Tra Vigne's Biscotti

Hello summer bakers! Has the boredom of summer started to catch up with anyone? It sure has with me. Which is probably the reason I found myself pulling out the flour and mixer at 10:45pm last night to make this famous italian cookie, i biscotti!

Yours in summer baking, Kate

Ingredients (makes about 40 cookies)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon gray salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup crystal sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs
6 tablespoons aniseeds (or 1 teaspoon anise flavoring)
1 cup unblanched whole almonds, toasted
*I recommend chopping the almonds in half or quarter sizes
*Optional: 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

To Do

1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
2. In bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together the butter, crystal sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, flour mixture, and aniseeds and beat on low until the dough begins to come together.
4. Add almonds (and/or chocolate chips) and mix just until distributed. DO NOT OVERWORK!

5. On a floured board shape the dough into a ball, flatten, put in a bowl for 2hrs to allow the dough to relax.
6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees; line a backing sheet with parchment paper.
7. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions on a lightly floured work surface.
8. Using your hands, roll each portion into a log about 3 inches in diameter.
9. Roll the logs in crystal sugar to coat well.

10. Place the logs on the prepared baking sheet and press down gently to flatten slightly. Logs should be several inches apart.
11. Bake until firm and light brown, about an hour. When poked with a finger, the dough should feel firm to the touch and not collapse or cave in. Remove from oven then lower oven temperature to 300 degrees.
12. Let the logs cool completely. Carefully move them, still on parchment paper, to a cutting board, then peel off the parchment paper.
13. Cut the logs with a sharp serated knife into 1/2 inch thick slices.
14. Lay the slices down on a baking sheet and return to the oven.
15. Bake until toasted to a golden brown on both sides, about 5-6 minutes (about 3 minutes on each side).
16. Let cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

Notes on the Recipe: This is not an "aw we can skip that chilling the dough thing", with biscotti it is very important that the dough gets cold. So if you dont have a good amount of time or arent a leisurely baker, maybe try a different cookie. Also, we like more 2-bite sized biscotti, so we tend to cut smaller pieces. When we ignore the cooling process and cut pretty soon after the biscotti come out of the oven. This aids in the cutting of the dough; use the serated knife semi-slowly as not to tear the dough.

Thoughts on Edibility: As this is a family recipe, my thoughts are its delicious! We send these biscotti to my Papa every year for Father's Day and he says they taste just like from home...northern Italy! Also, the brilliance of biscotti is they are a customizable cookie! Add the almonds, chocolate chips, no almonds, dried fruit, whatever you desire to create your own biscotti!

Hummingbird Cake

It’s a beautiful summer day and my mom and I wanted to bake. To carry the sweet sun into our kitchen, we wanted a cake that involved a little fruit. We found the Hummingbird Cake in Art Smith’s “Back to the Table” cookbook. Makes 12 servings and is perfect for some summer satisfaction!

Cake

3 cups all purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups chopped ripe bananas

1 cup drained crushed pineapple

1 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs, beaten

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup (4 ounces) finely chopped pecans

Icing

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

½ cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1 pound confectioners’ sugar (about 4 ½ cups) sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.       Lightly butter two 9-inch round cake pans, sprinkle evenly with flour, and tap our the excess.

3.       Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a bowl. *The recipe mentioned to add the sugar as well, however we thought that may be too heavy to add atop the light, sifted mixture so we added it later.

4.        In another bowl, stir or whisk the bananas, pineapple, oil, eggs, and vanilla until combined. *Do NOT use and electric mixer.

5.       Add the sugar and dry mixture and fold together with a large spatula just until smooth. *Do NOT  beat.

6.       Fold in the pecans.

7.       Spread evenly in the pans.

8.       Bake until the cakes spring back when pressed in the center, 30-35 minutes.

9.       Transfer the cakes to wire racks and cool for 10 minutes.

10.   Invert the cakes onto the racks, turn right side up and cool completely.

Icing

1.       Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until combined.

2.       On low speed, gradually beat in the sugar, then the vanilla, to make a smooth icing.

Finish it off!

1.       Place 1 cake layer, upside down, on a serving platter. Spread with about 2/3 cup of icing.

2.       Spread with about 2/3 cup of the icing.

3.       Top the second layer, right side up.

4.       Spread the remaining icing over the top and sides of the cake.

5.       Let stand 1 hour before serving.

*I didn’t really follow all the upside-down right-side up flip and flopping of the cake. I recommend putting each layer right-side up for ease of icing.

Notes on the recipe: The cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead and stored, uncovered, in the refrigerator. We used frozen pineapple chunks and chopped them up. I think they retained a little more water than we anticipated, so we had to bake the cake about 40 minutes. If you choose to use frozen fruits, try to defrost them and blot them dry as much as possible!

