Chocolate Babka muffins for Baking Partner's challenge and a BIG FAT alert :-)

Yayy!! I made it, middle of the week and I came home and baked and more importantly I am blogging about it. I just didn't want to ask Swathi for extension one more time :-). Well, if you follow my blog, you know today being the 15th of the month, it is time for a team of home bakers to bake and present a selected recipe. Swathi gave us 2 choices this time, I already have a carrot cake on the blog (which I think is the best ever carrot cake :-)), so chose to make these chocolate Babka muffins. They looked cute and adorable and ofcourse highly fattening with oodles of butter every step of the way. This fares at the top of the list of my 'most calorie dense' recipes so far on the blog.

All you health conscious people, before you go away trying to calm that pounding heart of yours, let me tell you the silver lining(s) of my version of the recipe. Well, I wish I could claim it was butterless, sugarless, eggless muffin like I always do :-), Alas, no such luck this time, it is eggless though (first silver lining if you are allergic to eggs or just don't like them) and I cut the butter by a third and sugar by a third. Given that this is a brioche type of dough, that reduction in butter and given that it is meant to be a cake, that reduction of sugar speak volumes about my concern for your health and mine too. I am misleading you here a little bit and intentionally too, here is the real story, I have not actually reduced butter or sugar from the main recipe but just chose not execute one part of the recipe. I cut some corners and did not add the streusel topping the original recipe called for. Swathi, I hope this still qualifies for the baking partner's challenge :-). If any of you are thinking that you missed out on the full blown buttery babka, let me assure you that is not the case and if it is any consolation the streusel topping didn't particularly look pretty :-) either, so nothing lost there..

What came out of the oven was most definitely delicious, buttery sweet, oozing melted chocolate, dreamy babkas which made the kitchen smell like Cinnabon's store front (if they were making fresh cinnamon buns that day in that location!) on a lazy weekend morning and made me a very happy baker. Thanks Tammy for suggesting the recipe, it is a keeper and I will make it again as long as I can find people to share it with.

My wiki knowledge about babka are that they are of Ukrainian origin, made sweet or savory (potatoes) with a really rich dough and served during Easter celebrations. They are also baked as loaves which you can slice up and slather some more butter on and enjoy. I liked the mini versions (not really mini as they grew in size, if you want small servings, make 18 pieces from the same dough).

This is a really simple and easy recipe, if you don't count the wait times, the actual hands on time is really small. So you can prepare it in between your other chores. I do not believe that the baked muffins have a long shelf life but you can freeze the rolled log in the refrigerator and and bake them fresh as needed. You just need to keep it out for a couple of hours for it to come to room temperature before baking.

DD has been working on a project for school and I gave her a mommy lecture about effects of procrastinating when I came home this evening only to be given a little reverse lecture from her later in the night as she found me scrambling to take the pictures on the day the post was due on the blog :-), that sets the score even for now and we can go back to being the happy mommy & daughter again (until next time that is..).

I have used unsweetened apple sauce as the egg replacement in this recipe. If you really want to know the streusel topping, you can refer to other baking partner's posts for details.

What do you need to make Babka muffins?
Recipe source 
Dough ingredients: 

1/2 cup warm milk (warm it to 110 degrees if you own a thermometer)

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tsp instant (rapid rise) yeast

1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce (my replace for 1 large egg)

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 Tsp salt

3 Tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature

Filling ingredients:

3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tsp freshly ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
3 Tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature

How do you make Babka muffins?
Dough preparation:

• Using a stand mixer, combine warm milk, sugar, yeast and blend a couple of times.
• Add the apple sauce, flour and salt and mix until a sticky dough begins to form.
• Add the butter and mix in until well blended.
• Knead the dough for 10 minutes until it is soft and supple. It will still be quite loose in texture - do not add additional flour.

• Put the kneaded dough in a buttered :-) or oiled bowl, cover and let it rest until it doubles in volume. It will take a couple of hours.

Filling preparation:

• Put all ingredients except butter in a blender and blend it until chocolate chips are broken into tiny crumbs and mostly powdery.
• Add butter and blend it till it comes together.
• Keep aside until ready to use.

