As you can read from the title, I had the privilege to cook not once, but twice this week. Of course, only one dish was a full meal (I bet you can't guess which one I'm talking about, she says in a sarcastic voice). The other was just a treat I baked for my younger sister's 21st birthday, a very important and exciting milestone for her of which she has not hesitated to take advantage. But I digress (again). I'd say that both cooking experiences went over well, particularly the chicken bake. In fact, I must inform you at the outset that I was not able to get a picture of the finished dish because we ate it so fast that I really didn't have time. Oops...
I guess it's just been a good week all around, you know?
I'll start with the pistachio white chocolate biscotti, another recipe from the Baking Basics and Beyond baking book (try saying that five times fast) I used to make last week's calzones. I'd say that making biscotti is pretty easy. The hardest part is being patient about the cooking times, which can vary widely. It is important to bake the cookies long enough the second time so that nothing comes out gooey in the middle. Biscotti should have a nice crunch when finished, not a softness like a regular cookie or biscuit.
Here is the recipe as cited on http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/pistachio-biscotti (also found on pages 125-127 of the cookbook):
Ingredients
- "2 cups (242 g) all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (5 mL) baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon (1.25 mL) salt
- ¼ cup (57 g) butter, softened [mine was cold, so I heated it for 15-20 seconds on 50% power, but I think it would be better to take it out of the fridge ahead of time so that it's near room temperature when you are ready to use it]
- ¾ cup (171 g) firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ½ cup chopped pistachio nuts [It's okay if you get some skin with them; I seriously think you'll live if you do.]
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.
3. Beat butter and brown sugar in bowl of a heavy-duty mixer on Medium-High speed until creamy, scraping down sides of bowl once or twice. [It's okay here if you just have a fine mixture of even crumbs and not a completely "creamy," emulsified mixture.] Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating after each, and scrape down sides of bowl once or twice.
4. Reduce mixer speed to Low speed and add the flour mixture. Scrape down sides of bowl and beat until dough forms. By hand, stir in pistachios and white chocolate chips.
5. Gather dough together on lightly floured work surface and divide in half. If dough is slightly sticky, dust you hands with flour. Shape each half into a 12-inch log and place on prepared cooking sheet, about 4 inches apart [this keeps the logs from touching when they expand yet also leaves room for air and heat to circulate freely around the logs]. Flatten logs slightly. [My logs were only about eight inches long, which turned out to be okay.]
6. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until firm to the touch [how you'd expect a regular cookie to feel when it's done]. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F (150°C). Allow logs to cool 15 minutes [this allows them to set and make slicing easier]. Slice logs diagonally into ¾-inch (2-cm) slices. Return slices to the cookie sheet.
7. Bake 8 to 12 minutes longer or until lightly browned, turning slices over once to toast second side [I had to go more like 11 minutes on each side for a total of 22 more minutes, but I explain more about that in the Notes section]. Cool on wire cooling rack. Store tightly covered."
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.
3. Beat butter and brown sugar in bowl of a heavy-duty mixer on Medium-High speed until creamy, scraping down sides of bowl once or twice. [It's okay here if you just have a fine mixture of even crumbs and not a completely "creamy," emulsified mixture.] Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating after each, and scrape down sides of bowl once or twice.
4. Reduce mixer speed to Low speed and add the flour mixture. Scrape down sides of bowl and beat until dough forms. By hand, stir in pistachios and white chocolate chips.
5. Gather dough together on lightly floured work surface and divide in half. If dough is slightly sticky, dust you hands with flour. Shape each half into a 12-inch log and place on prepared cooking sheet, about 4 inches apart [this keeps the logs from touching when they expand yet also leaves room for air and heat to circulate freely around the logs]. Flatten logs slightly. [My logs were only about eight inches long, which turned out to be okay.]
6. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until firm to the touch [how you'd expect a regular cookie to feel when it's done]. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F (150°C). Allow logs to cool 15 minutes [this allows them to set and make slicing easier]. Slice logs diagonally into ¾-inch (2-cm) slices. Return slices to the cookie sheet.
7. Bake 8 to 12 minutes longer or until lightly browned, turning slices over once to toast second side [I had to go more like 11 minutes on each side for a total of 22 more minutes, but I explain more about that in the Notes section]. Cool on wire cooling rack. Store tightly covered."
