“Hazelnut” Biscotti, or how cookies bring out my inner dictator…..

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baking with julia, biscotti, Tuesdays with Dorie, TwD

Hello all! Kat here again! We’re slowly building back up to full numbers this month, only missing baby sister this time due to prior commitments. This recipe was a leisurely endeavour, a welcome reprieve from the craziness of the last little while. I’d also decided, whilst chopping up my pistachios (more on that in a bit), to muse about how I’d run things if I took over the world, much to the amusement (and admittedly mild exasperation) of my aunt. Between the legislation that every Friday would be casual Friday, and that the Disney corporation would have to make every film available all the time, rather than the silly seven year business they’ve got going on, we managed to whip up epic biscotti goodness!

It should be noted first off that we deviated from the prescribed hazelnuts for our recipe, as they aren’t in season here and ergo quite expensive. What we decided upon instead were to make two batches: the first being pistachio-mint and the second, chocolate espresso. The pistachio-mint ones had the added mini-adventure of making my own mint simple syrup to replace the liqueur the original recipe calls for (the recipe can be found at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Minted-Simple-Syrup-15243/ ). The kitchen smelled of mint, straight from my grandma’s garden, for hours after it was made. Also, given that the recipe for it ended up making far more than the couple of teaspoons required, it’ll be mint juleps for everyone this weekend! After forming the logs, baking, slicing, then baking again, the result was a delightfully crunchy, nutty experience.

One thing we did correct when we moved on to the chocolate espresso ones was that…well…we accidentally put baking powder instead of its soda cousin in the first batch (not that it made much of a difference actually, but I digress). The smell of the vanilla and espresso together when I was mixing the wet ingredients was simply amazing…although I refused to have the dough photographed in its log form as it resembled something rather unsavory…..mooooving on. After sticking it in the oven, it allowed me time to reflect further on my dictatorship…for example, along with casual Fridays, every Saturday would be margarita night (paaaaartay!). Frivolous maybe, but you know it’d make life just a little more fun 😛 As I type this I’m still waiting for the chocolate batch to bake…wonder how they’ll taste…So until next time, I leave another question for the comment box: if you could make anything law, what would it be? (I’m not necessarily talking in seriousness…the sillier the better!)

This week’s hosts are: Jodi and Katrina. You can find everyone’s links here: Hazelnut Biscotti