almond

Doing vanilla orange biscotti with Cointreau

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Leftovers leftovers leftovers. I had some rice and some chicken, so I tossed it all together to make chicken and prawn fried rice. I never used to be the type of person who casually prepared anything – from scratch or from leftovers (when it comes to cooking). It seemed like no matter what I cooked, I had to think about it and plan it. Now I have become something else. The casual cook who can throw things together.

I have always been able to bake casually, quickly, without a plan but always organized. Even when I made vanilla orange biscotti the first time and subsequent times, I substituted the required orange liqueur with orange juice. This time, for the first time, I was so prepared that I even had Cointreau on hand. Imagine that.

Cointreau-ified vanilla orange biscotti

Cointreau-ified vanilla orange biscotti

Vanilla orange biscotti (did with Cointreau this time)
1 1/2 cups sugar
10 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon orange liqueur (first few times around, I used orange juice but this time made use of Cointreau)
1 tablespoon orange zest (I used the zest of an orange)
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup sliced/slivered almonds
1 large egg white

Preheat oven to 175C.

Mix all ingredients together (except the egg white at the end, which is for brushing onto the logs of dough), adding the dry ingredients only at the end, just before the almonds, which will be added last. The dough is very sticky, so handling it will require either that you flour your hands or keep wetting your hands with cold water. Make two logs with the dough, each about 2 1/2 inches wide and 1 inch tall. (You will need your hands for this, and this is where the sticky part gets… stickiest!) Whisk the egg white and brush it onto the dough logs (will help them lightly brown).

Bake 30 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool. Once cool, slice the logs into 1/2 inch slices and turn them on their side. Reduce the oven temperature to 150C and bake on each side for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Vanilla orange biscotti and the dullness of liquor stores

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It seems that when I bake, I like to include biscotti in every big haul of baking. No clue why. This recipe is a new attempt – not sure what I think of the dough or the recipe itself. I had to make modifications – the recipe that inspired this choice called for orange liqueur, and I am not really someone who has a large stock of alcohol on hand. I happen to have a handful of things specifically for baking (Guinness, Baileys, Kahlua and vodka…), and I find it to be one of the dullest things on earth to go to liquor stores. (It has always been the “norm” for me that alcohol is only available in a state-run liquor store – in Washington state, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, this was normal. Washington recently passed a law privatizing liquor sales, so all alcohol is now available in grocery stores and the like… but that does not help or concern me, not only because I no longer live there but also because I would hardly go out and buy a whole bottle of something just to get a tablespoon of it for a cookie recipe.)

Orange zest and a dash of orange juice just have to cut it. (And it did! These were quite popular and well-liked.)

Vanilla orange biscotti
1 1/2 cups sugar
10 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon orange liqueur (I used orange juice)
1 tablespoon orange zest (I used the zest of one whole orange)
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup sliced/slivered almonds
1 large egg white

Preheat oven to 175C.

Mix all ingredients together (except the egg white at the end, which is for brushing onto the logs of dough), adding the dry ingredients only at the end, just before the almonds, which will be added last. The dough is very sticky, so handling it will require either that you flour your hands or keep wetting your hands with cold water. Make two logs with the dough, each about 2 1/2 inches wide and 1 inch tall. (You will need your hands for this, and this is where the sticky part gets… stickiest!) Whisk the egg white and brush it onto the dough logs (will help them lightly brown).

Bake 30 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool. Once cool, slice the logs into 1/2 inch slices and turn them on their side. Reduce the oven temperature to 150C and bake on each side for about 10 to 15 minutes.