Making Babka muffins:

• Line a muffin tray (makes 12 muffins) with paper liners.
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Turn over the dough on to the working area, press it gently to deflate, let it rest for 5 minutes.
• Using dry flour, roll the dough into a thin rectangle of about 12X20 inches.

• Spread the filling evenly all over the top of the rectangle. 
• Starting from one end, roll it into a tight log.

• Cut with a sharp knife into 12-1 inch pieces. 
• Place them into the prepared muffin pans, cover with a tea towel and let it rise for about 30 minutes. 

• Bake for 15-20 minutes or until it is poofy and starts to brown at the edges. 
• Take it out onto the cooling rack and let cool or enjoy them warm :-)

These Babka muffins are going to a party with the rest of the Baking partners here.. 

Notes: 

• The dough is easily made in a stand mixer, it is a little difficult to handle manually because of the amount of butter and the consistency of the dough. As long as you can successfully curb the urge to add more dry flour to make the dough manageable, go ahead and do it the old fashioned way using your own hands. 

Saltine crackers - Move aside store brands, here comes the home made!

Happy Holi to all my readers who are celebrating the festival of colors! The smell of Spring is definitely in the air and flowers are already blooming and leaves showing up on all the bare tree limbs. Looking forward to a great Spring and Summer in the near future.

The only two biscuits (that is what they are called in India where I grew up) I was aware of as a kid and liked to munch on were Parle-G (sweet) and Monaco (saltine). Then came many varieties of sweet, salt and something called 50-50 :-) among other things. They were all still called biscuits - prefixed with either sweet or salt to qualify them appropriately. Then I grew up, came to the US and saw that there were unimaginable number of different types of biscuits - only they were not called biscuits because biscuits was a word reserved for the soft, leavened bread served with gravy for breakfasts. While I picked up the appropriate usage of cookies (sweet tasting) and crackers (saltine), I was still gaping open mouthed at the different brands trying to determine what was best for me and family. We are not regular consumers of either cookies or crackers, I like crackers more but haven't found many that fit my criteria of good crackers :-) except for the relatively recent discovery of some whole grain crackers I get from Costco. These are tasty without leaving a sweet after taste on the tongue and something I can bite into in between meals. DD loves it too so I don't feel very guilty bringing home the big box from Costco once in a while.

So when Swathi announced this month's baking partner's challenge, I was happy to find a cracker recipe in it suggested by Arthy. Though there were 2 recipes listed for choice, I knew immediately which one I would go after :-). I saw the recipes a couple of weeks back and made sure I had the ingredients at home and then just didn't follow up. All of a sudden it was the 15th of the month when the post was due and I had not even made the dough. So promptly asked Swathi for an extra day of extension which she very sweetly said yes to and then set out to mix my dough. Saturday morning, the dough was mixed and went into the refrigerator, I pulled it out today and made the crackers. They are very easy to make, the only caveat being the really loosey-goosey soft dough. There is no kneading or any other hard work involved but if you can manage the sticky dough, you will be in for a treat.

The best part of the whole recipe is the wonderful flavor of the crackers, No store bought cracker can compare or compete with this one on that aspect. I am sure the over night (or more) refrigeration and the slow fermentation has a lot to do with developing that strong flavor. This is not a very healthy option if you are on any special diet, it has the processed flour and some butter but if you want to bake it once in a while and take it to a party, I am sure you will have brought in a star appetizer to the table. I want to try mixing the flours next time to make it a tad bit healthier, will keep you all posted on that front.

On the note of healthy diets, I was part of a conversation Friday evening when DD was playfully complaining about her 'health freak' mom with a friend :-). We were making pizza that night and the kitchen counter was full of pizza ingredients including some pan sauteed Asparagus which may seem like a very unlikely pizza topping for most people (we like asparagus and it really goes well on the pizza). I am not sure if that was the reason her friend refused to stay for dinner or she was really full and needed to be someplace else :-). Just to make my girl feel better, I went all 'non-healthy' today and made her favorite Poori, palya and maagai combination for lunch. She thinks mom is cool today :-).

