Bready or Not: Chocolate Almond Biscotti
Continuing the breakfast theme for the month, we now venture into the realm of chocolaty goodness with these Chocolate Almond Biscotti.
These taste like brownies… brownies that are firm enough to dip into coffee or hot chocolate or tea or your waiting mouth.
Almonds go wonderfully with chocolate–a lot of candy bars are proof of that–though they do complicate this recipe in one way. They get stuck on the knife blade when the biscotti are chopped apart.
The good news is, the biscotti at still kind of soft then, so you can press them back together a bit–just don’t burn your fingers!
I can’t say I mind that some chocolate crumbles and almond bits are left on the cookie sheet, either. Oh darn. Can’t let those go to waste.
Do check out other biscotti featured on Bready or Not: Maple Walnut White Chocolate Biscotti and Snickerdoodle Biscotti.
This new recipe was modified from the original at McCormick.
Bready or Not: Chocolate Almond Biscotti
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick, softened
- 1 1/4 cups white sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup almonds coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325-degrees. Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave, using short, careful bursts. Once it is melted, set aside to cool for a few minutes.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs followed by almond extract. Scrape in the melted chocolate. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, and add the almonds last.
- Divide the dough in half. Drop each half onto the ready cookie sheet with lots of space between them. Use a spatula to shape them into logs roughly four inches across, eight inches long, and about an inch high.
- Bake 35 minutes, until the logs spring back when gently touched.
- Cool on stove top for 10 minutes. Use a sharp, serrated knife to chop the logs into 1/2-inch thick slices. The almonds will likely get stuck on the blade and cause the biscotti to crumble some; the biscotti is still somewhat soft, so try to wedge almonds back in and reshape the sticks. Do take care, as they are hot!
- Place the slices upright, if they will stay, or lay them on their sides. Bake for another 20 minutes, flipping them halfway, if necessary.
- Allow the biscotti to cool and dry out for several hours before placing them into sealed containers.
- OM NOM NOM!
Goals for 2018
Huzzah, it is 2018! The apocalypse hadn’t happened (yet) and the electricity has stayed on, so let’s keep on writing! I did pretty well with my 2017 goals, though it was awfully stressful through the last quarter of the year. I’m determined for 2018 to be better.
On that note, we went out on January 3rd and adopted three new cats. Only two are home right now, as one had dental surgery scheduled at the shelter, but we look forward to having the full gang soon. Luke (see picture below) and Kylo have already latched onto me and decided my office desk is the Place to Be. It feels good to have companionship as I work again. It was really hard to write with Porom gone.
2018 Goals
1) Write a new novel.
2) Complete all three edit stages for Roar of Sky (edits, copy-edits, and first pass pages).
3) Prepare comprehensive marketing plan for release of Roar of Sky in October. This includes regular updates on my personal blog, scheduling interviews and blog posts for other blogs and sites, and seizing other viable opportunities.
a) Don’t have a mental breakdown.
4) Release Roar of Sky in October.
a) Don’t have a mental breakdown.
5) Write a new story (fiction or nonfiction) every month, if balanced with novel obligations.
6) Participate in the Poem a Day Challenge in April and November, and keep at least 10 poems on submission at all times.
7) Read at least 100 books during 2018 and post reviews for each.
8) Attend several conventions and book festivals throughout the year (see current list on right side of page).
9) Be honest with myself about my stress and personal limits. Don’t hold it all inside. Reach out to writer friends. Let my agent know what is going on. Take time out for my husband, son, cats, and family. Read. Bake. Go thrift store shopping.
10) Don’t give up. I’ve come a long way in the past year and there’s plenty of mountain left to climb. If tired of climbing, use dynamite.
Read MoreSunday Quote says Here’s Hoping for a Year Without an Apocalypse
Read More“After many years, to start a story still scares me to death.”
~ John Steinbeck
Bready or Not: Cato Home-Cured Bacon
We’re kicking off a breakfast theme for a month with a recipe that will step-by-step teach you how to cure your own bacon.
I guarantee this will be among the best, if not THE best, bacon you will have in your life. Fresh really makes the difference.
This recipe is not difficult. In all honesty, the greatest challenge is that the curing bacon takes up a lot of fridge space for about 10 days.
I completely modified this from a Michael Symon recipe featured in Food Network Magazine, March 2014. The only way that I can buy pork belly locally is from Costco (for about $2.69 a lb!), so this is a Costco-sized recipe.
If you can buy a smaller pork belly slab, then just halve the ingredients. Otherwise, buy the big belly and follow all of the steps I provide… which means you’ll have another slab of frozen bacon already seasoned and prepped to cure in a few weeks or months.
After the meat is smoked, slice it up and use it however you want. I find that home-cured bacon cooks much faster than the store stuff, though it can be much thicker, and the bits that look burned aren’t usually burned.
The smoked meat also freezes and keeps for weeks or months. Just thaw it in the fridge when you’re ready, and use it however you wish.
You’ll wish to eat every last morsel. Trust me.
This recipe does require some supplies that you likely don’t have in the cupboard, and might be hard to find locally. Amazon, of course, has everything. I recommend them for buying 2-gallon zipper bags as well as pink curing salt (plus, you get enough salt to last through the apocalypse). Note that pink curing salt is essential here because it has salt and sodium nitrate, which keeps the meat pink and kills bacteria. Normal salts don’t pack that wallop.
Bready or Not: Cato Home-Cured Bacon
Ingredients
- 9 to 10 lb pork belly
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 4 teaspoons pink curing salt
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup paprika sweet or smoky
Instructions
- Cut the pork belly slab in half and rinse and pat dry both pieces. Place them in separate re-sealable 2-gallon plastic bags.
- Mix together the spice rub. It'll form a thick paste. Roughly divide it into quarters, and use a quarter on each side of a pork piece. The rub will be very lumpy. Don't worry about a perfect, even coating; the pork will release juices and the flavors will seep in during the curing process.
- Close both bags, pressing out as much air as possible. Freeze one bag for later; as a precaution against holes getting torn in the bag, wrap it well in plastic wrap, too. When ready to start the curing process for this half, add another day or two to the curing time in the fridge to account for thawing time.
- As for the ready piece of pork belly, set that bag in the fridge for the next 7 to 10 days, until it feels firm. Flip the meat once a day.
- Remove the pork belly from the bag. Rinse it well and pat it dry. Set it on a rack on a small cookie sheet in the fridge and let it dry for another two days. No need to flip it at this point.
- Set up your smoker at 200-degrees. Applewood chips are a great choice, but maple and hickory are fantastic as well. Smoke the pork belly for about 3 hours, until the bacon reaches an internal temperature of about 150-degrees.
- From this point, slice and cook the meat as you would regular bacon, but note that this fresher, homemade variety will cook much faster. Use plastic wrap or plastic bags to store the sliced meat in the fridge for upwards of a week, or freeze for up to 2 months.
- OM NOM NOM!
Sunday Quote looks to TR for advice for 2018
Read More“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt
