So why, do you ask, am I posting? Well, I’m certainly not throwing an internet-wide pity party (that’s for sure!). I’m posting because, in the spirit of celebrating birthdays, I was quite the busy baker.
This past weekend was my father’s birthday! Remember we had been talking about biscotti? Why, why haven’t I baked more biscotti since Christmas? How could I be so cruel not to make more biscotti? Oh, I’m such a horrible daughter!
You can imagine the shock (followed by happiness) that greeted the biscotti that I baked up as a gift. That is one thing that I must say I adore about baking; you can always bake to your heart’s content and then give the results as gifts!
I didn’t, however, just stop at cookies. A good birthday has cookies. A great birthday calls for cake! Apple cake as a matter of fact.
Long story short, the coconut biscotti went over really very well. I should probably mention that I never actually got to eat one of the biscotti. Don’t get me wrong, I totally munched on the crumbs on the baking sheet, but it seemed cruel to eat part of a batch of cookies that I intended to give as a gift. That’d be like opening the packaging of something before giving it away (in my opinion). I fully intended to swipe one after they were opened though. My dad, however, hid the tin and refused to share. And you can’t guilt someone out of something that you gave them! Gah!
I can say that the apple cake turned out absolutely lovely. I give fully credit to my mandolin. That little sucker is the newest addition to my arsenal of … random kitchen gadgets that I have always sort of wanted. Next up, I dream of pizzelle maker.
Before I wrap this up completely, its probably worth mentioning that a student in our lab also had his birthday this week but 'didn't want to make a big deal about it and bother people'. I mean, I can relate, but only because I really have a jar full of hate for my birthday; that majority of them over the years have been, shall we say, of a less-than-stellar nature. But I digress. Long story short, I cranked up the oven late at night to bake him a batch of short-cut cookies. Is there nothing that Quaker Oat's Oatmeal Cookie Mix can't fix? ^__^
Oh, I should also mention, because I rambled so much, I hid the recipes behind a cut. I didn’t want to be a spammer. My bad!
Coconut Biscotti
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| Behold, finally! Coconut-y crunchy goodness that is perfect for munching with (or without) coffee (or warm milk). If you don't like the whole coffee thing, they might work with some tea. Maybe a citrus tea that is refreshing? I wouldn't know what to pair it with seeing as how my dad ran off with the flipping tin. However, given their success, I highly doubt it will be the last time that I will have the opportunity! ^_^ |
What You’ll Need:
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg (You know what? In typing this out to you guys, I thought about it and I can’t remember if I added the nutmeg. It has a checkmark so I’m pretty sure that it was there. My confidence interval on that is pretty high; I like my checkmarks. With or without, I can’t say, but there were no complaints either way.)
- 1/4 cup palm sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (You know, the Plain Jane stuff that you find everywhere.)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs (I pull them out right at the beginning and just let them hangout on the counter until I’m ready to use ‘em.)
- 1 cup dessicated, unsweetened coconut
How It’s Done:
- Preheat the oven to 300F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Measure out the flours by spooning it into the measuring cups and levelling off with a knife.
- Dump the flour into a mixing bowl, add in the baking powder, salt, baking soda and nutmeg and whisk them all up to make sure they’re even.
- Place the sugars, vanilla and eggs into a bowl and beat with a mixer at medium speed for about 2 minutes or until thick. (I just beat it until it looked like it had puffed up and was more thick than it was runny or gritty.)
- Add the flour mixture and mix until incorporated.
- Mix in the coconut until all of it is just together. (I won’t lie to you about this one, the dough was really quite sticky and I was a doubtful Debbie that these were going to turn out. I mean, they were going to turn out regardless because I was going to make them work for my Dad’s birthday. You know what, this is irrelevant because they turned out. Moving on… <_<;;; )
- Turn the dough out onto a surface that has a pretty solid amount of flour.
- Knead 9-10 times. (At first it’s going to be sticky and stuff, but after you’re done it shouldn’t be sticky and should be pretty okay to handle. As an extra precaution, make sure that your hands are dry and that you rub some flour between them first. Then you should be good to go.)
- Shape the dough into a log.
- Transfer the log to the baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Pat down the center so that the entire log is about 1-inch thick. (If its thicker, the middle might not cook properly. Now, that isn’t much of a problem save for it might be a little tricky to cut and the end result might not be super crunchy. I’ve done it when I made cherry-almond-dark chocolate biscotti for my sister’s biology project and none of them came back. Just saying.)
