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.
My friends all know I love to bake...they also know I love gin! So when my friend Kim saw this recipe online she tagged me in it straight away! This recipe is from The Craft Gin Club website and its very straightforward to make, like a classic lemon drizzle but with a sneaky bit of gin added in. The cake came out lovely and lemony and smelt divine! However, when it came to the drizzle it seemed so much liquid that I triple checked the recipe to make sure I was reading it correctly. I decided to omit the tonic, for fear of drowning my cake, but even without that my cake was still sat in a small puddle of liquid when I removed it from the tin after cooling and it completely overwhelmed the cake, leaving it soggy in the middle. Upon tasting I thought the cake was lovely and moist and had a lovely fresh lemony taste, with the gin adding a touch of sweetness. The general feed back was a bit like marmite - people either loved the addition of gin or they hated it but I think gin can be divisive like that anyway! I would happily make this cake again, but with HALF the liquid in the drizzle and then I think it would be spot on!
Ingredients
3 Eggs
240g Butter
240g Caster Sugar
240g Self Raising Flour
2 Lemons
200ml Gin
25ml Tonic Water (I left this out)
130g Granulated Sugar
How To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 180'c and grease and line a loaf tin. Cream together the butter and caster sugar until light, fluffy and pale.
2. Beat in the eggs and then fold in the flour and the grated zest of both lemons. Stir through 100ml of the gin and the juice of 1 lemon. Pour into your loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer test comes out clean.
3. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool while you make the drizzle. Mix the remaining gin (here I would only use about 30ml next time), tonic water, granulated sugar and the juice of the second lemon in a bowl. Prick the cake all over with a skewer and then pour over the drizzle.
4. Leave the cake to cool in the tin. Once cool and the drizzle has soaked in and the sugar crystallised on top, remove from the tin and serve!
It was my Mother-in-Law's birthday this weekend during lockdown and I knew my Father-in-Law wouldn't have been able to get out and get her a birthday cake and I most certainly knew he wouldn't have made her one! So I decided to make her one to drop off (social distancing style) outside her house. She always says that my Blueberry & Lemon Loaf is her favourite cake so it was a no brainer that I would make this one for her and my boys absolutely love making this one.This recipe is from my "Bread Machine Bible" book by Anne Sheasby and I have adapted it to bake in the oven. My Mother-in-Law is not a fan of icing at all and so I decided to stick to the lemon drizzle icing but I did write "Happy Birthday" across some white chocolate buttons and pop them on the top along with a ribbon. I forgot to take a picture of what the cake traditionally looks like without my garnishes. This cake is one of my go-to recipes, it comes out perfect every time and tastes delicious - kind of like a giant blueberry muffin!
Ingredients
225g Self Raising Flour
115g Butter
115g Caster Sugar
40g Ground Almonds
1 Lemon
2 Eggs
4 tbsp Milk
200g Fresh Blueberries
55g Icing Sugar
How To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 170'c and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of flour over the blueberries and coat them well. (This stops them sinking to the bottom of the cake during baking)
2. Rub together the butter and flour and then stir in the caster sugar, ground almonds and then grate in the zest of the lemon.
3. Beat in the eggs and the milk and then gently fold in the blueberries.Pour into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 45mins or until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean.
4. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes or so and then turn out onto a baking tray to finish cooling.
5. Once the cake is cool, mix the the icing sugar with some of the juice of the lemon to make a fairly thin glace icing. Use a fork to drizzle the icing back and forth all over the loaf and then leave to set.
I was given some surplus Blueberries by one of my friends and she said for me to "make something with them" and so, at the request of my Husband, I made Blueberry Muffins! Simple, easy and very tasty! I used the following recipe from Mary Berry's "Ultimate Cake Book" as its very simple and I had most of the ingredients to hand, apart from she adds lemon zest to hers and I didn't have a lemon to hand so instead I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract. They came out like a breakfast muffin I think, especially as they are low on sugar and they were lovely and light. Hubby ate 2 with an hour of them leaving the oven, so I assume they went down well with him! I also gave half of the batch back to my friend, who is a nurse, for her to share with her family or work colleagues. Recipe makes 12 muffins.
Ingredients
9oz Self Raising Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
2oz Margarine
3oz Caster Sugar
6oz Blueberries
1 lemon (I used a teaspoon of vanilla extract)
2 Large Eggs
8 fl oz Milk
How To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 200'c and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases.
2. Measure the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and then rub in the margarine until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, blueberries and grate in the zest of the lemon.
3. Mix together the eggs and milk and pour into the dry mixture. Mix quickly to blend, the mixture should have a lumpy consistency. Divide between the 12 cases and then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until risen, golden and firm to touch.
4. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes and then lift out onto a cooling rack to finish.
Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and Gin & Tonic one was one of them. I adapted my lemon sponge recipe to incorporate the Gin and once baked and iced (I tinted mine yellow) I decorated them with a slice of lemon and a shot top filled with gin and tonic. Makes 12.
Ingredients
6oz Stork
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
Zest of 1 Lemon
1 tbsp Gin
For the icing...
200g Stork
400g Icing Sugar
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Gin
How to Make
1.
Preheat the oven to 160'c and place 12 cupcake cases into a muffin tray.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then gradually add the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour to prevent curdling.
4. Fold in the rest of the flour and the lemon zest. Lastly stir through the gin. Spoon the mixture evenly between the 12 cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer test comes out clean.
5. Leave them to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled make the icing. Beat the butter until soft and fluffy and then mix in the icing sugar, lemon juice and gin. Pipe onto the cupcakes and decorate however you wish.
Ingredients
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. 
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. 
