International Milk Day 2013 - Internationaler Tag der Milch 2013

Today, 1st June, 2013, is International World Milk Day.

Heute, am 1. Juni 2013, ist Internationaler Tag der Milch.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was asked to propose a specific day to celebrate milk, thus providing the international community with an opportunity to focus attention on milk and to publicize activities connected with milk and the milk industry.

Die Food and Agricultural Oganization der Vereinten Nationen wurde gebeten einen speziellen Tag vorzuschlagen, an dem die Milch gefeiert werden soll und der internationalen Gemeinschaft die Möglichkeit gegeben werden kann, das allgemeine Interesse für Milch zu fördern und Aktivitäten und Feierlichkeiten rund um die Milch bekannt zu machen.

Since milk is a highly nutritious liquid, and is a very versatile kitchen ingredient, why not prepare something for the family and yourself that contains milk or milk products as one of the main ingredients, such as this Homemade Pudding. And why not let the kids join in the fun and help with the preparation.

Da Milch sehr gesund ist und vielseitig in der Küche angewendet werden kann, wäre es da nicht heute eine gute Idee, etwas für die eigene Familie und sich zu kochen, das Milch oder Milchprodukte enthält? So wie dieser Selbstgemachte Grießpudding. Besonders schön ist es, wenn die Kinder in der Küche und bei der Zubereitung helfen könnten.

The recipe is easy and quick and will certainly be enjoyed by everyone – you can serve this Semolina Pudding with a bit of homemade Vanilla Sauce and some fresh seasonal fruits as well. Semolina Pudding Ingredients for the Pudding 1 vanilla bean 750 ml whole milk 250 ml cream 100 grams semolina flour 75 grams sugar one Pudding dish saran (cling) wrap

Das Rezept ist einfach, schnell gemacht und wird bestimmt gut ankommen. Natürlich man kann diesen Grießpudding auch mit selbstgemachter Vanillesauce und frischen Beeren der Saison oder anderem Obst servieren. Selbstgemachter Grießpudding Zutaten für dem Pudding 1 Vanilleschote 750 ml Milch 250 ml Sahne 100 Gramm Weichweizengrieß 75 Gramm Zucker eine Puddingform Frischhaltefolie

Preparation of the Semolina Pudding 1. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add the seeds as well as the bean to a medium saucepan. 2. Then add the milk and the cream to the saucepan and bring to a boil. 3. Take the bean out of the milk and add the semolina flour and sugar and to the pan. 4. On lowest heat possible let the pudding bubble up for a few minutes. 5. Clean the pudding dish with cold water and do not dry. 6. Transfer the semolina mixture to the pudding dish, cover with saran (cling) wrap and place in the fridge for about four hours or until it has settled and is firm to the touch. 7. Turn the pudding out onto a plate and serve with homemade vanilla sauce and fresh seasonal fruits, cinnamon sugar or just plain.

Zubereitung des Grießpuddings 1. Die Vanilleschote auskratzen und das Mark zusammen mit der Schote in einen mittleren Topf geben. 2. Milch und Sahne ebenfalls in den Topf geben und aufkochen lassen. 3. Die Vanilleschote aus der Milch-Sahne- Mischung herausnehmen, dann Grieß und den Zucker zugeben und mit dem Schneebesen kräftig umrühren. 4. Auf niedrigster Hitze weiterrühren und einige Minuten vorsichtig köcheln. 5. Die Puddingform mit kaltem Wasser ausspülen und nicht abtrocknen. 6. Den noch warmen Grießpudding in die Form füllen, mit Folie abdecken und für zirka vier Stunden in den Kühlschrank stellen bis der Pudding fest wird. 7. Den Pudding aus der Form auf einen Teller stürzen und mit selbstgemachter Vanillesauce, frischen Obst oder Zimtzucker servieren.

Whatever you make or prepare today to celebrate milk, do make sure to have some fun with a recipe or two that features milk as one or more of the ingredient(s). You can use whole milk or skim, buttermilk or cream, evaporated milk or condensed milk, or any other type of dairy product such as yogurt, ice cream. Do not limit yourself to cows milk, goat milk dairy products and milk are also delicious. Enjoy with family and friends, spread the word and have fun!

