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Marcia asks: I just purchased a biscotti pan made by Chicago Metallic. It came with a recipe that I wasn’t crazy about: It used oatmeal and advised you to form a loaf and place it in the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.
From going to different recipe sites for biscotti, some say to shape into a rough loaf leaving 3/4” around the sides, others say to just pat it into the pan. Which is the appropriate thing to do?
Then I am puzzled if the recipe says to be shaped into more than 1 loaf. What do I do: put it all into one pan, or bake each loaf separately in the pan?
I am hoping that you can clear up my dilemma. I just want a bare bones recipe that I can adjust the flavors and extra goodies. Maybe you can provide that for me also.
Baking S.O.S. says: It IS confusing trying to navigate all the different recipes and directions: there is so much variation, as you pointed out!
Regarding the specific recipe that came with your new biscotti pan, my guess is that the recipe was formulated to make just one loaf that fits exactly in the pan. Unless the recipe specifically says to leave 3/4″ of space around the sides of the pan, I would pat the dough all the way to the edges.
In looking at various recipes for biscotti on the Internet, however, you may need to make some adjustments when using the biscotti pan.
I have read a few recipes that say the dough will spread a lot during the first round of baking. I think that is the reason why some recipes say to allow 3/4″ of space around the edges of the pan: so the dough has room to spread.
Also, various biscotti recipes direct you to shape the dough into two logs ranging in lengths from 8″ to 12″ by 2″ in width. Given the dimensions of the Chicago Metallic biscotti pan (12″ x 5 1/4″ according to several web sites), I think you might be able to make just one loaf in the pan with a full recipe of biscotti dough. (You will probably have to test this, though, through trial and error I am afraid!) If you put a full batch of dough into the pan and it overflows the pan, you know you have too much. You should have a little room for the biscotti to expand and spread while baking.
Finally, you requested a basic biscotti recipe that you can customize to your own taste preferences. I found a couple of basic recipes that I would recommend, though I have not tested the recipes yet myself. The first recipe is from Mark Bittman’s cookbook “How to Cook Everything,” and I rely on that cookbook a lot at home. I like his style and approach to cooking, so I trust his opinion on biscotti, too! Here is a link to the recipe: Mark Bittman’s Basic Biscotti.
Here is yet another basic biscotti recipe that looks good at grouprecipes.com.
And lastly, you may want to refer to my blog post about my own test experiment with a biscotti recipe. I tested a Cooking Light recipe for Chocolate Cherry & Hazelnut Biscotti that was delicious! It’s not a basic recipe, but it was certainly good!
 No, it’s not what you think. This is not the yellow stuff you make to go with chili and soup (mine comes out of a Jiffy box!). This is a delicious yeast-raised bread sweetened with honey. A childhood favorite my mom always made when I was growing up: perfect comfort food for the Winter season! I made a few adjustments to the directions to make it easier to follow.
Corn Bread
Ingredients:
1/2 C. cornmeal
1 3/4 C. cold water
2 Tbls. unsalted butter
1/2 C. honey
1 tsp. salt
1 package or 2 1/4 tsp. yeast
1/4 C. warm water
4-5 C. bread flour
Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, cook the cornmeal and 1 3/4 C. cold water together–stirring constantly with a wooden spoon–until thick. Remove from heat.
2. Stir in the butter, honey, and salt. Allow mixture to cool to room temp.
3. Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 C. warm water (110 degrees is optimal–if it is too hot, it will kill the yeast!) Stir into above mixture.
4. Add enough bread flour to make a stiff dough (about 5 C.)
5. Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. (I did this with the dough hook on my electric mixer.)
6. Place dough in a large, greased stainless steel bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set bowl in a warm place to rise until double in volume.
7. Punch dough down. Divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf. Roll the top in cornmeal. Place each loaf in a buttered loaf pan.
8. Set pans in a warm place & cover with a dish towel. Allow loaves to rise again until double in volume.
9. When loaves are nearly ready, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
10. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce temp. to 350 degrees. Bake until loaves are nicely browned and hollow-sounding when tapped, about 45 minutes.
Yield: 2 loaves
V. says: I love chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. I have tried without success to come up with a vanilla frosting that taste very much like vanilla ice cream. I then thought about a vanilla mousse which is probably as close to vanilla ice cream as I probably will come. I have tried several of the vanilla mousse recipes online, but they leave a lot to be desired in taste and creaminess. I am looking for a vanilla mousse that uses cooked egg yolks and heavy whipping cream. Do you have a recipe that I can try or can you point me in a direction?
Baking S.O.S. says: I looked at a number of vanilla mousse recipes on-line, as well, and I saw nothing that looked appealing or feasible as a frosting for cake.
I think what you are looking for is basically Creme Anglaise (English custard sauce) lightened with whipped cream. I made a similar frosting for my own wedding cake, though I used the Creme Anglaise as a base for traditional buttercream, which holds up better than whipped cream.
Still, I have decorate plenty of cakes using just Chantilly Cream (sweetened whipped cream flavored with vanilla), and it is delicious–it just doesn’t hold up well unless refrigerated.
I would suggest that you use Chantilly Cream OR try making Creme Anglaise, then fold in whipped cream to make a frosting. Recipes for each follow:
Chantilly Cream
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
In a well-chilled, large mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla extract together on high speed until soft peaks form in the mixture.
Makes enough cream for one average-size cake or pastry recipe.
Crème Anglaise
Ingredients:
Half and half 8 ounces
Granulated sugar ½ Cup
Egg yolks 6
Vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
Directions:
1. Place the half and half in a small saucepan and bring just below a boil. It should produce steam and very tiny bubbles around the outer edge of the pan.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the sugar and egg yolks together in a medium stainless steel bowl.
3. When the half and half is scalded, slowly whisk it into the sugar-egg yolk mixture a little at a time.
4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thickened. The sauce should coat the back of the wooden spoon. * Be careful not to over-cook the sauce or it will curdle!
5. Strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer into a stainless steel bowl set over an ice bath (a larger pan of ice & water).
6. Refrigerate sauce until ready to use.
* After the Creme Anglaise has chilled completely, whip 2 cups of heavy cream to soft peaks and fold gently into the sauce. If desired, add a little granulated sugar to the heavy cream as you are beating it–before folding the whipped cream into the sauce.
V. asks: I have a basic yellow cake recipe that uses 4 large whole eggs. I wanted to know if beating the whole eggs until they are a light pale yellow and foamy and then adding them to the cake batter causes the cake to have more rise than it would with just the baking powder? Does beating the eggs prior to adding to the cake batter have any other benefits?
Baking S.O.S. says: You are absolutely right. The purpose of beating the eggs is to incorporate air into them, which in turn will help the cake rise a little more than relying on baking powder alone. When heated (in the oven), the air bubbles in the eggs will expand, causes the cake to rise more. That is the only purpose I know of for beating eggs for cake batter.
Kay asks: Why do my cupcakes separate from the paper liners? I’ve tried using foil liners with the same results. Please help.
Baking S.O.S. says: I have had this problem many times myself. In fact, I addressed this question in an earlier blog post .
These are the solutions I have found to be most helpful:
1. Do not spray or grease the cupcake pans or the paper liners at all. Put the paper liners in the pan and leave them dry.
2. When you first remove the baked cupcakes from the oven, allow them to cool in the pan for just a few minutes, then carefully remove them from the pan and set them on a wire rack to cool completely. Steam can condense between the cupcakes and the pans as they cool in the pan, creating moisture which will then loosen the papers from the cupcakes.
3. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before attempting to remove the papers and eat them. When the cupcakes are still warm, the paper liners tend to stick to the cupcakes more, so removing the papers will also remove some of the cupcake along with them. If you allow the cupcakes to cool completely, the papers will be easier to remove without crumbling the cupcakes in the process.
