Try, try, try again - Christmas 2015

This is a classic example of when something goes right eventually.

I try to bake some kind of gift every Christmas and 2015's choice was biscotti. Easy to package up into small cute bundles and wouldn't go stale so quickly. I tried this recipe first - not all three flavours but the cranberry and pistachio. We bought the pistachios with their shells still intact so we painstakingly removed them. The instructions are pretty straightforward but I felt a bit intimidated by the stickiness of the dough and having the option of adding as much liquid (in this case, egg) as I saw fit. As I saw fit?! Paul, TELL ME how much egg I need!

The recipe recommends you cut them up (after their first bake) into 2-3 cm slices. Clearly my idea of 2-3cms was huge bricks of haggard biscotti.

First try - cranberry and pistachio bricks

They tasted wonderful but they were so thick and hard, they could stop a conversation dead.

Time for another try - this time, a different flavour and recipe. I tried this one from John Whaite's collection of Christmas recipes and they turned out perfect! So I adapted the recipe and made another batch of cranberry and pistachio. 

Double chocolate and ginger

John Whaite's Biscotti

230g plain flour

20g cocoa powder (not used in the cranberry and pistachio version)

150g caster sugar

125g milk chocolate chips (I replaced these with pistachios)

2 large eggs 

2tbsp milk

50g stem ginger from a jar, finely chopped (I replaced this with dried cranberries)

Essential Equipment
Large baking sheet, lightly greased 


Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas mark 6. In a mixing bowl, toss together the flour, cocoa powder and sugar until evenly dispersed, then stir through the chocolate chips.

In a small cup, beat together the eggs and milk, and add the chopped stem ginger. Pour this into the dry ingredients and bring together, with your hands, into a fairly smooth dough. This takes a little bit of kneading and force, but it will come together.

Roll the dough into a fat sausage about 28cm/11-inch long, place onto the baking sheet and flatten down slightly. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove from the oven and with a sharp serrated knife, gently but firmly slice the biscotti into thin pieces about 1cm thick. Place these, flat onto the baking sheet and bake for a further 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

The pistachio and cranberry biscotti going in for their second bake