Wie auch immer du heute feierst, es soll auf jeden Fall allen Beteiligten jede Menge Spaß machen und schmecken. Du kannst ein Rezept oder mehrere Rezepte mit Vollmilch oder Magermilch, mit Buttermilch oder Sahne, mit Kondensmilch oder anderen Milchprodukten wie Jogurt oder Eiscreme zubereiten. Und außer Kuhmilchprodukten gibt es ja auch noch Ziegenmilch und Produkte aus Ziegenmilch. Genieß´ diesen Tag mit Familie und Freunden und entdeck´ die Vielfalt dieses gesunden Produktes gemeinsam!

FFwD: Anne Leblanc´s Pistachio Avocado

Today´s recipe for the French Friday with Dorie group is Anne Leblanc´s Pistachio Avocado.

As Dorie so aptly points out, this is not so much a recipe as a list of ingredients and therefore the end result depends entirely upon the quality of the very few ingredients used. All you will need to prepare this delicious appetizer are Hass avocados, freshly squeezed lemon juice, Fleur de sel and the best quality Pistachio Oil you can afford.

Avocados have green, buttery flesh and a large central stone. In most European countries, two main avocado varieties are available, namely Hass and Fuerte. These two varieties are easily distinguishable. The Hass variety (which I always use) has a knobbly purple-black exterior and a creamy-textured, richly flavored interior; the Fuerte variety has a smooth green skin. Avocados are very high in both protein and oil. When purchasing avocados, you should look for the ones that have unblemished skins with no soft spots, which suggest bruising. They are ready to eat when the flesh yields slightly when pressed with the thumb.

Pistachios are slim, oblong nuts, ranging from pale, creamy yellow to dark green. There are the kernels of small olive-like fruits. They grow in clusters, and are cultivated in the Middle East, some Mediterranean countries, and California. Unblemished, large, plump, dark-green nuts are the best quality. Buy them from a reliable shop with a high turnover to ensure that they are not rancid or artificially dyed.

Cold-pressed native Pistachio Oil, not pistachio flavored oil, is certainly a specialty oil. Pistachio Oil is a pressed oil, extracted from the fruit of the pistachio nut. Compared to other nut oils, pistachio oil has a particularly strong flavor, it tastes similar to the nut from which it is extracted and it is used as a table oil to add flavor to foods such as this wonderful Pistachio Avocado. The Pistachio Oil that Dorie uses in her recipe was manufactured by the well-known Huilerie J. Leblanc (hence the name of the recipe) but since we have the most fabulous local oil mill in Bonn, of course,  I bought my Pistachio Oil there…

… it has a wonderful brownish-dark green color and incredibly intensive flavor.

And since it  has such an extraordinary flavor, it was certainly worth the investment, we have already plans for a few other delicious appetizers that will showcase this very special oil.

But for today, I used it for Dorie Greenspan´s  Anne Leblanc´s Pistachio Avocado – I cut the ripe and unblemished avocado into thin slices, drizzled it first with a good and healthy squeeze of lemon juice to prevent discoloration, then some of the fabulous Pistachio Oil and finished it with a slight sprinkling of some delicate Fleur de sel. I also added some fresh, unsalted pistachio for flavor. To die for!

To accompany this elegant and exquisite appetizer, I decided to bake some equally elegant and simple Oat Cakes, using a recipe (sans the vanilla extract) that I found back in August of last year on Hester´s lovely blog Alchemy in the Kitchen – they were perfect with this appetizer, not too overpowering, not too salty and they perfectly cut through the richness of the oil as well as the avocado.

This was a very interesting and special recipe that only works with the best quality ingredients that you can find. And if you use wonderful, ripe Hass avocados, freshly squeezed lemon juice, Fleur de sel and a cold-pressed native Pistachio Oil, you will be delighted with this recipe. The Pistachio Oil should preferably be bought from a reliable source, or if you are as fortunate as we are and find a local Oil Mill (Bonner Oelmanufaktur), then, by all means, you should try to get the oil from there, it is worth the investment, no doubt whatsoever.

I am curious to see what other interesting ways the members of the French Fridays with Dorie group decided to present Anne Leblanc´s Pistachio Avocado in. Please click here for their own and personal interpretations.