These crackers use baking soda but with the tiny amount used, I am not sure whether they qualify to be called 'Soda crackers', I will leave that to the experts. Original recipe called for cream of tartar which has been replaced with vinegar. If you are a baking enthusiast, this is a recipe you would want to try and add to your repertoire. It is really a no-fuss and not much effort recipe and so a very easy win and it makes a good snack box option for kids. Go ahead and bake a batch, pop a couple into the mouth and enjoy the taste. Keep munching on them and I will see you with more recipes next week.

What do you need to make Saltine crackers?
Makes about 35- 1X1 inch crackers
3/4 cup all purpose flour + 1/2 Tbsp for dusting
1/8 Tsp baking soda
1/8 Tsp salt
2-3 drops of vinegar
1/2 Tsp sugar
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1.5 Tsp active dry yeast
1 Tbsp oil (I used canola oil)
3 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp butter
For the topping: (This is what I used today, go creative and use herbs/spices of choice)
1/2 Tsp coarse salt
1 Tsp dry rosemary

How do you make Saltine crackers? 

• Take 3 Tbsp water, oil & butter in a microwave safe bowl  and heat it for 30 seconds, mix once and if the butter has not melted, heat for another 10 seconds. 
• Take it out of microwave and let it cool down slightly to warm. You can do this on stove top too. 
• Heat the 1/4 cup of water to just lukewarm, add the sugar and yeast, mix and keep aside for yeast to get active. 
• In a bowl, take flour, salt and baking soda, mix them together. Add vinegar and mix it in. 
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add the yeasted water and the water with oil & butter. 
• With the help of a spoon, bring everything together. It will be a sticky dough. 
• Put it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 14-16 hours (I left it refrigerated for 24 hours). 
• This dough will not rise very much (do not look for a double the volume kind of rise) which is perfectly normal for this dough. 
• Take out the dough when you are getting ready to bake, let it come to room temperature for an hour or so. 
• Generously dust your working surface with AP flour, take the dough out of the bowl and pat it into a rough rectangle. 
• This dough is very soft and sticky so you can thin it out with hands. Use dry AP flour as needed. 
• Once you have a rectangle of about 8X10 inches, fold the long edge over to the middle and fold the opposite edge over the top of the first folded edge. This gives the crackers the layers inside. 
• Turn the folded dough sideways and roll (or pat) into a thin rectangle. I would recommend doing this on top of a parchment paper so you can easily transfer it to the baking sheets. 

• With a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, cut the rectangle into small pieces of desired size. 
• Sprinkle the toppings and using a fork, make indentations all over the crackers - This is very important if you don't want them to puff up like puris which they will without the forking. 

• Preheat oven to 425F, put the baking sheet in the middle of the oven and bake for 10 minutes, turn the baking sheets 90 degrees and bake for another 2 minutes. 
• Take them out immediately and let them cool for a couple of minutes before popping them into the mouth. 

Notes: 

• Oven temperatures differ vastly, keep an eye on the crackers after 8 minutes and do not let them burn. 
• Forking is essential to get flat crackers that are crispy. 
• Overnight refrigeration develops the ultimate taste in these crackers, do not try to bake them as soon as the dough is mixed. The flavors come in over time. 
• These crackers turn out really crispy and flaky inside, make sure you roll the dough out as thin as possible without tearing it apart. 

These crackers are off to the Baking Partner's monthly challenge. Thanks Swathi & Arthy for the flavorful crackers recipe. 

Kofieebroodje - let us start the 2014 Baking Partner's challenge with a Dutch Coffee Bun

Happy Makara Sankranthi to all my readers who are celebrating the festival. This is the harvest festival in India and recipes rich in ingredients newly harvested are prepared, shared and enjoyed. Well, are you wondering that you have never heard of a Kofieebroodje in any part of India during Sankranthi? Okay, this is not a Sankranthi dish, it is not even an Indian dish. This came from Amsterdam where one of our Baking Partners Kaveri resides. And since it is the 15th of the month, a good rule abiding baking partner that I am, I chose to post this recipe instead of my Sankranthi goodies today :-). I can hear some of you muttering that if I were any good blogger worth my salt, I would have planned this and brought timely Sankranthi recipes. So, until I can get my act together and get the Sankranthi recipes for this year, look at these previous year's posts here, here and here. There is plenty of harvesting going on in these posts already.

