Chunky Triple Nut and Chocolate Biscotti

Despite seeing countless variations of biscotti featured on Everyday Italian, I was never inspired to make any myself until recently. The problem is that anytime I think of biscotti, I think of the rock hard, tasteless stuff that shows up in places like Starbucks. However, I finally decided to try it out the other day after I saw Gina DePalma, a pastry chef from Babbo, do a demo of the Mosaic Biscotti recipe from her new book.

I loved listening to Gina tell her story. She seemed very genuine, talking about herself and her career openly and with a sense of humor. She is obviously passionate about food, and her approach to cooking emphasizes tradition, attention to detail, and quality ingredients.

One thing I thought was interesting is that she stressed the importance of whisking together the dry ingredients before adding them to the wet ingredients. When I bake I'm always tempted to skip this step because I'm never sure how necessary it is, so it was nice to hear an opinion on that from someone as experienced as her.

Gina talked about how she got into the food business and how she started culinary school intending to become a chef, falling into the pastry side of things when she did an internship and found that she really enjoyed it. She said that she thinks this background helps her as a pastry chef since it's important to understand the savory aspects of a menu to do the dessert part well. I think that makes a lot of sense, and I would imagine that this might help her to be more creative with flavor combinations in her desserts.

As a slight tangent, could someone please explain why there is such a rigid division between being a pastry chef and a chef? If you watch shows like Top Chef, you'll know what I mean - the downfall of several of the very talented chefs on that show has been a dessert that they threw together with the disclaimer "I am not a pastry chef". It seems like a well rounded chef ought to be able to do both, so it doesn't really make sense to me that there is such a separation between the two specialties.

Anyway, back to biscotti. I followed Gina's biscotti recipe exactly, except I changed the types of nuts in the biscotti and used three different kinds of nuts instead of two. The quantity of nuts and chocolate in this biscotti astounded me. When you get the dough mixed together, there's very little dough to actually hold all of the filler together. I think that's what makes it so good - the result is chunky, chocolaty, and packed with nuts.

Biscotti is actually just one big cookie, baked in a long log and then cut into slices and baked again. It's actually easier than making regular cookies in a way, since you don't have to portion the dough for each cookie. Another great thing about biscotti is that it keeps for a long time. These should be good for at least 2 weeks.

Chunky Triple Nut and Chocolate Biscotti
based on Mosaic Biscotti from Dolce Italiano

For the biscotti:
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk, reserve the egg white for the glaze
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 ounces chocolate, coarsely chopped, whatever type you prefer, I used 4 ounces of bittersweet and 2 ounces of semi-sweet
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

For the glaze:
1 egg white, reserved from above
3/4 Tbsp sugar

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir so that the salt and baking powder are evenly distributed.

In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla extract on medium speed for several minutes, until well combined. Change the speed of the mixer to low and add the dry ingredients gradually, allowing each portion to incorporate before adding more.

Add the chocolate and nuts and stir in by hand. Place the dough onto a cookie sheet that is lined with a silpat or greased. Form a long log that runs the length of the cookie sheet, about 4 inches wide and 1-2 inches high. The dough will be pretty sticky, so you might want to flour your hands before forming the logs to make it easier, and prepare to get messy.

Lightly beat the reserved egg white to break it up a little (Gina says you just want to break up the protein a bit) and brush the top of the log with it. Then sprinkle granulated sugar on top.

Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes until lightly brown and firm to the touch.

Wait for it to cool completely, about an hour. Then use a serrated knife to cut into slices, on a slight diagonal, to form individual cookies. I like the slices to be about 1/2 inch wide, but you can personalize this to whatever you like.

Put the slices back on the baking sheet and bake at 200 degrees until the biscotti dries out a bit and is a little crisp to the touch, about 25 minutes.

