Candy Cane Biscotti

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is baking cookies.  Last year, we had an office cooking baking contest.  I'm a litttttttle bit competitive, and in the end I squeaked by and won by 1 vote with these cookies.  Seriously delicious.



This year, I was thrilled that I was invited to a cookie swap that 2 of my friends were holding.  I was very torn about what I wanted to make, but in the end I decided on these Candy Cane Biscotti.  I feel like biscotti can be a little controversial, because people expect it to be rock hard, but it's one of my absolute favorite cookies to make.



Let me start by saying homemade biscotti is completely different than the small bricks that you might find somewhere like Starbucks.  They're crunchy, but not break-your-teeth hard by any means. My go-to cookie last winter was gingerbread biscotti and it was always a hit. I also loved making cinnamon sugar biscotti, and it made me fully trust Tracey's biscotti recipes.  I also love that biscotti stores well for a bit longer than other cookies - I actually brought some home on the plane for my family last December.



These particular biscotti are perfect for the holiday season.  It turns out crushing candy canes is not so easy - we crushed right through several plastic baggies.  I recommend using freezer bags.  I also over-tempered the white chocolate so I was only able to dip 4 biscotti.  Listen to Tracey, use bars instead of chips.  You also might need to bake them a little bit longer than the recipe says, although my oven might be off.  I wanted to brown the tops a little bit more. I really should purchase an oven thermometer one of these days.



Our cookie swap ended up being so much fun! I was really impressed with some of the cookies the girls made.  Folks seemed to enjoy these biscotti, and I think they turned out pretty delicious.  They weren't hard, and the peppermint gave great Christmasy-flavor.  Plus, even without the white chocolate, they're quite pretty!  This is a great recipe to make ahead of time and put out for Santa on Christmas Eve.  They're sure to put you in the holiday spirit!



Candy Cane Biscotti
from Tracey's Culinary Adventures

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup crush peppermint candy canes, plus extra for garnish
14 oz white chocolate (use bars, not chips)

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and beat just until incorporated. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the candy cane pieces.

3. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Shape each into a log that is roughly 9-inches by 1 1/2-inches. Transfer them to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 3 inches apart. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the logs are light golden brown and cracked and top. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the logs cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. Reduce the oven to 325 F.

4. Working with one log at a time, cut into 1/2-inch slices on the diagonal using a serrated knife. Transfer the biscotti to the baking sheet, cut side down. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the biscotti are light golden brown and crisp on both sides. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool completely.

5. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted. Dip half of each biscotti cookie into the melted chocolate, letting the excess drip off before transferring to a sheet of wax paper. Garnish with extra crushed candy canes while the chocolate is wet, if desired. Let the chocolate set then store in an airtight container.

Makes about 3 dozen

White Chocolate Strawberry Chunk Ice Cream

I finally did it!  I've been talking about making ice cream for well over a year now, and finally I made the move.  Despite the fact this is not a cost saving way of eating, I don't think I can ever buy ice cream in a carton again.





I stole my ice cream maker from my parents house when they moved up to the lake.  They bought it at a yard sale from our old neighbors when they moved from their house.  It had never been used until I made this ice cream, but it's far from new.  It's even hand crank...but honestly it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it'd be.




I saw this recipe a while back and it definitely peaked my interest.  Have I mentioned my love of white chocolate?  Strawberry ice cream is pretty suburb as well. The Monkey Scientist encouraged me to finally go ahead and make this, and even lent me a helping hand.  It took a long time, but none of the steps were really that difficult.




The ice cream was really amazing.  The base was so silky and sweet.  The strawberries got a little bit icy, but I think if we chopped them a little bit smaller they may have been fine.  My new ice cream scoop, on the other hand didn't quite make it.  It wasn't fancy ($1 at CVS) but I figured it'd least give me one scoop before it snapped....not so much.





I'm totally hooked on homemade ice cream...what kind should I make next?



