Harvest Biscotti

Ok, so I STILL had leftover canned pureed pumpkin...seriously. I shouldn't have bought the big can, but then again I couldn't have made all these extra pumpkin treats, so here it goes.

I've been thinking of making biscotti for a long time, since I am Italian and it is a classic Italian cookie, great with coffee or tea. Biscotti is a twice baked biscuit-like cookie that is baked as a log and then cut into the sliced cookies and baked again to make them nice and crisp. I was thinking, since it's my first year hosting Thanksgiving *panic* that it might be nice to have a little treat for my guest to take home after dinner. I wanted to test these out first to make sure they are good enough for company. So here goes nothing!

Harvest Biscotti

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 cup dried raisins and cranberries (Sun-Maid has these packaged together)
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp. vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350. Sift together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and spices. Add the raisins and cranberries and mix to incorporate thoroughly.

In a small bowl whisk together the eggs, pumpkin and vanilla extract. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Give this a rough stir to generally combine ingredients, dough will be crumbly.

Flour our hands and a clean kitchen surface and lightly knead the dough. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Form the dough into a large log, roughly 15-20 inches by 6-7 inches. The loaves should be relatively flat. Only about 1/2 inch high. Bake for 22-30 minutes at 350, until the center is firm to the touch. (you can also form 2 smaller logs, to make bite-size biscotti, change baking time to 18-25 minutes.)

Let the biscotti logs cool for 15 minutes, then using a serrated knife, cut into 1 inch thick pieces. Turn the oven to 300 and bake the biscotti pieces for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely.

Biscotti may still be a tad moist and chewy, so if you prefer the crispier biscotti let sit uncovered overnight in a dry space. Serve and enjoy!

(recipe adapted from Simply Recipes)

I choose to do the two smaller logs to have smaller biscotti, but I think I might like to have the larger ones for my guests (my guests being my parents, in-laws, my eldest brother and my youngest brother's family.) These are pretty tasty, and I really like the soft texture of the raisins and cranberries in the crisp and crumbly biscuit cookie. I think even adding nuts for crunch and a salty taste would be great as well. These were really easy to make and I think that my guest will really enjoy them as a take-home treat!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!!

-BellaRosa

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I came across a banana oatmeal cookie recipe a couple weeks back and thought that those sounded amazing! I love, love, love oatmeal cookies, and I love baking with bananas so it seemed win/win for me! I looked up a few more recipes and found one that seemed perfect and thought I'd give it a try since I have some overly ripe bananas chilling on my counter.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies
(adapted from this recipe.)

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 white sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup banana, mashed (about 2)
1 3/4 cups old-fashioned oats

Optional:
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugars, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Beat in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat in egg and bananas. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips or nuts if using them.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.


These soft, dense, flavorful cookies are great!! Really easy to make, although the whole, combining the sugar with the flour and THEN beating in the butter, was a little weird, but whatever, maybe that is why they are kinda thick and cakey. Also, I decided to go with brown sugar instead of all white sugar, because, well, I just like it more and I think that caramel-y flavor you get with brown sugar goes perfect with bananas. Also, to the last bit of batter I added a small handful of hazelnuts to see how those turned out. I think the nuts needed to be in bigger chunks, but I like the taste and texture of nuts in oatmeal cookies.

I hope you get inspired by these delicious cookies and use up some over-ripe bananas you may have sitting on your counter.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

-BellaRosa

Thick & Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

I have been baking up a storm lately!! Ok, I have made banana muffins and oatmeal cookies, but whatever, I don't really bake that often. I also made some Toll house Choc. Chip Cookies last night, but that doesn't really count, cause its the recipe off the bag and not really that exciting.

So a while ago I looked up recipes for chewy, soft oatmeal cookies, cause really, I despise crunchy hard cookies...especially if they are meant to be soft! So I found a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, who by the way, I love! This is the 2nd recipe I have made so far. She has a recipe for Thick & Chewy Oatmeal Cookies, and they are yummy! Now I love a good oatmeal cookie, and I have to say I really enjoy making these more than other cookies. They are so easy and I had everything on hand.

Thick & Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg1/2 tsp. vanilla3/4 cup flour1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins (I used ones that were actually made for baking, they were moister)
1/2 cup walnuts (I used 1/4 cup almonds, cause half my batch was with nuts)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large bowl cream together the butter, brown sugar, vanilla and egg. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture until smooth. Stir in the oats, raisins and nuts if using them.
• At this point you can chill the dough for a bit, or scoop the dough on the cookie sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking.
  
• Scoop cookies onto parchment lined baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes (mine took 7 1/2 - 8 cause my oven runs a bit hot) until the edges are brown and golden.
  
• Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool.

I found my cookies to get a bit more brown than I expected, but they are still delicious.

*Note: By the way! I am having so much fun being able to take my food photos in natural lighting!! So fun!! I swear I took 40 pictures of these cookies...some were a bit blurry which was kinda disappointing, but seriously...I am so proud of the pictures, as well as the ones for the Sour Cream Banana Muffins. Plus it helps that I have a lovely green wall to take pictures against. Shout out to my brother and sister-in-law who got me those great appetizer plates in the first photo up there...I was so glad I saw them and thought to use them for my cookie pictures.

left: with slivered almonds right: just raisins

Happy Baking & Eat, Drink & Be Merry!

-BellaRosa