Good evening my lovelies, let's get straight into this and hands up who is excited for the return of the Great British Bake Off tonight - me, yes please thank you kindly as I immediately jump into the air. As I mentioned in a previous blog post this is the second episode in my baking series which is inspired by The Great British Bake Off which I have inspirationally named "The Great Blogging Bake Off. Each week I will be attempting the signature challenge from each episode. It's bread week next week so God help me with that one. I've never been one for bread making and I believe that there are two main reasons for this. One - I have more of a sweet tooth and two - I literally have no patience so waiting hours and hours for bread to prove is just simply boring for me, yes I know how bad that sounds. So when it comes to bread week I don't have high expectations for the finished result, instead it will be more of a light hearted attempt where I won't take myself too seriously. Last week was biscuit week which featured the bakers attempting biscotti. I was really pleased with this weeks bake as I have never made biscotti before so I was keen for a challenge and to try something new. It also gave me and my Mum an excuse to go to Costa and buy some almond biscotti to try accompanied with some caramel cappuccinos. Not that we need an excuse mind as I'm pretty sure I go to Costa at least two or three times a week but hey ho, you only live once. Also, I had never eaten biscotti before so at least now I know what it's supposed to taste like anyway.
Biscotti is an Italian biscuit which has a crispy, hard appearance and texture yet it still manages to crumble and melt in the mouth. I would also throughly recommend a biscotti with a large mug or bowl of coffee as they are great for dunking, biscuits and coffee puts a whole new spin on tea and biscuits. The biscotti are also twice baked which gives them their firmer texture. After watching the programme I came up with so many different ideas for different recipes and flavour combinations that I found it challenging to narrow it down to one. So difficult I ended up baking two different yet similar types of biscotti. The base mix was coconut and white chocolate yet one batch contains cherries added and the other have lime. Biscotti is traditionally flavoured by almonds or many dried fruit and nut combinations such as pistachio and cranberry so I thought I would stick to this by choosing a fruit and nut to form the core ingredients. The white chocolate was a spontaneous addition as I was inspired by the way the bakers dipped their biscotti in chocolate and seeing as white chocolate is my favourite type of chocolate it just gives me an excuse for some further indulgence.
Ingredients
250g plain flour
220g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
100g desiccated coconut
200g white chocolate
Coconut, White Chocolate and Lime: zest of 1 lime (if a whole batch then the zest of 2 limes)
Coconut, White Chocolate and Cherry: 70g glacier cherries, I used French Morello cherries as I prefer the sweeter flavour of these and I find them less artificial (if a whole batch then use 125g)
Method
1) Preheat the oven to 160°C/ Gas mark 3 and line two baking trays
2) Mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl
3) Beat your eggs together and gradually add the eggs to your flour mixture to form a dough
4) Stir in the coconut and divide your mixtures in half for the two separate flavours. If only baking one of the recipes then you won't need to divide your mixture in half
5) For the cherry biscotti, cut up the cherries finely for your chosen texture. To be honest I just randomly chopped the cherries into chunks I wasn't the least bit precise. Once you have chopped your cherries add them to one of the doughs and mix into the dough
6) For the lime biscotti, grate the zest of one lime into the other dough and mix, working the lime into the dough
7) Place the dough on a baking tray leaving you with two 'logs'. If you are only making one variation you will need to split the dough in half at this point so you will also be left with two logs
8) Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden brown
9) Remove the biscotti and allow to cool for just under 5 minutes before slicing the biscotti into 'sticks' which are roughly 1 - 2cm in thickness
10) Turn the biscotti on their sides and return to the oven to bake for a further 5 minutes
11) Remove the biscotti and turn the biscuits onto their over side so they are still sideways on and bake for a final 5 minutes. This will firm the biscotti giving them their crunchy texture
12) Remove the biscotti from the oven and allow to cool by transferring to a wire wrack
13) Once completely cooled, break up your white chocolate into a heat proof bowl and melt the chocolate. I did this by heating a pan of water without boiling it and placing the bowl containing the white chocolate on top of the pan
14) Dip your biscotti into the chocolate, I did this on the longest, bottom side of the biscuits but another way you could do this is by dipping one of the ends into the chocolate. What ever floats your boat to be honest with you
15) Return the biscotti to the wire wrack to set the chocolate in place
16) Boil the kettle and make yourself a strong cup of coffee, sit back and relax with a biscotti or two or three. Perhaps you could read a book or do what I'm going to do and stick the Bake Off on at 8pm tonight for bread week
I hope you enjoyed this blog post my lovelies. Let me know in the comments if you attempted either of these recipes and how it went. I would also love to know if you have any good recipes that you would recommend for biscotti. Although biscotti are quite dry they are still really light making them a joy to eat and I would throughly recommend that you give these a go. I was pleasantly suprosed by these and they are very addictive which isn't a bad thing in my opinion. I shall see you next week for bread week 'gulps loudly' wish me luck. I will soon be tucking into one or maybe two of these with a strong coffee to enjoy tonights episode, less then an hour to go 'hyperventilates a little'.
Week one: Cakes: Raspberry And Almond Madeira Cake
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