Apricot, Pecan & Ginger Biscotti

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. 

Marbled Chocolate Teabread

Using up over ripe bananas in cakes is something I do on a regular basis as I hate to see them go to waste so it's great to have plenty of recipes up my sleeve. This recipe is from "The Bread Machine Bible by Anne Sheasby" and I have adapted it to bake in the oven. This cake is so easy to make and expertly combines sweet banana with the depth of chocolate and the warmth of ginger. The marble effect looks lovely when sliced up, the perfect accompaniment to a cuppa! I made this one for my good friend Alexandra, who is working hard on the front line during this pandemic, she is someone who loves cake but at the moment has no time to bake it. Hopefully this will go down a treat for both her and her father. 

Ingredients

175g Butter (I use Stork)

175g Light Brown Soft Sugar

3 Eggs

225g Plain Flour

2.5 tsp Baking Powder

2 Bananas (peeled and mashed with some lemon juice)

25g Cocoa Powder

2 tsp Milk

1/2 tsp Ground Ginger

How To Make

1. Preheat your oven to 170'c and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking paper. Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Then gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little flour to prevent curdling.

2. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in, mixing well. Then stir through the bananas. Place half the mixture in a separate bowl, sift over the cocoa powder and add the milk. Fold together until combined. Stir the ginger into the plain banana mixture.

3. Place alternate spoonfuls of each mixture into the loaf tin. Then, using a skewer, gently swirl it through the mixtures to create a marbled effect. bake in the oven for 45-60 minutes, until risen and a skewer comes out clean. 

4. Leave to cool in the tin and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Gingerbread Dinosaurs

My eldest son loves to bake and a couple of nights ago we read the story of the Gingerbread Man before bed and he asked me if we could make some in the morning, I never pass up the opportunity to bake with my sons and so of course I said yes! Whenever I make these biscuits I always use Mary Berry's Gingerbread Man recipe (from her Ultimate Cake Book). This is such a simple dough to make and you can use it to make traditional gingerbread men (or women) or use it to cut any shape you like - in my dino-mad sons case we used it to make Gingerbread Dinosaurs!!! My Step Dad Ian got me these awesome little cutters for Christmas and they are a must have for any dinosaur mad kid who likes to bake because they not only are a great shape and size but they have the added stencils to imprint the dinosaurs skeleton onto the cookie.This recipe makes about 20 cookies.


Ingredients

12oz Plain Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
2 tsp Ground Ginger
4oz Margerine
6oz Light Brown Sugar
4 tbsp Golden Syrup
1 Egg (beaten)

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 190'c and lightly grease 3 baking trays. Measure the flour, ginger and bicarb into a bowl. Rub in the margarine until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. 

2. Stir in the sugar and then add the beaten egg and golden syrup to the dry mixture. Mix to form a smooth dough. 

3. Divide the dough in half and roll out one half onto a lightly floured surface to about 5mm in thickness. Cut out the gingerbread dinosaurs, imprint firmly with the stencil and then transfer to the baking tray. Repeat with the remaining dough. 

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes until slightly darker and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. I decorated these by piping white glace icing into the bone imprints on the cookies.