Double Chocolate Biscotti

Biscotti, like macarons, are cookies that I went most of my life under the impression that I did not like it. I don’t know if this is because the only biscotti I’ve ever really seen was at a Starbucks or because most recipes I’ve seen have nuts; whatever the reason it is does not matter now.

In pastry school we made biscotti once and I was not completely frustrated with the process so I decided that I would some today so my mother could have some fresh biscotti waiting for her when she got home.

I myself am a chocolate fiend and since coffee and chocolate are a wonderful pair it seemed only natural that chocolate biscotti would be perfection.

Ingredients

• ½ stick of butter (soft)
• 2/3 cups of sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 ¾ cup of AP flour
• ¾ cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Method

1. In a mixing bowl cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy.
2. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and baking powder. Gradually add to the butter and sugar.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time allowing to fully incorporate before adding the next.
4. Fold in flour gradually by hand. The batter will start to come together and form a single mass.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow to chill for 15 minutes.
7. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
8. Divide the dough into 2 and roll into 9 inch logs (careful to avoid air pockets). Flatten the top slightly and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes rotating half way through.
10. Cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to allow to cool for 1 hour.
11.  Cut each loaf into ½ inch slices, and lay flat on a cookie sheet with new parchment. Beware chocolate chips that are on the outside edge though, every time I tried to cut through them my cookie would break and would have to be eaten (oh darn.)
12. Bake at 325 F for 9 minutes. Flip cookies and bake for another 9 minutes.
13. Allow to cool and enjoy.

What you are left with it a delicious chocolate cookie that isn’t overpowering or too sweet. They have a great snap and are perfect for dunking.  The only trouble I seem to have with biscotti is cutting them. It seems hitting a soft and gooey chocolate chip causes the piece to crumble. This recipe yielded roughly 2 ½ dozen cookies so I imagine without the causalities it would have made 3 dozen.

The beautiful thing about them also is that they are very quick to come together; the longest part of this recipe is waiting around for them to cool down just to bake them again. I think with the way I’ve been nibbling at them they might disappear pretty fast too.

Chocolate, Chocolate, and More Chocolate

We've entered the final section of our pastry program and graduation is right around the corner. I almost can't believe that I'm almost finished with school when a few years ago I thought I might not be able to even attend. I've had tremendous support from my family and friends (although who wouldn't support the idea of more cake in the world?) and I feel like it's all a dream.

The final section of our program is chocolate. Our chef warned us that chocolate would be frustrating, and it is to a certain extent. For the most part I remind myself that with the other sections I had had some experience but chocolate is a completely new experience.

One of my favorite chocolates that we've made is called Palet d'or it's a dark chocolate ganache dipped in more tempered dark chocolate and then brushed with edible chocolate.

Oh tempered chocolate. I have a new found appreciation for chocolate and the people that make it now that I know just how finicky it can be. Off by 2 degrees and that's it you have to start all over. Furthermore it seems the darker the chocolate the harder it is to work with which is a shame because I love dark chocolate.

I don't know if I'll make chocolate in the future, chef says that it's a specialization that he doesn't see too much, but I'm enjoying (for the most part) the experience of creating these tiny things of beauty.

Petit Fours

Pastry school is roughly a 40 hour week for me, this leaves very little time for blogging. I had hoped that as I became more comfortable with the schedule this would change but it seems there is always something to do, a fact that doesn't really bother me. I'm in bliss.

Recently we begun our section on petit fours. Petit fours are small cakes and other delectables that can be consumed in one or two bites. Last week after doing a few we were allowed to come up with our own.

The first petit four that my brilliant classmate and I designed was a white chocolate mint mousse on a layer of dark chocolate raspberry ganache and flourless chocolate cake.

The flourless chocolate cake is light, airy and offers a nice contrast to the richly decadent ganache. The mint was light in flavor and didn't overpower the sweetness of the white chocolate mousse. It tasted somewhat like a thin mint with an extra kick of flavor.

The second petit four we concocted was my personal favorite.  We named it a Banana Colada. Since starting the programs I've wanted to use the banana puree we had in the freezer. Seizing the opportunity to use one of my favorite flavors we create a banana mousse on top of a Pineapple Mango Jelly. The bottom layer was a thin layer of banana mousse with chocolate crunch pearls on a layer of coconut dacquoise. Quite delicious and refreshing to eat.

Petit fours really allow the creative juices to flow and due to their small size they are quite difficult to ignore eating. Usually I'm fairly good about not munching on everything we make in class but I find that this section I will eat at least one petit four from each of my classmates.