With that explained to everyone's satisfaction, now back to Kofieebroodje or the Dutch Coffee Buns. There were 2 choices this month, one for a tart apple pie and another for these coffee buns. Here we are in the first month of the new year and I was thinking of reducing/eliminating all processed food from my cooking and eat better, but then the lure of baking partners is too great to resist. So I let my resolve go down South a little bit but made it up by not eating too much myself but sharing it generously with people around me. I know, I know, it sounds so totally selfish but they didn't have any such resolutions and I was upfront in telling them that the delicious looking pastries had all purpose flour, butter and sugar. What can I say, I am a very honest gal and I didn't want to let go of my resolution so early in the year either, there are 350 and odd days to do it anyway.. :-)

As many of you already know, I am part of this fun group of home bakers called Baking Partners, Swathi who started this group very diligently reviews out suggestions and gives us a couple of shortlisted recipes every month. I picked the Dutch Coffee buns this time (since it sounded like the easier of the two :-)) called Kofieebroodje. They are like most of the pastries you get in bakeries but the best part is that they are not overly sugary but have just the right amount of sweetness and a little tang from the jam on top, the slightly flaky crust is made moist with the jam. I am told these are served as mid morning snacks over a cuppa when you meet up with neighbors/friends but you don't have to organize a 11AM meeting specially to consume them, they taste good any other time of the day also :-). The dough itself is very easy to work work, much like a 'less buttered up' cookie dough and is a novice baker (a.k.a me)'s dream come to true. You get to create something so professional looking and tasty without any fuss.

I made my first batch of Kofieebroodje a week or so ago. Since I have been experimenting quite a bit now a days, DD was rightfully apprehensive about trying a new dish when I offered her the warm buns the first time. She was in her room studying and I took one in a plate and as soon as she took a bite, the face exploded in a big smile and then came a hug and then after 30 seconds when all of that bun had gone inside came the request for 2 more and 'make it quick amma' she says! I had halved the original recipe since I didn't want to make too many of them but the dozen Kofieebroodje were gone before the Earth had twirled once around its base. So I made them again the second time and added some roasted and crushed almonds and experimented with an apple sauce layering for half the batch instead of the pudding. And the batch is looking thinner and smaller since the last 4 hours or so of making them :-). These stay well without dripping and being squishy, so they are perfect for a kids party or for taking over as a present for a host.

What do you need to make Kofieebroodje?
Recipe source: The Dutch Table
Makes about 12 Kofieebroodje
1.5 cups All Purpose Flour
1 Tsp Rapid rise/bread machine yeast
1/2 cup + 1Tblsp milk (lukewarm)
2 Tblsp sugar
1.5 Tblsp butter (at room temperature)
1/4 Tsp salt
1/4 cup raisins (I used golden raisins)
1/2 Tsp Vanilla essence
8-10 almonds (I added this on my second batch, not in the original recipe but made a very favorable difference)
For the cream/custard:
I used single serve cups of vanilla pudding from the store. It took me 2 cups for this measurement
For the glaze on top: 
2 Tblsp Apricot jam (or any other favorite flovor)
couple of drops warm water (to loosen up the jam to a spreadable consistency)

How do you make Kofieebroodje? 

• Soak raisins in warm water for 15 minutes, once they plump up a little and soak up the water, drain the water and keep aside until ready to use.
• Toast almonds in microwave or stove top until toasty and pound/chop in to small pieces. Keep aside. 
• Mix flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a wide bowl. 
• Add butter and vanilla essence and mix it in homogeneously. 
• Add warm milk slowly to make a soft and pliant dough. 
• Knead for a couple of minutes to get the yeast going. 
• Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let it rise in a warm corner of your kitchen counter. 
• When the dough doubles in volume (about 45 mins to an hour), punch it down and knead to a smooth ball. 
• Divide the dough into 2 and roll each ball into a rectangle of about 12inch X 12 inch. 
• Spread the pudding in a thin layer on top leaving 1/2 inch from the edges on all sides. 
• Sprinkle chopped nuts, soaked raisins.

