Thursday, November 11, 2004

Sugar High Fridays - Apples!

Sugar High Fridays #2 - Apple Pie Biscotti



My first SHF entry!
I adore biscotti. I was always disappointed with the trend towards softish, cakey biscotti, though. Biscotti should be very crisp. They should not, however, be so "crisp" as to require serious dental work in their aftermath. For these biscotti, neither is the case. I find them to be very crisp, yet light. They have no butter or oil in them (though I usually put in a bit of olive oil if I am making a more savory biscotti).


I chose to make them for my SFH entry instead of just submitting the classic apple pie I made recently (see below) because I happened to have a jar of apple butter and was keen to use it. I usually eat biscotti plain, but this time I topped them with a white chocolate almond glaze and sprinkled them with minced candied ginger. The only change I might recommend is to put the ginger in the biscotti before baking.

Apple Pie Biscotti with White Chocolate Ginger Glaze
2 ½ cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp allspice
(could also sub 1.5tsp apple pie spice for all spices)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp apple butter

Preheat oven to 350.Combine dry ingredients in a bowlIn a separate bowl, whip eggs until foamy, then add sugar. Beat until fluffy.Add vanilla and apple butter to egg mixture.Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir until just combined. (Add in ginger here, if you wish)

Sprinkle baking sheets with flour.Flour your hands and shape ½ dough into a log. Place log on baking sheet and flatten into a rectangle no more then ½ inch thick. Repeat with remaining dough. Make sure your hands are well floured!Bake for 20 minutes at 375 until the edges begin to brown and logs are firm.Turn oven down to 325.Slice logs with a serrated knife into ½ inch cookies and place (with the cut sides up) back in the oven.Bake for 40 minutes (or until dry), turning the cookies over after 20 minutes.
Makes about 4 dozen biscotti.

Glaze:
1/2 cup white chocolate
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp half and half or cream or milk
Minced candied ginger

Heat cream and extract until quite warm. Melt chocolate. Combine and stir throughly until smooth. Spread thin layer on top of cooled biscotti. Top with candied Ginger to taste (I recommend a lot).