Spicy Fennel Cupcakes with Date Buttercream Icing

I came up with the idea for these cupcakes when I saw the theme of this cupcake roundup: "Re-Invention". I had just made the lamb tagine, and when I saw the theme it occurred to me that the date and fennel flavors in the tagine might actually translate well to a dessert. If you've been following my blog, you'll recall that the first time I experimented with a baking recipe wasn't that long ago. So, I approached the project of creating my own cupcake recipe with excitement and a bit of trepidation.

I began by doing a little research online to find out what mix of ingredients is usually used as a base for cupcakes. I discovered that most recipes have a similar proportion of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, so I started out with that base as well. Since I love the spicy/sweet contrast of the tagine, I wanted that flavor to resonate in the cupcakes. To achieve this contrast, I decided to put fennel in the cake part, with some of the tagine spices, and to use the dates to enhance the sweet flavor of the icing.

I ended up trying this cupcake recipe 3 times before settling on a version that I liked. You may think I'm crazy, but one of the biggest surprises to me was that none of the tries actually flopped! I mean, I was always taught that you need to be very careful about measuring everything when you bake, but the more I experiment the more I realize that you can play around with many of the ingredients without compromising the end result.

The biggest challenge for me in making this recipe was creating the flavor profile that I wanted. For example, a decision I struggled with was which spices I should add to the cake. Ginger and cinnamon seemed like obvious choices, as they are commonly found in Moroccan food, and they are also often used in sweet recipes. I was pretty hesitant at first with spices like coriander and cumin, since I wasn't really sure they belonged in a dessert. However, I ended up increasing the amount of these spices as I tested the recipe, since I found that they made the final product really unique and spicy.

Another important decision was how to incorporate the fennel and date into the cupcake. One of the things I've heard about fennel is that roasting it can really bring out the flavor, so I decided to roast the fennel before adding it to the cupcake. I pureed the fennel in a bit of milk, which helped to incorporate it into the cupcake. For the date, I didn't want the peel to interfere with the smooth texture of the icing, so I ended up making a date puree.

One idea I had didn't work. You guessed it - I tried throwing some cilantro into the cake. Unfortunately, I found that the baking process dilutes the flavor to the point where you can't even taste the cilantro anymore, so I removed it from the recipe.

I think the color of these cupcakes could use some work. However, overall I was very pleased with the result of my first very own cupcake recipe!

Spicy Fennel Cupcakes with Date Buttercream Icing
(makes 12 cupcakes)

For the fennel cake:
2 fennel bulbs, about 1 1/2 cups after roasting
olive oil, enough to coat the fennel before roasting
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon

For the icing:
5-6 dates, chopped into large pieces, about 1/2 cup after chopping
1/4 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
1 stick butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners sugar, or less if you don't like very sweet icing
1/2 tsp vanilla

First, roast the fennel. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop the fennel bulb in half and then into chunks about 1/2 inch thick. Place on a baking pan and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Mix to fully coat in olive oil. Cook for 15-20 minutes, turning the fennel pieces over halfway through, until the fennel is soft and beginning to brown.

After the fennel cools, it needs to be chopped before adding to the cupcakes. Put the fennel in a food processor and pulse it several times while adding the milk. If you don't have a food processor, you can also chop by hand.

While the fennel is cooling, begin the batter for the cupcakes. Mix the butter and sugar and beat on high speed for a couple of minutes, until the butter begins to lighten in color and the texture becomes smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until fully combined.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees for the cupcakes.

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices in a separate bowl. On low speed, add the dry ingredients to the batter, mixing until just combined. Now add the fennel and milk mixture, stirring until just combined.

Use an ice cream scoop to portion the batter into 12 cupcakes. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the icing, first make the date puree. Put the chopped dates, water, and cinnamon stick in a small pot. Cook over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until the dates begin to break down and fall apart. Set aside to cool.

For the icing, combine the butter, confectioners sugar, and vanilla and beat on high speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy, stopping a couple of times to wipe down the sides of the bowl.

After the date mixture is cool, pass the mixture through a sieve. You should end up with about 1/3 cup of date puree that passes through the sieve. Add the date puree to the icing and stir just until combined.

After the cupcakes cool, ice them and enjoy!