Saturday, May 3, 2008

Bake Sale- May Edition part 1

I decided to try out a biscotti recipe this time around. Being that in general, I CAN NOT STAND the taste of almond flavored things... (amaretto? blah! plegh! kaploooey!)
I saw this recipe and thought I could give it a shot.

I was intimidated.

I had never made a loaf-like cookie before, and given my general dislike for biscotti (too hard! too almondy! is this stale??) I wasn't even sure if this was a good idea.. but alas.. gotta step outside the comfort zone.

SO I had visions of grandeur that I would chop up some walnuts or pecans to put in the cookies instead of the chocolate, then half-dip the cookies when complete in chocolate.

but. no nuts.

no mini-chips, either. so I used normal sized milk-chocolate ones.

The recipe notes that you should grease your hands before forming the rectangular-shaped dough logs, because the dough will be sticky. The idea of rubbing crisco on my hands made me vomit in my mouth a little, but after trying to just pick UP the dough, I realized that when I step out of my comfort zone.. I go for the gusto.

I smeared the crisco all over my hands, and was able to shape the dough. (of course.. I chose too small of a pan to fit the two loaves on one, so I had to shimmy the one loaf over to the center, then grease up yet ANOTHER pan, and my hands AGAIN, and form the other log. Rubbing shortening between my hands made me want to start another diet like IMMEDIATELY, btw..)


after the first round of baking, I let the loaves cool for per the recipes directions. I then cut the slices, and place on the cookie sheet again to bake/brown/dry out.

10 minutes later, I flipped them, and baked some more.

I also had some leftover chocolate from the apples I made.. so I did actually do the dip.


the final product was a nice golden color, and the taste was a pleasant surprise. not OVERLY banana-y, not TOO chocolaty, and by luck of my mistake.. it wasn't rock hard. one, because I'm sure it was still oven-fresh.. the other cause I think I didn't bake it long enough the first round in the oven. and the biggest thing... no almonds.




Lessons learned: this was a long process to undergo for a cookie I wasn't sure I would actually like. kind of a pain with the in-out-cut-in-out-flip-in-out baking. but I liked the taste. the KIDS LOVED the cookies. I think this recipe, with some educated substitutions, would make great teething cookies.... again.. only if I found a way to cut the sugar and up the fruit/fiber. might be something to work on in the future.

1 comment:

Erin said...

Good God! As if the baking and cutting and shaping wasn't bad enough, than you had to wrap them all up and decorate them?! I feel like I should have a serious hissy fit for you. Nice work though! I wish I liked decorating more.