I'm not a big baker or sweets maker. Mom was a pro. Then we have Jean, our Queen of Sweets in Cadrieu. Now, I did have great success with white chocolate bread pudding in Cadrieu one Christmas. But, you must understand that this great success followed on the heels of 3 attempts at three different pecan ball recipes, where nary a ball could be found.
Although Kat and I had hoped to make Christmas Cookies with Mom this year; it didn't happen.
What did happen at 411 this week was biscotti production. I've come to love biscotti with my morning coffee when I'm here. Even at Aldi, they are expensive. Before my last bought batch was finished; I had looked up a number of recipes on the internet. It looked easy enough. Wow, 42 biscotti per recipe.
Once I got all the ingredients together and Mom had headed back to Hidden Lake; I went to work. I was sloppy. I was a mess. (I wore black.) I opted for the food processor over the mixer, cause I couldn't get the beaters to lock in place. I was prepared for the worst...but I got the best. With two cookie sheets greased and waiting, the first batch of 2 logs included anise and lemon flavoring with crushed pecans. The second batch included anise and vanilla flavoring with crushed walnuts. I figure once you and the kitchen are a mess, you should just keep right on baking till you're all baked out! It was fun. I felt productive. I have tasty presents to accompany my potholders and I have breakfast treats for myself and some friends who will be coming up from New Orleans.
I'd learned from Rick Steves somewhere in Italy that biscotti means "twice baked". I'd always thought it was just some Italian name for these hard tasty Italian cookies, but now I know why. Feeling a little twice baked myself from 411-Happy Saturday!
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