I didn't know biscotti were baked twice even though I've purchased my fair share of biscotti to go along with a cappuccino or latte over the years. Now, I can stroke biscotti off my list of things to try making at home, and I may never buy one again. Traditionally, biscotti are almond flavored, and this version has both almond extract and sliced almonds in it.

Tony Fortuna of the Lenox Restaurant gave this authentic recipe for biscotti to Dorie, and I'm thankful for that! Dorie also named it one of her top ten favorite recipes from this cookbook we're baking through.

Because they have a hard texture, they are best dipped in coffee or tea (or better yet a latte), then they absorb the flavor of your preferred morning pick-me-up and melt in your mouth, and before you know it you're digging into your Tupperware container for another hit of biscotti, repeating this motion until you run out of one or both.

Playing Around
I wanted to play around with the shape of biscotti. I pulled out my trusty coin wrappers again as I did for the Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters. This time, with the urging of a friend living in the United States who can't get twoonie or loonie coin wrappers like we have in Canada, I wanted to try making them in the smaller penny, dime, and nickel versions to show that it's possible.

Of course, stuffing biscotti batter into the coin wrappers is time consuming, but it's worth it because they make the best dunkers! As well, after the first baking, some of the batter spilled out. But it's easy to trim these parts off. Then, I carefully unpeeled the coin wrapper and baked them for the second time until they were golden.

Here's a great step-by-step article showing how to form traditional biscotti.

Recipe: Lenox Almond Biscotti

You can find the recipe for Lenox Almond Biscotti in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours (affiliate link) by Dorie Greenspan or here or here. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Gretchen from Canela & Comino who chose the recipe for this week.

Tasting Notes
I'm almost out of biscotti and will have to make this batch again soon. Mornings just won't be the same without a little biscotti dunked into my latte. I'm looking forward to playing around with the flavorings next time too.

Recipe for Next Week (October 21)
Pumpkin Muffins on page 13 chosen by Kelly from Sounding My Barbaric Gulp.

A healthy cookie that tastes good. I thought this would be impossible, but Dorie comes through again. I even had to stop my health-nut Dad from grabbing the cookie dough before it was even baked! He was excited to have something healthy to eat instead of all the chocolate desserts and pies I’ve been making lately.

To make them a little more fun, I baked them in the bottom part of an ice cream cone and topped them with a dollop of ice cream and sprinkles.

We were enjoying these outside on the front porch and the local squirrel must have smelled the peanuts and came within an arm’s reach hoping for his own cookie, I imagine!

Recipe: Granola Grabbers

You can find the recipe for Granola Grabbers in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or here. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! 

This week with Dorie we’re making pâte à choux, a magical pastry that’s cooked twice (once on the stove and once in the oven), puffs, and tastes so light that you think it could be good for you! Ever since I saw a picture of choux swans, I’ve wanted to make them. And this week I had my chance.

Pâte à choux (pronounced “shoe”), also called choux paste, dates back to 1540 and comes from the word “choux”, which means cabbage in French— that’s what pâte à choux looks like when baked as traditional cream puffs, supposedly.

Traditional choux paste contains four simple ingredients: butter, water, flour, and eggs. Dorie’s recipe includes some milk, sugar and salt for extra flavor. I ended up adding a bit of extra flour (about ¼ cup) so that the batter would come together in the pot. This meant that I had to add an extra egg as well, but everything worked out fine in the end.

Pâte à choux is such a versatile recipe, and can be used for both sweet and savory dishes, such as Gougères or chouquettes, Pommes dauphine, Croquembouche, Paris-Brest, and Gnocchi à la Parisienne.

Swans
To make the swans, you can pipe teardrop shapes, which become the wings when cut in half. I used a cream puff bottom for the base of the swan. The other half of the cream puff can be cut to make wings if you don't want to pipe out tear drop shapes.

To make the neck, pipe the number "2" on parchment paper. Make sure you watch the oven when you bake these since they burn really fast. (I only had one that was photo-worthy!)

To make the eyes, use a toothpick and dot some melted chocolate at the end of the number "2".

Links
Here’s a great article about choux pastry.

Here’s a video of making choux paste swans.

Recipe: Peppermint Cream Puff Ring

You can find the recipe for Peppermint Cream Puff Ring in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours (affiliate link) by Dorie Greenspan or at Bon Appetit. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Caroline of A Consuming Passion who chose the recipe for this week (and has also posted the recipe).

Tasting Notes
The minty, fresh taste of the cream with the lightness and slightly chewy texture of the choux and the richness of the chocolate was a perfect combination of flavors. I absolutely loved it! It was worth all the pastry bags I went through to make this dessert!

My kids enjoyed some of the cream puffs filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce since their palate is not refined enough to like mint! Another favorite was the peppermint cream over raspberries. Mmm, delicious.


I also used the peppermint cream on top of lemon bars! Mint and lemon are a winning combination, and this cream is so versatile.

You can store the cream puffs in an airtight container for a week or in the freezer. This is so dangerous to have on the counter that I think I’ll have to find room in the freezer! Another winning recipe from Dorie!

Note: I just read several great posts about choux paste over at Joe Pastry. Check it out!

Recipe for Next Week (June 24)
Mixed Berry Cobbler on pages 416-417 chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life.