Thoughts on edibility: Wow! After an extended sabbatical from eating after dinner my family and I were so excited to dive into this cake. Moments after the first slice the kitchen table was silent as everyone’s taste buds sank into the bliss of the Hummingbird Cake! My mom commented that the actual cake is very similar to that of carrot cake. Dad didn’t really say much till his plate was empty. And I personally think that this cream cheese frosting will be the only recipe I use for cream cheese frostings ever again! Delicious!  

Sincerely yours in baking,
Kate

Grammy's Chocolate Cookies

Dealing with equally as much separation anxiety after I left Ann Arbor, I needed to follow suit and bake with Olivia (in spirit). Ironically enough as soon as I started to break out the flour and Silpat cookie sheets Olivia texted me to say she was baking as well! So excuse the overload of posts in the next few days!

These cookies are for the chocolaholic and can be attributed to the one and only Martha Stewart. The recipe makes about 3 dozen and is to die for!

Sincerely yours in baking,
Kate

P.S. Blogspot's picture uploader is undergoing maintenance. Pictures to come soon!

The Goods:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour

¾ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt

2 cups granulated sugar

1 ¼ cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

To Do:

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.       First, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.

3.       In an electric mixing bowl, beat sugar and butter on medium speed until mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

4.       Add eggs and vanilla, and beat to combine.

5.       Reduce speed to low, and gradually add flour mixture; beat to combine.

6.       Form dough into flattened disk and chill until firm, for about an hour.

7.       Shape dough into 1 ¼ inch balls; roll each ball in sanding sugar.

8.       Place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake until set, 10-12 minutes, rotating halfway through.

9.       Transfer to rack to cool for 5 minutes.

Notes on this recipe:

We did not chill the cookies (we were too eager to eat them!!!) and they turned out just fine! So if in a rush you can skip the chilling directions.

Thoughts on edibility:

This is one of the best raw cookie dough for the ultra chocolate lover, so consuming the raw dough is an option. Naturally, you can consume these cookies in their natural baked, disc form. Or our thought was to freeze a few and use them as the perfect ends for a homemade ice cream sandwich!

Perfect Party Cake

I got home from Ann Arbor last night and naturally I am feeling separation anxiety from Ariel, Kate, and all of our other baking friends.  So the only way to remedy this sad situation is to bake!!!  There is a bakery in a neighborhood of Pittsburgh that makes my mom’s most favorite cake.  It is called the Rose in the Snow.  It is a white cake with a coconut frosting and a singular red rose in the middle.  Because I was away at the NCAA Rowing Championships during her birthday I decided to make her a belated birthday cake upon my arrival home.  We have a recipe book called Baking: From my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.  I decided to use her recipe for “The Perfect Party Cake” as my frame with a few minor adjustments.  This is a very simple cake with lemon flavoring and a lightly flavored lemon buttercream frosting which is coated in shredded coconut.  It is DELICIOUS!!!!!

Ingredients

                For the Cake

                                2 ¼ cups cake flour

                                1 TBS baking powder

                                ½ tsp salt

                                1 ¼ cups buttermilk

                                4 large egg whites

                                1 ½ cups sugar

                                2 tsp grated lemon zest

                                1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

                                ½ tsp pure lemon extract

                For the Buttercream

                                1 cup sugar

                                4 large egg whites

                                3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

                                ¼ cup fresh lemon juice

                                1 tsp pure vanilla extract

                                2 cups coconut (topping)

Directions

There are many steps to this cake so pay close attention!!

Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter 2 9-inch circular pans, line with parchment paper and butter again.  Place the 2 pans on a baking sheet.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl and mix with hands until evenly coated and fragrant.  Add the butter and mix with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy.  Beat in the lemon extract.  With the mixer on medium speed, beginning with the dry ingredients add the dry and wet ingredients, alternating.  Continuing mixing until smooth and well blended.

Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth off the top with a rubber spatula.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until springy and a knife comes out clean.  Place on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, remove cake from the pans, and remove paper liners.  Allow to fully cool on the cooling rack. 

Combine the sugar and egg whites in a heat proof mixer bowl.  Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk continuously for about 3 minutes or until it is a melted marshmallow like consistency.  Attach the whisk attachment to your mixer and beat the egg and sugar mixture on a medium speed until it is completely cooled, approximately 10 minutes.  Switch to the paddle attachment and add the sticks of butter one and a time.  Be sure it is completely blended between sticks.  Next add the lemon juice and then the vanilla.  Continue to blend until it is completely blended, about 10 minutes.

To assemble the cake use a serrated knife and slice the cakes horizontally into halves.  Place one slice cut-side up on a cake plate and frost.  Do the same with the next two slices.  With the last slice place it on top cut-side down.  Thoroughly frost the entire cake.  Use the shredded coconut to coat the cake, pressing the coconut into the frosting.

ENJOY!!!