White Chocolate Strawberry Chunk Ice Cream
from day dreamer desserts

Ingredients:
1 lb finely diced strawberries
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 c heavy whipping cream
1 c whole milk
6-7 tbsp white chocolate hot cocoa powder (I used World Market Dulce de Leche White Hot Chocolate + 1 tbsp malted milk powder)
3/4 c granulated sugar
pinch of salt
5 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3.5 oz high quality white chocolate, chopped

Instructions:
1. Place diced strawberries into a medium bowl.  Spring 2 tbsp sugar over strawberries and toss to coat. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, pour 1 c of heavy cream, and place a large strainer on top.
3. In a medium saucepan warm remaining 1 c of the heavy cream, milk, white chocolate hot cocoa powder, sugar, and pinch of salt.
4. Crack eggs into a small bowl and whisk lightly. Temper the eggs by slowly pourinng about half of the heavy cream mixture in a thin stream into the egg yolks while whisking constantly to warm the egg yolks. Then return the egg yolks back into the sauce pan. Over medium heat, stir the ice cream base with a wooden spoon making sure you scrape the bottom of the pan while you stir until the ice cream base thickens and coats the back side of the wooden spoon.
5. Pour ice cream base through the strainer and stir it into the large bowl with heavy cream.  Add vanilla extract and diced strawberries. Stir well to combine. Cool ice cream base over an ice bath then finishing chilling in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours, preferably overnight.
6. Pour ice cream base into your ice cream maker and follow your manufacturer's instructions.  About 5 min before the ice cream is done churning add in white chocolate chunks. Transfer ice cream into a sealable plastic container, cover and place in the freezer until thoroughly frozen approximately 4 hours.

Coconut Lime White Chocolate Macaroons

I decided this year to host Passover at my apartment.  I invited most of my good friends (some Jewish, some not) and figured most of them would say no and maybe a few would come for dinner.  I was totally wrong and ended up having 22 people over!

Being my mother's daughter, I was so afraid I wouldn't have enough food.  I made this recipe before I realized how many people were coming over - I doubled it but I probably would have made 4 times this many had I realized.  Fortunately, a friend brought more macaroons over.

Keep in mind, when making macaroons for Passover, that some brands have HFCS in them.  I don't like to buy HFCS anyways, but corn isn't kosher for Passover if you're Ashkenazi so you really need to pay attention this time of year.  Fortunately, this brand (which you can usually find in the Latino section of the market) has all natural ingredients, and no corn!

The minute I saw this recipe, I was drawn to it.  Coconut? Lime? WHITE CHOCOLATE? Some of my favorite ingredients.  Of course, I missed a step (it wasn't a good baking day) and so the picture above and below are missing the egg whites.  I added them back in at the end, which I don't recommend but it did work.

Overall, really easy to make!  You basically just combine all of the ingredient and make little mounds of the coconut mixture.  1 bowl for easy clean up!

I would make the mounds a little smaller than I did.  The recipe says 2 tbsp, but I think you can go smaller than that.  Also, I just drizzled them with white chocolate at the end instead of dipping.  However, the recipe below is just as it was written on two peas and their pod.  Lots more Passover recipes to come in the next week!

Coconut Lime White Chocolate Macaroons
from two peas and their pod


Ingredients
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 large egg white
1½ teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
3½ cups sweetened coconut
10 ounces white chocolate, chopped

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, lime zest, egg white, vanilla extract, and salt. Stir until combined. Add in the coconut and mix well.

3. With a spoon, scoop up about 2 Tablespoons of the coconut mixture and form into mounds that have a slight peak at the top. Place on lined baking sheets, about two inches apart. Bake cookies one sheet at a time for 15 to 2o minutes, or until cookies are set and slightly golden brown.

4. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for about 5 minutes. Remove with a spatula onto a cooling rack.

5. Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Make sure you keep stirring the chocolate every 20 seconds or so until chocolate is melted and smooth.

6. Lay out a large piece of wax paper. Dip the cookies into the chocolate-just so the bottoms are covered in chocolate. Set dipped cookies on the paper to dry. Drizzle macaroons with white chocolate and let dry completely.

Makes 18 macaroons