Barb asks: Why is it when I make English Toffee, after cooling in the refrigerator, the chocolate wafers that I melt on top of the caramel and spread smooth…ends up separating off the caramel entirely when I break it into pieces? I waste so much each year. Any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated.
Baking S.O.S. says: I found all of the following suggestions in discussion forums on the Internet. Perhaps one of these solutions can help:
1. Sometimes some of the butter separates out of the toffee and concentrates on the surface. If it does, the chocolate isn’t going to adhere to the toffee. Try blotting up the butter with paper towels – the surface should be matte, rather than shiny. Then you can spread the layer of chocolate on top. Another method is to wait until they are partially set and run over the tops with a docking roller to make perforations for the chocolate to grab onto (you could also use a fork to make holes in the toffee). Blot after docking.
2. Always dust the toffee with cocoa powder before you put the chocolate on it. This helps tremendously for the chocolate to adhere properly.
3. For the chocolate separating issue: dust each partially set tray of toffee with ground nuts of whatever variety you are using. This gives the chocolate something to cling to and soaks up a bit of the oil.
4. I made a batch (of toffee) tonight and tried dusting it with fine nuts before adding the chocolate. I still had problems with it separating. But I think I found a solution. After pouring on the chocolate, I always throw the tray in the fridge so the chocolate can set up. I usually cut it up the next day. Well, as I did this, it started to separate. So I left it on the counter and waited for it to come to room temp and then I tried cutting it. Success! No separation!
This last suggestion–allowing the toffee to cool to room temperature before placing it in the refrigerator–is also recommended at www.cookingforengineers.com. Please refer to their helpful step-by-step instruction guide for making English Toffee.
Good luck!
Pam asks: I have a question that I am hoping you can help me with. I am making a lot of frosting for a gingerbread house project. It is royal frosting (egg whites, powdered sugar, and cream of tartar). Have you ever worked with this? Do you think I can make it the day before? Should I store in the refrigerator?
Baking S.O.S. says: Royal icing is tricky–I’m sure you’ve experienced it if you have made it before! It does not keep well. Once you mix it, you have to use it right away or it will harden and set to the point where you can no longer use it.
So unfortunately, you should make it as close to the time you intend to use it. The way to keep it from solidifying before you are ready to use it is: keep it in your mixing bowl (stainless steel usually works best), place a layer of plastic wrap directly on top of the frosting–being sure to get out any air bubbles, and then place a damp towel on top of the plastic wrap. That is the ONLY way I know to work with royal icing successfully!
Pam asks: Do you think it would work if I made it and then took it to school in zip lock bags that we could then just pipe it out of? Do you know of any other frosting that would work?
Baking S.O.S. says: Yes, I think it would work to put the Royal Icing in ziploc bags–being sure to squeeze out all the air before sealing them. (The exposure to air is what makes the frosting harden and set, and it cannot be revived after it has set.) When you are ready to use the icing, just snip a small corner off the bottom of the bag to squeeze it out. That is what I always do when I take frosting to school for kids to decorate cookies.
Royal Icing is really the only kind of frosting that you would want to use for gingerbread houses. Nothing else sets up as quickly or as steadfastly to “glue” everything together. Good luck! It sounds like a fun project to do at school with the kids.
Ro asks: Is there any way to get muffins that are stuck in paper muffin cups unstuck?? Thanks for any help you can offer.
Baking S.O.S. says: The best thing to do is allow the muffins to cool completely before you try to peel the paper away. Strange as it may sound, it actually gets easier to peel the papers away the more time the muffins sit.
Also, I recommend spraying the muffins papers lightly before scooping the batter in: it will help release the papers more easily. (Though that technique does NOT work for cupcakes–it makes the papers FALL off the cupcakes!!)
Rule of thumb: spray the papers for muffins; leave the papers dry for cupcakes.