- Slide the log into the oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown. (I took this a step further and actually toothpick-tested it until it came out clean then yanked it.)
- Let the log cook completely then, using a bread knife (or one with teeth), cut the log into 1/2-inch slices. (Okay, I don’t have a bread knife so I used a flat blade. It still works, but you have to be a little bit more cautious not to cause the harder shell on the outside to chip off!)
- Stand the slices upright on the baking sheet and bake for another 20 minutes (at the same temperature) to give the biscotti their famed crunchiness. (If you stand them up, you totally don’t have to flip them half-way through and they cook evenly. How awesome is that?)
- Yank ‘em out after 20 minutes and let them chill out on a wire rack.
- When they’re all done, you can store them in a tin or proceed directly to coffee/milk dunking. Enjoy!
This recipe was adapted from the great folks over at Cooking Light. The original recipe is only a click away! They don’t use palm sugar but, as I had some left over from a previous baking adventure (of a selfish nature, remember?), I thought it might take that coconut flavour a little bit further. Shredded whiteness, ftw!
Spiced Apple Cake
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| Mmm... As you can see, this turned out pretty good! The cake was soft, moist and light (which may be tricky to see from the photo) and the apples were cut thinly enough that they were tender but held their own. For doing this, I used some faithful Royal Gala that I picked up at the farmer's market. I ate the rest of them and, after this recipe, only one remained... And not for long... |
What You’ll Need:
For the goods:
- 1/2 cup of butter, room temperature (I just let it hang out on the counter and, just to soften it a bit more, I let the butter hang out on the stove while it was warming up.)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs, separated*
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 2 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced (Trust me, two apples is plenty. Also, if you have a mandolin, take this as an opportunity to break it out! A knife works, too, so no worries!)
*Separating eggs: Everyone has their own method to doing this (including some invention that does it for you that my mother failed to mention ever). Personally, I like the ‘break-the-egg-into-your-hand-and-use-your-fingers’ method to ‘hold’ the yolk so to speak. You could also play the ‘transfer-the-yolk’ game, but this requires some skill with egg cracking. In the end, though, have fun!
For the Oat Topping:
- 1/2 cup quick oats
- 2 tbsp margarine
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp palm sugar
How It’s Done:
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Line a 8x8 square baking dish with aluminum foil. (You could probably use an oiled spring-form too, I just like the aluminum because I don’t have a spring-form and the foil lets me lift it right out.)
- In a big bowl, cream butter and sugar until the mixture is a lighter yellow color and, overall, fluffy in appearance.
- Add in the egg yolks, vanilla and yogurt, mixing until the dough is homogenous.
- Add the flour in about three portions (enough to coat the surface of the dough each time) and mix it in by folding. (I topped off my mixing by running the electric mixer around a bit and then scraped with a spatula. I basically through all mixing techniques I could at it. It wasn’t runny after I was done, so the mixing was a little tricky!)
- In another bowl, beat the egg whites until you have stiff peaks. (Basically when you pull the mixer/whisk out, it leaves a nice white peak in its wake. Probably difficult to imagine, but you’ll know it when you see it.)
- Fold half of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it up.
- Mix in remaining egg whites.
- Fold in the apple slices. (Mandolin, ftw. Okay, that will be the last time I say it. Well, the last time I say it in this post. I think that’s more reasonable.)
- Prepare the oat crumble by putting all the ingredients in a small dish and mixing them thoroughly. (I totally unleashed my inner four-year-old and did it with my fingers!)
- Pour the batter into the aluminum-foiled dish.
- Top it off with the oat topping.
- Bake for 50 minutes (or until the cake is golden brown and the toothpick test only gives you a bit of the crumbles).
- Cool on a wire rack.
This recipe was adapted from Nicole’s recipe for ‘Breton Apple Cake’ over on Baking Bites. As far as baking blogs go, Baking Bites is one of the oldest ones that I still read. Its chock full of reviews for baking tools (most of which I may never own, but I still very much like to imagine using for one purpose or another), recipes and… you remember those Chai Snickerdoodles that I was yammering on about before. Yeah, that one is all Nicole’s recipe. Every single yummy time!
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