Blueberry & Almond Biscotti

Ever since I was taken as a pretentious (and greedy) 13 year old to a cutting edge Italian in North London to sample (this was the ’70’s remember) bresaola for the first time, real fresh pasta, deep fried artichokes and a whole host of other new tastes I’ve been hooked on cantuccini (and vin santo of course which was the highlight of the meal) and biscotti. I’ve tried extremely “authentic” recipes with a really high proportion of almonds and egg whites to leaven but the result was a sort of baked marzipan affair – very dense and very almondy but not light and crunchy at all. This recipe is way simpler than it sounds and although yes there are two baking steps the good thing is that because of the dehydration and resulting dryness of the little biscuits they keep for an age in an airtight container.

I tried them with the blueberries for a change and I like how they look – but these will not keep for an age as the fruit is fresh – best to eat in two to three days which is hardship indeed.

Ingredients (makes 4 mini logs and approx 35-40 biscotti)

225g plain flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
50g ground almonds
100g almonds, skins on
150g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs

75g blueberries

Gadgets and Gizmos

As the mixture is so easy all you really need is a bowl and a spoon to mix the basic mix and then some baking trays and baking paper/parchment.

How To

The basic “logs” and the first baking at 180C:

Place all the ingredients in a bowl except the blueberries. Fork the mixture through or mix with a spoon until it comes together. As it comes together use your hands to form a ball. Now divide into 4. Flour your hands and the work surface.

If using blueberries or other soft fruit you need to take one of the pieces and just flatten it into a long rectangle and place the blueberries in the middle and then just roll it up like a roulade. Give it a squeeze and then pat it so it looks like a mini log. This way the blueberries stay intact.

Place the logs on a baking sheet or two sheets (they do expand but not dramatically) that has baking paper on it or if you don’t have make sure its oiled well. bake at 180C for approx 30 minutes or until they are a gentle golden brown. Let them cool a little but not totally and cut them on the diagonal (I grip them with a tea towel to avoid scalded hands) with a bread knife.

The second baking:

Reduce the oven temperature to 150°C

Place all your little diagonals on the tray(s) again and bake until golden and crispy. Its very easy to get distracted at this stage and end up with burnt biscotti so do keep an eye on them! Cool them down on a wire rack and ONLY when perfectly cold put them in an airtight container.

Improvs and Ideas

Hazlenut biscotti are divine – just substitute hazlenuts. For the classic almond variety skip the blueberries but do add a few drops of real almond essence. And for really nice end of meal biscuits I add a tablespoon of fennel seeds to the almond recipe but no almond essence.

Sunshine Whole Orange & almond cake with lemon curd

This is the kind of cake that I like. It’s not all fussed up with cream and decoration, it uses entire fruit skin and all, it is not over-sweet, it uses nuts in place of flour, it improves after a couple of days – in short it is more than the sum of its parts. The cake recipe is adapted from a Claudia Roden recipe for a Sephardic Jewish orange cake and wows with its bitter orange/marmalade taste and for sensitive souls it happens to be gluten free too.

I add polenta for a bit of crunch and the juice the oranges were cooked in. I also adapted the method a little to make a lighter cake so I make a “mousse” or foam with eggs and sugar as if making a genoise. It lends itself well to all kinds of improvs and ideas – in the picture above I added fennel seeds to the mix, decorated with some confit lemon and lime (I ran out of lemons) and sandwiched with a lemon curd.

In Greece I have made it with “mastika” crystals (the incense like flavour I love). Its fabulous with saffron, great with crushed coriander seeds and it marries well with a chocolate ganache. I’ve also added half cocoa in place of polenta to create a gorgeous moist chocolate orange cake.

Nerdy Stuff

Before the “How To”, a quick word on quantities and a quick math lesson. When assessing recipes and wondering if your battered old cake tin will accommodate the cake mix, whip out your calculator/ flex your excel skills! The recipe below is for a 20 cm circular tin… Say the sides are 4cm (and this is a mousse cake method so it will not rise on cooking)…we need the volume, so first the base area ..that’s pi x radius squared ie 3.142x10x10 = 314 cm squared. And now the volume …multiply by the height…so we have 314x 4 = 1257 cm cubed of cake mix. So if you had a square tin that was 18cm x 18cm x 4cm that would give you a volume of 1296 cm cubed and work out fine.

INGREDIENTS for a circular 20cm cake tin

1 orange plus the juice it was boiled in (I’ve sometimes boiled them dry and when that happens as long as you haven’t cremated the thing its fine to add a little boiled water – approx 100ml)

3 Eggs

125g Ground almonds (I blitz them in a blender and I often use almonds with the skins on)

65g polenta (“malai”) or 35g cocoa powder/ 30g polenta if making the chocolate version

120g Sugar (I have used 100ml honey or agave syrup but you need to increase the almonds a little as this is quite a liquid mix to begin with)

HOW TO

Wash and boil the orange unpeeled, in water to cover for 1 hour or until it is very soft. Let cool then cut open, remove the pips and turn into a puree in a food processor adding the water that is left from the cooking pan – approx. 100ml of cooking juice.

Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until they are foamy. Really do keep whisking until they leave a trail from the beater.

Fold in carefully, so as to just amalgamate the ingredients but not knock out all the air from the mixture. Pour into a cake tin with a removable base that you have buttered or oiled.

Bake in a preheated moderately hot 160C convection/ 180C non convection oven for about 1 hour. Check by inserting a skewer – it should come out clean. If it is still very wet, leave it in the oven for a little longer. Cool in the tin before turning out. (I once was in a hurry and turned it out when it was still hot, burnt my fingers and dropped the entire creation on the floor…so please people! “do as I say not as I do.”)

Improvs and Ideas

It does make great small cakes and cup cakes. I am sure a lemon version needs to be created and I am toying with a pink grapefruit idea.

To confit some lemons just slice them relatively finely and cover with half sugar and half water. Bring to the boil and then simmer on the minimum heat very very slowly until they are cooked, soft and have a translucent quality about them indicated that they have absorbed the syrup.

Home made Yoghurt

While out in countryside this week I sampled real home made non pasteurised yoghurt. It transported me back to my miserable childhood and my mum’s home made slightly lumpy yoghurt made in a thermos flask, wrapped in a blanket and put in the airing cupboard overnight when all my friend’s mums bought them “ski” brand yoghurt that came in nifty flavours and smart little pots that you didn’t have to add home made jam to. The shame of it all.

I came home with a small pot of the real stuff

I dragged out of a cupboard and dusted down my very seventies-ish yoghurt maker. Instructions lost years ago so I kind of guessed how it worked.

I boiled a litre of full fat milk (alas no proper unpasteurised stuff but that will happen soon) and let it cool until I could hold my finger in it 10 seconds.

I whisked in 60g of the good culture and filled my pots. left them overnight with the thing switched on. And “voila”…the alchemy of food….thick fresh tasting yoghurt for breakfast. I was tempted to tart it up and make a “granola parfait” and that was good.

But best of all is adding a spoonful of home made jam and stirring it in to make patterns. Just don’t tell my mum that.