Breads · Breakfast · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Fruit · Uncategorized

Almond & Apricot Biscotti

Have made this twice and each time, it gets great reviews from folks I share it with. Makes great hostess gifts or place in a decorated vase at each end of the dessert table. Great little dessert especially for people who don’t like a lot of sweets, but like just a little something to go with hot tea or coffee.

2 cups flour
4 tables butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 teas salt
2 eggs
2 teas baking powder
1 1/2 teas almond extract
1 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
1 cup sliced (very thin) almonds

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add softened butter,mixing until coarse crumbs form. With mixer on low, add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition; add in almond extract; Stir in apricots and almonds; continue to stir until dough is in ball form, about 1 minute.

On a parchment lined baking sheet, shape dough into two 2″x12″ logs. Bake in preheated oven until dry and set, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and place on wire racks. Let cool completely.
Transfer to a cutting board and with a serrated knife, cut logs on the diagonal into 1/4″ slices. Bake on parchment lined baking sheets until golden, 15-20 minutes, (turn each slice over halfway through baking) and rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool completely on sheets on racks.
Store in air tight container up to 1 week.

I melted vanilla candy melts and drizzled it over each cooled slice.

Breakfast · Cakes · Desserts

Almond Cake

I love the almond flavor in cakes and frostings. Some evenings the almond craving just gets to me and I have to get in the kitchen and make a “wedding cake” (not an actual wedding cake, but a almond flavored white cake) time favorite cake. When I don’t want a huge two layer cake, since I would be the one who ate all of it, this recipe makes one quick and easy layer and gives me plenty of the almond flavor I am wanting.

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 teas almond extract. Preheat oven to 350. Combine all of the ingredients together and hand mix with a fork, as little as possible.  Spoon into a prepared 9″ round pie tin or cake pan. Cover with slivered almonds and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until cake tests done.

*You may make ahead of time and freeze.

Chocolate · Desserts

Almond-Oat Lace Cookies*

 

If you read the blog on Monday, you will remember that we went on a Chocolate Tour over the weekend. We even made our hubbies go with us. Because of the awesome chocolate treats that awaited us at each stop, they really got into the Chocolate Tour moment*(see inset picture)At one of the stops, we were served these delicious cookies, half of which were dipped in chocolate. They were wonderful. They were kind enough to give us the recipe, and if they aren’t like my mother in law who would intentionally leave out a very important ingredient and then say, “why sweetie, I don’t know why yours didn’t turn out”, I am trusting them to have given us the correct recipe that will produce the same cookie that we were served. (I was kidding about the mother-in-law).

1/2 cup whole unsalted almonds with skins

2 tables old-fashioned oats

6 tables unsalted butter

6 tables superfine sugar

2 tables packed light brown sugar

1 1/2 teas honey (finally, I thought this recipe was going to be nothing but tables this and tables that)

Oops, here we go again, 1 Table all purpose flour

1/4 teas salt

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted

Arrange racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; preheat oven to 350. Line 2 rimless baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Pulse almonds and oats in a food processor until coarse meal forms. Set aside.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add both sugars and honey and whisk until blended and sugar dissolves, 1-2 mins.

Remove from heat. Add nut mixture, flour and salt. Stir until well mixed.

Spoon batter by 2 teas portions onto baking sheet; spacing 2 1/2″ apart. Using your fingertips, pat cookies down to 1/4″ high rounds; push in any jagged edges to form smooth circles.

Bake, rotation sheets after 6 min, until dark golden brown and cookies spread out into a thin layer. (10-12 min)

Frosty Found Rudolph on Chocolate Tour
Frosty Found Rudolph on Chocolate Tour

Slide cookies with parchment paper onto a wire rack and let cool.

Using a pastry brush, brush half of each cookie with melted chocolate. Let stand until the chocolate is set.

This recipe is from the Fawnskin Bed and Breakfast*