With a few weeks off for the holiday season, the upcoming new year, it is time to get things done that have been put off for a woefully long time. One of them is cleaning the refrigerator very thoroughly, washing, rinsing, and sanitizing surfaces and nooks and crannies in all its dark recesses. And dropping a glass shelf, which shattered all over the place. Hence, the first part of the title for this post. Cleaned up, we move on to the best part – the biscotti!
Holidays are about baking and cooking and eating and celebrating with friends and family and those you love, near and far. This year, Christmas day will be spent with family elsewhere, so the baking has begun. For a small contribution, we are bring praline bourbon cake to go with the annual gumbo, along with some biscotti, the recipe for which I found here at Foolproof Living, a cooking blog with a creative approach and lovely photography.
The recipe is easy enough. I used leftover candied peel from King Arthur, and chopped up dried peaches, cranberries, and cherries, all finely diced. The coconut was slightly sweetened and I used pecans instead of walnuts or macadamias. I also used up a very generous amount of rum.
Follow the recipe – it comes out quite nice. The batter may seem a bit dry, but when you add the macerated dried fruit, it moistens up quite a bit. Also, patting out the dough onto the parchment is really necessary as the dough is sticky. I found putting some water on my hands helped a bit. Also, our knives are very sharp, so I used a straight-bladed knife (my husband tests the sharpness of our knives by shaving a spot on his arm or cutting paper with the just-sharpened knife) to cut the biscotti.
Check out Foolproof Living – it has become one of my favorite blogs just because it has such a wonderful variety of recipes and interesting posts.
Happy Holidays!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 