Monday, October 13, 2008

TWD - Lenox Almond Biscotti

So this is my FIRST EVER Tuesdays with Dorie post!! I am so excited to join the ranks of the other hundreds of bakers that vow to bake a recipe a week (most of the time) from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours. I just got my book in last week and I couldn't wait to get started. I hope that though this constant baking that I become a little more of a natural at baking and not have to rely so much on recipes to do anything ;) This week Gretchen of Canela & Comino chose Lenox Almond Biscotti, if you would like the recipe please go to her site, or buy the book (I just drool looking through the pages :) .

I am a Biscotti fan (especially covered in chocolately goodness), but never in my wildest dreams did I think that this was something that I could make on my own. Dorie gives such excellent directions though, it really was relatively easy.

Since it is my first stab at a Dorie recipe, I pretty much followed the recipe to the letter. The only real change, if you can even call it that, is that I used crushed almonds. I bought whole almonds thinking that I could slice them myself....but it is pretty much impossible to slice almonds. So I gave up and used my KitchenAid chopper to get the job done. I likes the smaller pieces in the finished product.

The picture below was taken before I realized that I forgot to put parchment paper under the biscotti. Luckily I realized it before the first bake.


One thing that I didn't expect was how much the dough would spread once I put them in the oven. I kinda hand to smoosh (sp?) it with my fingers so they wouldn't meet in the middle.


Also, as many people commented on the TWD website, I was unable to get my biscotti to stand up. I think it was probably mainly due to my uneven cookie sheet.... It would have been so cute to "stand them up like a marching band" as Dorie suggests. But nevertheless, the Biscotti were fabulous :) I found myself wishing it wasn't 10:30pm and a cup of coffee would not keep me up.


And here are some pictures of the final product. I loved the almond flavor of the biscotti. They held up well in the coffee and really were great. Now that I know how easy they are to make I will definitely be making them again. I really wanted to dip them in chocolate, but I was tired when the biscotti finally got done baking so the chocolate dipping didn't happen. Next time I will do the chocolate....there really is nothing better than chocolate dipped biscotti.




Come back next week for Pumpkin Muffins (oh I can't wait!!).

2 comments:

Jayne said...

Your biscotti look great - but it was the zebra mug that caught my attention. Did you get that at Pier 1? We have a giraffe and an elephant mug that are (I believe) from that same series. My kids picked them out. Great job - and now I think I'll go have a biscotti.

Amy said...

Thanks! My mom gave me that zebra mug (and I am pretty sure that she gave my sister the giraffe one) but if I am not mistaken, I think she got them at World Market (http://www.worldmarket.com/home.jsp). But that store is very similar to Pier One but with more stuff (like kitchen/cooking/etc) :) Great minds think alike though. Your kids have good taste.