I absolutely loved making Biscotti when I made them for the first time a few weeks ago and they got rave reviews amongst my family and friends! I have been looking forward to making them again but this time I wanted to experiment with my own flavours rather than use Paul Hollywood's again but I still used his biscotti base - I'm not brave enough to mess with perfection! I popped down to my local Eco Store to fill up on ingredients and from there I settled on Pineapple & Coconut (a request from my good friend Nichola!) and Apricot, Pecan & Ginger. I am so pleased with how they turned out, they are still vary in line with a classic biscotti, you get a pinch of warmth from the ginger, sweetness from the apricots and crunch from the pecans. I think I prefer the pineapple & coconut in terms of variation but this is a lovely spin on a more traditional flavour and I will log this one down in my recipe file.
Ingredients
For the Biscotti Base...
250g Plain Flour (30g extra for chocolate biscotti)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
250g Caster Sugar
2-3 Eggs (beaten)
For the flavouring...
200g Pecans Chopped
125g Chopped Dried Apricots
1 tsp Ground Ginger
How To Make
1. Heat your oven to 140'c and line a baking tray with baking paper. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together in a bowl. Stir in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding more, you may not need all your egg. Continue until you have a firm dough, your dough should not be sticky.
2. Now add the ginger, apricots and pecans and mix by hand until thoroughly combined.
3. Once you have added you flavourings, turn your biscotti dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently before dividing in half.
4. Roll each piece of dough into a long log, about 4cm in diameter. Place both logs on the baking tray about 5cm apart. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
5. Leave the logs to cool on the tray for 10 minutes to allow the dough to firm up slightly and then transfer to a board. Cut the logs, on the diagonal, into 2-3cm thick slices.
6. Place the slices, cut side up, back on the baking tray. return to the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the biscotti are are dry through to the middle, turning them over halfway through.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
I absolutely loved making Biscotti when I made them for the first time a few weeks ago and they got rave reviews amongst my family and friends! I have been looking forward to making them again but this time I wanted to experiment with my own flavours rather than use Paul Hollywood's again but I still used his biscotti base - I'm not brave enough to mess with perfection! I popped down to my local Eco Store to fill up on ingredients and from there I settled on Pineapple & Coconut (a request from my good friend Nichola!) and Apricot, Pecan & Ginger. I am so pleased with how they turned out, they are still the same classic crisp, nutty biscotti that we all love but with a refreshing tropical flavour which comes from the coconut and sweetness from the pineapple. I am definitely logging this one down in my recipe file.
Ingredients
For the Biscotti Base...
250g Plain Flour (30g extra for chocolate biscotti)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
250g Caster Sugar
2-3 Eggs (beaten)
For the flavouring...
150g Desiccated Coconut
125g Dried Chopped Pineapple
1 tsp Coconut Extract
How To Make
1. Heat your oven to 140'c and line a baking tray with baking paper. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together in a bowl. Stir in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding more, you may not need all your egg. Continue until you have a firm dough, your dough should not be sticky.
2. Now add the pineapple, coconut and coconut extract and mix by hand until thoroughly combined.
3. Once you have added you flavourings, turn your biscotti dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently before dividing in half.
4. Roll each piece of dough into a long log, about 4cm in diameter. Place both logs on the baking tray about 5cm apart. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
5. Leave the logs to cool on the tray for 10 minutes to allow the dough to firm up slightly and then transfer to a board. Cut the logs, on the diagonal, into 2-3cm thick slices.
6. Place the slices, cut side up, back on the baking tray. return to the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the biscotti are are dry through to the middle, turning them over halfway through.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
I have never made Biscotti before, I have heard they are notoriously hard to make and I guess this put me off before. But on lockdown, apart from being with my boys 24/7, I have had a lot of time to look over recipes and decided I would give it a go because I love a biscotti, especially with a cup of coffee! I settled on a recipe by the King of bread himself - Paul Hollywood.This recipe is from his book "Bread". I decided to make two different batches so that if I messed up the first one I had a back up batch! I chose Pistachio & Cranberry for one and Chocolate, Orange and Almond for the other. I needn't have worried about them going wrong because both came out great - I did worry that my first dough was too sticky, Paul states that the dough "shouldn't be at all sticky", and I tried adding extra flour to no avail.But upon baking they turned out absolutely fine. I would say they are fairly simple to make, you just need to take it slowly and also set aside most of a morning or afternoon to make them but its worth it and I would definitely make them again! This recipe makes 1 batch but I have included the ingredients for both flavours.
Ingredients
For the Biscotti Base...
250g Plain Flour (30g extra for chocolate biscotti)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
250g Caster Sugar
2-3 Eggs (beaten)
For Pistachio & Cranberry Flavour...