• Roll the rectangle from one end to the other, closing the edges to prevent pudding from popping out too much. 

• Cut the roll into 5-6 pieces (depends on your preference for size), take each piece and set it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. When you put the pieces on the baking sheet, turn them to have one of the cut surfaces on top so it bakes beautifully with those concentric circles not getting smudged. 

• Cover and let them proof for 25-30 minutes. 
• Brush lightly with milk (gives that wonderful glow and golden hue), add a few more raisins on top if you like and bake it in a pre-heated oven at 350F for 25-28 minutes. 
• Mix the jam and a couple of drops of water and give it a good stir. 
• Take the baking sheet out of the oven, brush the jam all over the hot pastries. 

• Let cook and if you want give another coating of the jam once it cools down. 
• Serve warm or cold with or without coffee :-)

Notes: 

• The second time I made this, I used unsweetened apple sauce for half the batch instead of the pudding. It worked very well. 
• I added the nuts the second day (smarter me :-)) as I have said before I am nutty about nuts and find excuses to throw some in every opportunity I get. DD said they gave a nice crunchy bite. I used almonds but use any toasted nuts of your choice. 
• You can prepare custard or pudding at home and use it to layer, make sure the consistency is right so it spreads easily but doesn't run. 
• You can add any frosting of choice on top instead of the jam but I didn't want to make too many changes as I was posting the recipe as part of the group. 

This recipe comes to you from the Baking partners

Pumpkin bread - a visit to Tilo's land of spices

Autumn, harvest, Halloween - what do they all have in common? For me for the last many years I have been living in North America, all these words scream pumpkin. Large, round, bright colored pumpkins come into the market as soon as the temperature goes South. Coming from India where pumpkins were normal sized (= quite small compared to the ones here), these seemed to be on a hormone injected growth spurt. My parents with their love for gardening, always had a home garden with loads of flowering plants and vegetables whether the patch was big or small. One of the houses we had rented had a huge yard and the soil was very fertile. We had many plants that came up on their own such as the 'not so good' pomegranate, 'very delicious' heralekayi(a citrus fruit used in pickles), 'can't eat any more, we are so bored' papaya trees and so on :-). Vegetable patch almost always had green beans, okra, brinjal, greens and pumpkins. While there were experimental ground nuts (peanuts), the green chana (soppina kadle kayi in Kannada) fared well a couple of times. Once a rogue white pumpkin or winter melon or ash gourd as it is called in India, spread all around in the yard and yielded humongous gourds. These were very happily consumed in many a sandige and majjige huli and kasha halwa preparations :-). Well, I digress, that is not the pumpkin I am going to talk about today.

It is that time of the month to bake something with my baking partners. Having missed last month's challenge, I was looking forward to this one as an excuse to bake but was definitely not prepared for the heady spicy aroma that engulfed us as the bread baked in the oven. This being October, Swathi very aptly gave us a pumpkin recipe infused heavily with spices and what a wonderfully flavored bread it was. Now, if you are wondering about the title of this post and thinking who Tilo is, here is a little explanation to set records straight. A few years back I read a book called 'Mistress of Spice' (by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni). I believe it was made into a movie with Aishwarya Rai. The protagonist of the book is Tilo, she runs a spice store in the bay area and has magical healing powers but is severely restrained in her own personal happiness. The book is at once magical and sad but what I wondered most during that reading was coming across that exotic spice store in San Franscisco whenever I went there and getting some magical spices from Tilo :-). When I made the pumpkin bread the other day, I was reminded of this book and thought the house smelled like Tilo's store from the book, at once mysterious and enticing with a combinational aroma.

