Comments on: sticky fingers

By: zahavah

zahavah — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:11:06 +0000

Thank you for visiting my site, Krena! It was such a beautiful exhibit — the art, the love, the passion, and of course, Paris! I really enjoyed the evening and it is always so wonderful to meet talented artists. I would be honored to be added to your valentine list!

By: krena

krena — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:34:10 +0000

Thank you for coming to my opening at the French Library and posting it on your blog. I just noticed it tonight (march 11).

Krena

By: zahavah

zahavah — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:04:13 +0000

Thanks water skater for visiting and commenting. The Union Square Care Cookbook was one of the first “celebrity” cookbook that I ever bought (and I have now bought many many more)…Since I personally am not a fan of anise, I may not ever be able to make super authentic biscotti. I do like the whole and sliced almonds and have seen a bunch of recipes for cornmeal. I also noticed from the picture in the cookbook that they seem to cut theirs really thin which seems like a nice and different touch. Ahhh….so many biscotti variations to try!

By: sk8sonh2o

sk8sonh2o — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:56:41 +0000

The biscotti recipe from Union Square Cafe is unbeatable. Whole and sliced almonds, anisette, anise seed, cornmeal for texture. Unbelievable.

By: zahavah

zahavah — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:07:50 +0000

Thanks for the suggestions and chemistry explanations — you might appreciate my recent short post on molecular gastronomy (not a lesson, just a commentary: “food innovation: Ferran Adria, PhD?”) and an earlier one on how I consider baking to be chemistry and how I am NOT a chemist (“labo(u)r of love”). This recipe does tend to be a bit light on almonds and I’ve sometimes made it with whole almonds and also with a lot more as you mention. I was probably making biscotti often in the low-fat, pre-Atkins (but sugar is OK) days! Remember those days? Next time I’ll try with baking powder because I did notice that there was very little rising and spreading. As for the anise flavor — I just don’t like it, authentic or not. Though, I recently bought some Absente and I seem to be OK with that (but maybe it’s because after a few sips, everything seems pretty ok…).

By: Rose's Lime

Rose's Lime — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:52:46 +0000

Stumbled on your post from NPR Kitchen.

We LOVE Biscotti at our house. We tend to make them with 1 1/2 cups of almonds so that they’re just barely cookies and almost a nut confection.

It’s the Baking Soda that makes them crisp… though I’m surprised your recipe calls for all soda… I use 1 1/2 tsp powder and 1/2 tsp soda. Given the low acid content of the dough, I bet most of the soda doesn’t leaven but just makes the cookies a little salty, which brings out the flavor of the nuts.

To make them more italian, I leave off the cinnamon and vanilla and add 2 TBS of anisette (Pernod) which gives them a subtle anise/herbal flavor.

By: ro

ro — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:15:10 +0000

take that miss ‘sssh, don’t eat those cookies, they’re hard as a rock’, dually noted at c’hill of jerz circa 2002

By: zahavah

zahavah — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:47:21 +0000

Even in your small kitchen, you did a great job entertaining, Court! I loved the fleur-de-lys theme. I can’t wait to try your recipes for biscotti, especially the one from your Sicilian family cookbook!

By: Courtney

Courtney — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:58:30 +0000

Great biscotti! Glad the distraction of packing 10 girls into a one tiny kitchen made the biscotti somewhat tough to locate…leaving more for me the next day! I broke my ‘no sugar’ ban two days in a row for it.

By: zahavah

zahavah — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:28:02 +0000

Thanks, Stacy. I wore my new earrings to girls’ night out — stunning! See you soon at Topaz!