Section 2 Done

I've completed my first section in the kitchen and by the lack of updates I'm sure you can tell I was quite busy.

It's amazing how quickly everything moves before you know it you have everything coming out of the oven and it 1pm.

I just finished a three day final where I had to plan and bake a number of items including: Croissants, Baguettes, Foccacia, Ciabatta, Scone, Pound cake, Brioche de Paris, Croix au Sucre and a few others.

As I become more adjusted to my schedule I hope to keep up with this blog.

Every single day I think about pastries. I wake up at 4:50 am by 7 I'm in my apron prepping dough, writing recipes and thinking about my next flavor combination. I'm in utter bliss, and while I find it difficult to stay up pass 9pm most nights I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Very few people get a chance to follow their dreams and every day I get to make sure there are more pastries in the world.

First Day Back in the Kitchen

Today was the first day in the kitchen at school, no baking yet but it was still fairly exciting. It's nice to be around people who want to create things like you do and getting to know that you're around that much chocolate doesn't hurt either.

Section 1 will be breads which means baguettes, croissants, and all sorts of yummy (read: fattening) things.

Tomorrow begins the real work here's hoping I pass inspection

Homemade Tortillas

When I started this blog I assumed it would be filled with only baked good but this evening I reached an important milestone. My mother taught me how to make homemade flour tortillas, like my grandma used to make in Tijuana, it seems very appropriate that I finally learned to make them the way she did as yesterday was the 5th anniversary of her death. My Mexican heritage is very important to me and my mother agreed that it was important to learn how to make tortillas the way she learned. Not with a recipe but by eying measurements, the way the dough feels, the way it smells when it's ready to flip them.

Darling boyfriend is coming over tomorrow for lunch and after 5 1/2 years of dating I'm finally making him homemade tortillas.

Rolling the dough out I hope he loves them as much as I love making them for him. That is the most amazing thing about food, is the love you put in can really affect the taste.

My grandma's kitchen was always filled with delicious food and she was always feeding people, and her family was always happy as long as we were eating.

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Family dinner is every Friday, as I think I mentioned in the Baked Shrimp Scampi entry, and dear brother snorlax comes over. With Business School done and over with and me enjoying my summer days I now have a bit of time to do some baking. So for family dinner I made Ina Garten's Lobster Pot Pie (recipe next entry) and for dessert I thought something citrus would be refreshing.

While browsing the internet I stumbled upon another website with just recipes upon recipes for cupcakes, one recipe in particular caught my eye. Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. So fresh, lemony and adorable to boot! If there is one thing that dear brother snorlax loves it's lemon.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

• 1 1/2 cups of cake flour Note: If you do not have cake flour you can mix 1 3/4 cups of AP flour and 1/4 cup of cornstarch to make 2 cups of a AP flour substitute then just use 1 1/2 cups.
• 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 stick of butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup of milk

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix Flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Gradually beat in butter (if it is room temp this will be so much easier), one the butter is well mixed (little clumps will start forming) throughly beat in the sugar.
4. Beat in Eggs, vanilla and milk and fill into baking cups about 2/3 of the way.
5. Bake for 20 min. You'll know the cupcakes are done when a tooth pick comes out clean.

Filling:

• 1 egg + 1 yolk
• Juice of 1 fresh lemon
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/2 cup of sugar

I would recommend setting out everything before beginning this process as you want to be beating the mixture constantly so you don't end up with scrambled eggs.

1. Using a double boiler (that is a bowl set over simmering water) beat the egg and yolk, I used a hand held electric beater.
2. Beat in the lemon, butter and sugar.
3. Stir over medium heat until the mixture has a pudding like consistency.

It will look weird at first especially as the butter breaks down but eventually you will end up with something that looks like a lemon pudding. To me this was like making caramel all over again, because you look at the mixture and you tell your self "there is no way that it is going to get thick" and then 5 minutes later it is thick and you wonder how you could have doubted yourself.

Frosting (Meringue)

• 5 tbsp of water
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 1/3 of cup of sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 1tbsp of light corn syrup
• 1 tsp of vanilla

1. Beat water, cream of tartar, sugar, egg whites, and syrup in a double boiler on low.
2. When the mixture reaches 140 degrees beat on high for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat , add vanilla and beat for another 3 minutes.

Assembly:

To put the filling in the cupcakes I used a small cookie cutter to hollow out the top of each cupcake:

Spoon a little bit of the lemon filling into each cupcake:

Pop the top back on and cover with meringue!