Back to the baking partners' challenge, as always we were given different options to try and I chose the vegan bread recipe. As Navaratri was approaching and I had other work related things going on, I wanted to make this bread at the first opportunity and be ready with the pictures so I used the ingredients from my pantry. The only change I did was to use honey instead of maple syrup since I was out of it which makes this bread non-vegan but you can always replace honey with maple syrup if you like. There is no yeast in this bread but works with baking powder and baking soda as leavening agents. The bread was very moist and soft, almost tea cake texture. It had enough sugar to satisfy our sweet cravings and I didn't add any glaze on top. The best part was making the pumpkin puree at home, I added whole spices while cooking the pumpkin and it brought out an intoxicatingly spicy aroma and definitely made the house smell like Tilo's house of spices :-)

What do you need to make pumpkin bread?
Makes 1 loaf
1 cup All purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup pumpkin puree (see below to make your own delicious smelling puree)
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp salt
1 inch piece ginger (or 1/4 Tsp dry ginger powder
1/2 nutmeg (or 1/2 Tsp nutmeg powder)
2 - 1 inch piece cinnamon (or 1/2 Tsp cinnamon powder)
4-6 cloves (or 1/4 Tsp powdered cloves)
1/2 cup oil (I used canola oil)
2 Tblsp honey (original recipe has 3 Tblsp maple syrup)
3 Tblsp water
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (original recipe calls for 1/2cup, we like nutty breads)

How do you make pumpkin bread?
Making pumpkin puree

• Peel and chop pumpkin into chunks, take about 2 cups of chopped pieces.
• Take a sauce pan, add the pumpkin pieces, 1/4 cup water and the whole spices (slightly crushed nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger juliennes and cloves), bring it to boil.
• If you are using spice powders, reserve them for use later on and just boil the pumpkin pieces in water.
• Cover and cook for 6-8 minutes or until pumpkin pieces are cooked completely and start to fall apart.
• Switch off, keep it covered until it cools down.

• Take the cooked mash into a blender and blend into a puree, you can fish out cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves at this stage if you think the flavors have infused enough for your taste, or go ahead and grind them along.
• Pass the ground mixture through a fine sieve and collect the smooth puree. Use one cup of this for the bread recipe below. I used remaining portion in my pumpkin-celery soup.

Making pumpkin bread

• Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a bread loaf pan with a coat of non stick spray and sprinkle a couple of pinches of flour.
• Take a large bowl, sieve the flours, baking soda, baking powder and the salt.  If you are using the spice powders, add them at this stage.
• Add brown sugar to it and mix well.
• In another bowl, combine pumpkin puree, oil, honey (or syrup) and water until oil integrated with the rest of the contents.
• Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, fold in gently with a spoon until everything comes together. Do not over mix it.

• Add the chopped nuts and mix it in.
• Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 40 (to 45) minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• Take out let it rest for 10-15 minutes before removing the bread from the loaf. Use a butter knife to nudge the bread from the sides.
• Let the bread cool down completely on a wire rack before slicing.

• Enjoy with a cup of chai :-)

Notes:

• I felt adding the whole spices to make the puree infused the spices much better than adding dry powders but the choice is yours especially if you are using a store bought pumpkin puree from the can.

• Like all breads, stay away from it until it is cooled down before slicing however strong the temptation is :-)

 

Linking this post to Baking partners



Biscotti - here comes an egg free version loaded with nuts

Long before India became independent from the colonial rule, Rabindranath Tagore wrote this beautiful poem visualizing a new, awakened India. It was later translated to English by himself and included in his Nobel prize winning collection Geetanjali. I remember reciting this on many occasions during my school years and every time it was a surreal experience. Now after so many years, making home in two countries and loving them both with my heart, Independence day holds a special significance. While the generation of our elders that took part in India's independence struggle is slowly vanishing, while we still have a lot more to do before the dream becomes a reality,  I wanted to share this beautiful piece with all of my readers.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

Happy 67th Indian Independence Day!

Those of you familiar with my blog already know that I am part of a group called Baking Partners started by Swathi. We bake savories or sweets every month and post it on the 15th. We usually get a couple of related recipes to choose from and the challenge is flexible to accommodate egg free, gluten free, high altitude revisions to the original recipes. While I chose to break free from my egg aversion for the last 2 challenges, this time I wanted to try it without eggs. Of the 4 recipes Swathi sent us, the family voted for the Italian Biscotti.