Notes: First, this recipe took me close to two hours to make. Secondly, because this is baking and not just cooking, you need to be pretty exact about amounts and not deviate too much from the listed ingredients unless you are fairly confident in your ability to swap liquids or dry ingredients. (I'm not.) If you would like, however, I think you could use any nut-chocolate combination or nut-chip combination (like walnut and butterscotch chips) as long as you keep the amounts the same. Another important note is that I only got 18 biscotti out of this recipe instead of the intended 30-36, so if you want closer to that number, I think you should slice the biscotti thinner than I did (I tried to eyeball 3/4 of an inch, but maybe my sight's not as good as I think it is). Thinner slicing may make the baking time closer to how it should be, too, though, so that's an advantage. The finished product here was a little soft on the top, but after sitting for about 30 minutes, the biscotti started to harden more (and they'll do so as they sit in the container, too, so this is one of those nice recipes where the food gets better as it gets "older" and just slightly--but not overly--stale). However, I might suggest placing the biscotti about two inches apart from one another on the baking sheet to allow adequate air and heat flow. In other words, don't crowd them. They don't like it and get crabby easily, just like us. You could also try spinning the baking sheet every now and then if your oven cooks unevenly, as mine does. In addition, don't feel bad about taking the biscotti out in batches. That is, if a few are done and others are not, take the "done" ones out and continue baking the ones that need more time. Although the recipe calls for using a heavy-duty mixer to combine the ingredients, I found that a simple handheld mixer on low to medium works just great. Pat Sinclair, the author of the book, urges using in-shell pistachios rather than already-shelled pistachios. Although it takes more time to shell the pistachios yourself, I think the end product is better. Also, for you novice chefs out there, anytime you are using flour, you should wear an apron (I learned this the hard way). Don't let my flour-dusted shirts be in vain!
Wow. That was a long Notes section. Congratulations on making it all the way through! Now for some evaluation of the food itself.
Apart from the waiting being tedious, I adore this recipe. The biscotti are simply to die for, and I picked this for my sister because she doesn't like cake (I never said she was normal, now did I?). The pistachio flavor is not overpowering, even though there are plenty of them in the dough. Furthermore, you get a lot of great white chocolate in every bite, which is deliciously satisfying. In short, we all loved them. Although we ate them dunked in milk, I think they would be great dipped in coffee or cream tea (that's tea with cream and sugar mixed in). You could also dip the biscotti in melted chocolate and then cool them or drizzle melted chocolate over the top when they are finished, but that's just an add-on if you feel it's something that would float your boat. Anywho, this was another recipe that I really just had a lot of fun making. Baking is very relaxing for me because it usually involves a warm oven and very aromatic and comforting ingredients like butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, etc. Needless to say that making these biscotti really helped relieve some work-related stress I've been feeling lately.
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| These are the logs of biscotti dough after the first trip in the oven. From the logs come the oblong slices of dough that get baked a second time and form the biscotti with which we are all familiar. |
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| And these are the finished cookies! I must say I love the artistic arrangement of the biscotti in this picture. It's like organized chaos, which is really attractive for some reason (and which is also a very apt representation of my life). Photo enhanced with Instagram filtering. |
The recipe is from my Simply Quick & Easy book that I used to make the Mediterranean chicken packets from a couple of months ago (found on pages 208-209 of the cookbook).
Ingredients:
2 lbs ground chicken
1/2 large onion, chopped finely (yellow or white onion)
3 carrots, peeled and chopped finely
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
A couple of pinches of dried thyme
2 lbs potatoes, boiled and mashed with butter and cream (and a little garlic powder)--I used Yukon Golds, which were perfect, and I left the skin on because we like them that way and because that's honestly a more healthful option given that most of the nutrients in a potato lie in its skin.
3/4 cup grated hard cheese (like Parmesan; I used a pre-shredded Italian cheese blend...even the best cheat sometimes, right? Or maybe I just tell that to myself so I can sleep at night)
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine the chicken, onion, and carrots in a non-stick pan and "dry" fry for five minutes on medium-high heat (that is, don't use any butter or oil).
2. Sprinkle the mixture with the flour and simmer for two more minutes.
3. Gradually stir in the tomato paste and stock and continue to simmer for 15 more minutes. Season with thyme, salt, and pepper as you desire.
4. Spoon the mashed potatoes on top (right in the pan, since I used a pan that can be cooked right in the oven) and sprinkle the whole dish with the cheese. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the top is slightly brown and bubbly. Serve with whatever accompaniment seems best.
Notes: For your timing purposes, I would say that this dinner took me slightly under 90 minutes to make. I would suggest coordinating making this meal in the following manner: get the water for the potatoes boiling and the oven heating first, since those things can take awhile. Work on slicing and cooking the chicken and veggies while the water and oven are heating up. Once the chicken is simmering for the aforementioned 15-minute period, mash the potatoes and mix up the biscuits before popping them into the oven. Then, put the dish in the oven and work on finishing the biscuits and cooking the green beans or peas or whatever else you are serving.
I served this dish with the same cheddar biscuits I made with my black bean soup a little while ago, as well as with some green beans (just the heated version of the bagged, frozen green beans, not anything fresh from the farm or what-have-you).
This is one of the few dishes I have made that I would not change. I honestly can't think of any way to make this better than it already is. The Yukon Gold potatoes are creamy and satisfying, and the carrots add a nice sweetness to the dish. The chicken helps the dish stay light instead of being overly heavy (as I feel it might be with beef). However, if you want a heartier dish, by all means, please use beef or another ground meat that you like (options like ground venison and ground turkey come to mind; even ground pork would be a good choice, I think). Finally, the cheese adds a nice, creamy tang. As my mother recommended to me, I would tell you that you should not try to get too "fancy" with something like this. It is basic for a reason, so it is best to keep it basic. The simple things in life really are the best, and that goes for food, too.
Once again, thanks for reading, and until next time, happy eating!
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