Biscotti is a type of Italian cookie that, literally translated, means “twice baked.” The cookie dough is first shaped into a long, oval log and baked as a whole unit the first time. Then it is sliced into individual pieces which are laid out on cookie sheets and baked a second time to fully dry them out. Due to its dry texture, biscotti is a favorite for dunking with coffee or tea.
My fellow Pastry Chef and friend Andrew Swartz of Andrew’s Pastries is known for his biscotti; it is one of his signature items. He told me his secret is to bake the biscotti only one time, not two. He came upon this discovery purely by accident one day when he simply forgot to bake the biscotti a second time before serving it. Now he won’t make it any other way, and he has developed loyal wholesale customers far and wide who prefer to serve his biscotti in their coffee shops.
So I decided to try it for myself one day to see which I preferred: once or twice-baked biscotti? I started with a recipe for Chocolate Cherry & Hazelnut Biscotti that I found in Cooking Light magazine and modified it slightly for the ingredients I had on hand.
I made 2 logs of dough and baked one log just one time, allowed it to cool, and cut it into individual slices. The second log I baked the traditional way: sliced and baked a second time.
This is what I found: the cookie dough was so chocolatey and rich that the cookies baked only once tasted more like brownies than biscotti. They were dense, soft, and chewy–rather pleasing in taste and texture. They were not at all what you would expect for biscotti, but also not quite sweet or dense enough to pass for a brownie, so it was something of a “mystery” dessert. Perhaps I am more of a traditionalist, but I found that I preferred the texture of the twice-baked biscotti if only because it was crunchier and was, therefore, more like what I expect when I taste biscotti.
Gary says: My wife would like to know what she can use to substitute for Cream of Tartar? She’s making Snickerdoodle cookies–mmmm my favorite!
Baking S.O.S. says: This is a good question! I myself did not know the answer off the top of my head, so I found the following helpful information at What’s Cooking America:
“Normally, when cream of tartar is used in a cookie, it is used together with baking soda. The two of them combined work like double-acting baking powder. When substituting for cream of tartar, you must also substitute for the baking soda. If your recipe calls for baking soda and cream of tartar, omit both and use baking powder instead.
One teaspoon baking powder is equivalent to 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 5/8 teaspoon cream of tartar. If there is additional baking soda that does not fit into the equation, simply add it to the batter.
Remember – When making substitutions in baking, you may end up with a somewhat different product. The taste, moisture content, texture and weight of a product can be affected by changing ingredients.”
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Biscotti: better once or twice baked?
Biscotti is a type of Italian cookie that, literally translated, means “twice baked.” The cookie dough is first shaped into a long, oval log and baked as a whole unit the first time. Then it is sliced into individual pieces which are laid out on cookie sheets and baked a second time to fully dry them out. Due to its dry texture, biscotti is a favorite for dunking with coffee or tea.
My fellow Pastry Chef and friend Andrew Swartz of Andrew’s Pastries is known for his biscotti; it is one of his signature items. He told me his secret is to bake the biscotti only one time, not two. He came upon this discovery purely by accident one day when he simply forgot to bake the biscotti a second time before serving it. Now he won’t make it any other way, and he has developed loyal wholesale customers far and wide who prefer to serve his biscotti in their coffee shops.
So I decided to try it for myself one day to see which I preferred: once or twice-baked biscotti? I started with a recipe for Chocolate Cherry & Hazelnut Biscotti that I found in Cooking Light magazine and modified it slightly for the ingredients I had on hand.
I made 2 logs of dough and baked one log just one time, allowed it to cool, and cut it into individual slices. The second log I baked the traditional way: sliced and baked a second time.
This is what I found: the cookie dough was so chocolatey and rich that the cookies baked only once tasted more like brownies than biscotti. They were dense, soft, and chewy–rather pleasing in taste and texture. They were not at all what you would expect for biscotti, but also not quite sweet or dense enough to pass for a brownie, so it was something of a “mystery” dessert. Perhaps I am more of a traditionalist, but I found that I preferred the texture of the twice-baked biscotti if only because it was crunchier and was, therefore, more like what I expect when I taste biscotti.