Biscotti (biscotus in singular form) have an Italian origin meaning 'twice baked bread' referring to the baking process. Fresh baked bread is allowed to cool very slightly before being cut into oblongs and baked for a second time until they are crunchy and hard. These stay well on journeys thus making them popular during travel and war!

If you have never had Biscotti before, imagine a much less dryer version of the tea time favorites - Rusks. Biscotti are not overly sweet and are traditionally served with a drink such as orange juice so it can be dunked in the juice if preferred. Good biscotti hold shape and do not crumble, elegantly sweet and is a party in the mouth as you can mix & match flavors you like. I chose to do a simple biscotti flavored with orange tangerine rind and loaded with walnuts, the end result was a crisp, sweet treat that had walnuts popping in every bite with a burst of citrus flavor.

So far I have tried 2 different egg replacements in my baking experiments, you can use flax meal soaked in water to replace the eggs in cakes or use fruit sauces in cookies. These work really well and you just need to be cognizant of which one works where and the amount for the replacement. I had book marked a few of those recommendations and tried apple sauce in my biscotti today. I also reduced the butter from the original recipe and upped canola oil slightly. Biscotti were delicious, perfectly crunchy without being hard and disappeared just like hot cakes :-) since I made the first batch yesterday.

What do you need to make Walnut Biscotti?
1.5 cups All purpose flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1 Tblsp butter (at room temperature)
6 Tblsp unsweetened apple sauce
1 Tblsp grated rind of orange/tangerine (replace with lemon rind if you prefer)
3/4 Tsp baking powder
1 cup walnuts
2 Tblsp canola oil (or any other non flavored oil)

How do you make Walnut Biscotti? 

• Preheat the oven to 325F, spread the walnuts on a cookie sheet and bake them for 5-7 minutes or until they are toasted crisp. 
• Remove the walnuts from the oven, let cool slightly and chop then into small bits. 
• Bring sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat them with a fork until smooth. 
• Mix oil, apple sauce and the orange rind into the bowl. 

• Sift flour and baking powder into the bowl and mix everything together to make a soft dough. 
• Prepare a cookie sheet by spreading a layer of parchment paper on it. 
• Dust your hands slightly with AP flour and divide the dough into 2 pieces and shape them into logs. 
• Place the logs on the parchment paper leaving a couple of inches between them. 

• Bake for 28-30 minutes and take out the cookie sheet. 
• Let the baked logs cool for a couple of minutes before slicing them with a sharp knife. 

• Place the cut biscotti back on the parchment paper with one of the cut sides down, put it back in the oven for 8 minutes, flip them over and continue to bake for another 6-8 minutes or until you see the biscotti developing a golden hue all over. 

• Remove from the oven, let cool (pop a few in the mouth as you wait, they taste delicious when warm) completely before storing them in air tight container. 
• I cannot tell you how long they will stay fresh as my biscotti are all gone :-)

Notes: 

• Original recipe asks you to wait for 10 minutes between the bakes but I found it easier to cut through the softer (and hotter) logs and did it after letting it sit for a couple of minutes. 
• Original recipe asked to add a Tblsp of crushed coriander seeds, I didn't do it as DD doesn't like coriander seeds flavor especially when she gets a piece in the mouth. 
• I added tangerine rind since that is what I had on my counter top and the flavor was immensely pleasant. You can experiment with other citrus fruits you like. 

• Reducing the butter from its 4 Tblsp to 1 Tblsp really didn't matter at all and I have started to think if all that 8 Tblsp would have made it way too buttery for our tastes. I am sure the apple sauce helped provide the required texture and the little bit of butter brought in the required flavor  - a win-win for all. 
• A couple of popular Biscotti variations are almonds, hazelnuts, chocolate, pair them with a good vanilla or almond extract. I am thinking cardamom will lend a wonderful aroma to biscotti too.
• When you take out the biscotti after the second bake, they do not have to be very crunchy as they turn harder on cooling.