an old fashioned peanut butter sandwich; the white bread almost disintegrated in your mouth, the peanut butter stuck everywhere, and the tall glass of milk disappeared way too fast. These cookies are so delectably gooey that one is all you need, despite them being paper light.





Oh, they're also virtually fat free, aside from the chocolate chips I added to half the batter. But don't let that fool you into thinking these are a 'healthy' cookie - the batter is pretty much all sugar. Delicious, fudgey sugar. If a brownie and a meringue had a lovechild, this would be it.


Flourless chocolate cookies with lavender and sea salt
Ingredients
- 3 cups confectionery sugar
- 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 4 large room temp. egg whites (or 3/4 cup liquid egg whites)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp dried lavender blossoms, hand crushed
- Fleur de sel, for the top

Ingredients
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Sift together sugar, cocoa and salt. Fold in lavender blossoms. With your mixer on low, slowly add in egg whites and beat until batter is wet. Don't overbeat or the egg whites will stiffen.
- Drop rounded tablespoons of batter on a parchment lined baking sheet, at least 3 inches apart, sprinkle with fleur de sel (or other sea salt) and bake for 15 minutes. These will spread so don't put more than 5-6 on a baking sheet at once. Continue doing this until batter is gone. Allow to cool, gingerly remove from the parchment paper, and store in an airtight container.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen

Cranberry White Chocolate Biscotti

I don't know about you, but I'm kind of sick of pumpkin. Sure, I enjoyed it in my oatmeal this morning, but that's beside the point. I've been eating pumpkin since the first red leaf fell to the ground this autumn and I'm pretty burned out. So, in lieu of pumpkin pie this year, I decided to make something a little different for the Thanksgiving dessert tale: biscotti.



Last night I put on my apron, turned on my Christmas pandora station and got to work. I ended up singing and dancing alone in my apartment, eating crumbs that fell when I cut the loaf, and getting melted white chocolate all over my counter. Don't worry, I scooped it up with my fingertips and ate it. I promise my counters are clean.



I highly recommend making these biscotti for the holiday season. They are hands down the best biscotti I've ever made and they're really beautiful. They're crispy without being rock solid and have delicate flavors that work to create a perfect little cookie. These also include no added fat as per traditional biscotti, which do not include butter OR oil, meaning I was totally justified in covering them in white chocolate.



Bring them to your family get together, give them as gifts along with some homemade cocoa mix or gourmet tea or make them for yourself just because you deserve it.


Cranberry white chocolate biscotti
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup white spelt flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup organic cane sugar

- 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp flax, 6 tbsp water)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries, soaked in warm water for 5 minutes to plump.
- 1/4 cup white baking chips

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and baking powder.
- In another bowl, combine sugar and flax eggs. Beat with a whisk for 2-3 minutes, or until sugar is dissolved and mixture forms ribbons when you lift the whisk. Add orange zest and vanilla and add to dry mixture. Add cranberries and use your hands to work mixture into a wet dough.
- Form dough into a 9x2" log on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, then allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.
- Reduce oven to 325. Cut into 1/2" slices then bake for 10 minutes on each side.
- Prepare white chocolate: Use a double boiler (metal bowl on top of a pot with a bit of water on the bottom) and melt the chocolate over gentle heat until silky. Once biscotti are cool, dip a fork into the melted chocolate and drizzle over biscotti. Place biscotti in the fridge to allow chocolate to harden. Store in an airtight container, in a cool and dry place, for up to a month.

Makes 20 biscotti


Have a happy, happy Thanksgiving.

Sugar Cookies, The Old Fashioned Way

I love cookies. I love baking them, eating them, and letting their wonderful scents fill my kitchen. Baking cookies is therapeutic for me; I love watching the dough come together, rolling them in even little balls and watching them creepily through the oven as they spread and puff up just slightly.

Today I had a random craving for sugar cookies. However, the only flour I had on hand was sprouted spelt. Since I hardly ever use white flour but didn't want to make sugar cookies with a denser flour, I did what any sane person would do: take the bus to Whole Foods to buy white spelt flour. And a pretzel bun, but that's another story. Back to the cookies.

I put on my favorite apron and got to work.





And made...


Old fashioned sugar cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups white spelt flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup organic cane sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 cup Earth Balance, melted
- 1 flax egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk

Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, set aside.
- Combine melted butter with remaining wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients slowly to the flour and mix.
- Roll dough into even balls (I used a 2 tbsp measure) and place on silpat or a baking sheet. Use the bottom of a glass to press the cookie balls down, dipping in flour if necessary. Sprinkle with a touch of sugar.
- Bake for 9 minutes. Cookies should just start to turn golden on the edges, but retain a pale color. You want these soft and pillow-like, not brown! Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Makes 2 dozen




These are crispy and buttery on the edges but so soft and delicate on the inside that they nearly melted in my mouth. They're not like the cut-out sugar cookies that are topped with royal icing (which I dislike); they taste just like the sugar cookies I remember growing up, which in my opinion makes for the ultimate comfort cookie.

Good News Cookies

I come with good news: Organically Me officially has its own domain name! The "blogspot.com" had been bugging me for a while and I knew I needed to change it in order for people to take the blog more seriously. So, now it's officially organicallyme.net! I'm incredibly excited and last night I decided to channel my excitement in the kitchen by baking some cookies. These aren't just any cookies, though, they're celebration cookies! Soft, moist, just sweet enough, and wonderfully healthy to boot, these cookies alone are worth celebrating.

Celebration (soft oatmeal raisin) cookies

Ingredients

- 1 cup spelt flour
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tbsp flax meal
- 1/2 cup raisins (I used golden)
- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

- Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir until thoroughly mixed. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Add wet to dry, folding mixture until well combined. Fold in raising until evenly distributed.
- Spoon mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. I measured about 2 tbsp per cookie.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges. Take them about a few minutes shy of how firm you want them because they'll continue cooking after they're out of the oven. You want these to be nice and soft.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes and store in an airtight container.

Makes one dozen





I know oatmeal raisin cookies are pretty basic, but I've never made them before. Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best; you don't need fancy ingredients to make an impressive cookie. These were everything I wanted them to be - I had to freeze half the batch to stop myself from eating them all in one sitting.




They're also relatively low in fat, which is always a good thing when you eat 5 of them at once. Don't replace all the fat with applesauce, though, some fat adds a little somethin' somethin'.

Go celebrate by baking something special! Celebrate a successful run, a good grade on a test, or simply being happy to be alive and healthy - just eat and live well.