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. 

Biscotti

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. 

Flour-free Orange, Almond & Pistachio Cake

So it's lockdown here in the UK and staying home for me, with no work, means baking time! At the start of lock down however, my trusty Grundig Mixer decided to go bang and I was lost without it until a very early birthday present arrived from my hubby.....a KitchenAid Artisan Mixer, in duck egg blue to match my kitchen no less, eeeeeeeek!!!!!! I know I am a very lucky girl! I was just itching to get baking but, as well as loo roll being this years most sought after supermarket item, it seems flour is too. None of my local shops have any, so whilst I waited for an online order to arrive (thank you Sugar & Crumbs!) I decided to try my hand at a flour-free cake. I've had 'Love, Bake, Nourish' by Amber Rose on my cookbook shelf for years but I've never actually baked from it before but I knew there would be a flour-free recipe in there and so I dived straight in and found this one. It also happens to be sugar free too, so I was setting myself a challenge but I just so happened to have all the ingredients in my kitchen and so I got started. Once you have prepped your oranges and ground your pistachios (I am going to look for ready ground ones in future as shelling and blitzing took me ages!) it's quite straightforward and the smell of the oranges bubbling away in the kitchen is divine! The only tweak I made to Amber's recipe was that my cake was ready after 40 minutes, whereas she recommends an hour. I was nervous cutting my first slice thinking it was bound to fall apart or taste horrendous but it was lovely. The nuts made for a beautiful textured sponge and the honey added natural sweetness. The orange was slightly bitter for me but this could be because I am used to sweet flavours, when my Mum's partner Ian, who is diabetic, had a slice (social distancing doorstep delivery) he quite happily ate it on its own. But when you serve it with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey it is wonderfully light and heavenly. 

Ingredients

2 Unwaxed Oranges

3 Eggs

215g Runny Honey

250g Ground Almonds

100g Pistachios (finely ground)

1 tsp Baking Powder

How To Make

1. Place the unpeeled oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 170'c and grease and line a 10 inch round baking tin.

2. Remove the pan from the heat, drain and then put the whole oranges into a blender and blitz until they are smooth. 

3. Place all the ingredients into your mixer and beat until thoroughly combined. Pour into the prepared baking tin and bake for 1 hour (mine was ready after 40 minutes so I'd recommend checking around the 40 minute mark) or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin before turning out. 

4. Enjoy this cake with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey. 

Homemade Granola

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.