220g Shelled Pistachios
125g Dried Cranberries
Finely Grated Zest of 1 Lemon
For Chocolate, Almond & Orange Flavour...
50g Dark Chocolate
135g Blanched Almonds
50g Chocolate Chips
Finely Grated Zest of 1 Orange
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
How To Make
1. Heat your oven to 140'c and line a baking tray with baking paper. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together in a bowl. Stir in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding more, you may not need all your egg. Continue until you have a firm dough, your dough should not be sticky. If you are making chocolate Biscotti add the extra flour now.
2. Now add your chosen flavouring...
For Pistachio & Cranberry Biscotti, roughly chop the nuts and add everything to the biscotti dough. Mix by hand until everything is incorporated.
For Chocolate, Orange & Almond, melt the chocolate and then cool until tepid. Roughly chop the almonds. Add the melted mixture to the biscotti dough and stir until evenly incorporated. Bring the mixture together to form a dough and then add the almonds, orange zest, vanilla extract and chocolate chips. Mix with your hands until well combined.
3. Once you have added you flavourings, turn your biscotti dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently before dividing in half.
4. Roll each piece of dough into a long log, about 4cm in diameter. Place both logs on the baking tray about 5cm apart. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
5. Leave the logs to cool on the tray for 10 minutes to allow the dough to firm up slightly and then transfer to a board. Cut the logs, on the diagonal, into 2-3cm thick slices.
6. Place the slices, cut side up, back on the baking tray. return to the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the biscotti are are dry through to the middle, turning them over halfway through.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Ah the simple scone! Whether you believe it is jam first and then cream (me!) or cream and then jam, you just can't beat tucking into a freshly baked, warm out of the oven scone topped with sweet strawberry jam and a dollop of clotted cream...heaven! My sister is amazing at making scones and she uses this simple recipe from Good Housekeeping and it never fails. I recently got the nudge to make a batch by my friend Kirsty who, upon seeing a post on Facebook about how the Queen takes her scones, reminded me about how we were totally out voted at a Christmas meal by the our friends and other halves during a discussion about scones because they all say that it is cream first and the jam. Well it turns out Her Majesty agrees with Kirsty and I! Whoop! Anyway, I couldn't stop thinking about scones and, seeing as they are my Hubby's favourite too, I decided to make a double batch so were half plain and half were raisin and sultana. This recipe makes 8 scones.
Ingredients
8oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
40g Butter (salted)
1/4 pint of Milk (plus extra to glaze)
50g Dried fruit - sultanas, raisins, currants etc (if doing fruit scones)
How To Make
1. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture so it resembles fine breadcrumbs. If doing fruit scones add your fruit now and stir through.
2. Stir through the milk, using a knife, to give a fairly soft dough. Gently roll out the dough, on a lightly floured surface, to about 2cm thick. Then cut out into rounds using a 6cm cutter.
3. Place on a greased baking sheet and brush the top with some milk. Bake at 200'c for about 10 minutes until well risen and golden. Transfer to a rack to cool.
4. Serve warm, split and filled with jam and clotted cream.
I am not a fan of breakfast, I used to not be able to function without a bowl of cereal before I had kids but now I can't face it. Plus I have been finding I don't have time to sit and eat, as bad as that sounds.My husband often has shop-brought granola with milk for breakfast and has recently started buying the yoghurts with granola on top, which I quite enjoy and so I decided to maybe try and make my own granola to get me into the habit of having breakfast again. I googled lots of recipes for ideas as to what to include and it's so versatile! You can pretty much add any combination of fruit, seeds and nuts that you like. So I popped to our local Eco Store to top up on what I needed and set to work.For my first batch I used pecans, walnuts and peanuts plus apricots, apple rings, pears and raisins for dried fruit. Since then I have made it with banana chips, papaya, pineapple, sultanas, cashews, pistachios...you name it! It is fabulously easy to make and very tasty and satisfying served with yoghurt and honey for breakfast (the recommended portion of granola is 45g). Once made, the granola keeps in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.
Ingredients
200g Porridge Oats
120g Mixed Nuts
120g Mixed Seeds
120g Desiccated Coconut
250g Dried Mixed Fruit
4 tbsp Olive Oil
6 tbsp Maple Syrup
1 tsp Cinnamon
How To Make
1. In a large bowl mix together the porridge oats, nuts, seeds and coconut. Then stir through the oil,cinnamon and maple syrup.
2. Spread out onto a baking tray and pop in the oven at 200'c for 20 minutes. Give the granola a stir every 5 minutes to prevent bits getting too crisp.
3. Once toasted, remove from the oven and stir through the fruit giving it a good mix up. Leave it to cool and then store in a jar or container. Serve with milk or yoghurt and honey.