Source:

Pistachio Oil from the “Bonner Oelmanufaktur” (www.bonneroelmanufaktur.de/pistazienoel-kalt-gepresst-nativ/33-pistazienoel-kalt-gepresst-nativ-100ml.html)

Anise Tea Cake and French Anise Candy (Anis de l`Abbaye de Flavigny)

A few day ago, a very good friend of mine and godmother to one of my children returned from a trip to Burgundy and brought me back three lovely oval tins filled with delicious pastilles from Flavigny, called Anis de l´Abbaye de Flavigny. The story of the Anis de Flavigny dates back to the rise of the pastilles in the mid 1500s in Europe as sugar became more readily available. The most basic definition of a pastille is “a kernel of something coated with sugar". It can be a natural almond, like Jordan Almonds, or an anise seed, like Anis de Flavigny.

The pastille was often the work of a pharmacist or herbalist, not a confectioner. They started with seeds or herbs that were prescribed for various medical reasons like fever, then coated them with sugar syrup, tossed them in a pan and repeated the process until layer upon layer was built up. The most talented pharmacists made beautiful pastilles that looked like shimmering opalescent spheres and were kept as if they were treasures as well, inside ornate boxes, often locked by the lady of the household.

Les Anis de Flavigny probably has one of the longest histories of a candy, as the Town of Flavigny may have been making these pastilles since Roman times. To this day, these pastilles are manufactured by confectioners in those largely unchanged traditions. Each pastille takes fifteen days to make. They still start with a single anis seed and then a sugar syrup is poured over it, tumbled until dry then repeated dozens of times. The first, Anis de Flavigny packages were long cardboard tubes. When Jean Troubat launched the sale of his Anis in vending machines in the 1950s, he needed a solid box that could fall from the machines. This is how the first metal tin, at first round, then oval, appeared. Today, you will also find these cute “tasting sachets” in cafés, hotels and restaurants.

Les Anis de Flavigny come in ten different natural flavors: anise, of course, but also blackcurrant, lemon, orange blossom, ginger, tangerine, mint, liquorice, rose and violet, all rather classic and with an charmingly old world.

Dedicated to its origins, Anis de Flavigny operates from a former Benedictine abbey in the beautiful French village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, Burgundy.

The gorgeous tins tell a little story as two lonesome young people pine in solitude, then meet, share their candies and their affection.

There are naturally flavored Mint Pastilles with a wonderful refreshing mint flavor that is not too strong but just right…

…and then there are the delicately flavored floral Violet Pastilles that are made according to a 9th century recipe…

…and then the very famous Anise Pastilles that are also one hundred percent naturally flavored.

Since we love the flavor of anise seeds, I let myself be inspired by these delicious anise candies and decided to bake two wonderful and easy Anise Tea Cakes. The cakes smelled absolutely wonderful while baking. They are flavored with anise seeds, are baked in  specialty baking pans and are what we call “dry cakes" that is, they are perfect for dipping in a cup of tea. And while the delicate flavor of the anise seeds permeates these cakes, it is by no means overpowering.

Please note that you can either serve the cake while still warm and fresh from the oven or you wait until it cools down, slice it and dry the slices at low temperature in the oven, much like biscotti or rusks. That way, they will keep for quite some time if stored in a dry place and make wonderful gifts for that person in your life that enjoys the delcate flavor of anise.

If you prefer another taste like vanilla, you can substitute the anise seeds with natural vanilla sugar instead.

Anise Tea Cakes
(Teekuchen mit Anis)

Ingredients for the Cakes
(this recipe will yield two cakes)

• a bit of unsalted butter for greasing the two loaf pans
• 5 eggs (L), free range or organic if possible
• 250 grams (8.8 ounces/1.2 cups) superfine (caster) sugar
• 250 grams (8.8 ounces/2 cups) AP (plain) flour, plus some extra for dusting the pan
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• one pinch of fine sea salt
• 1 1/2 tsp anise seeds
• 1 tbsp lemon zest (organic if possible)
• 1 – 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Equipment: needed

• two 30. 5 cm (12 inch) so-called  half round loaf pans (Rehrücken Backform)*

Preparation of the Cakes

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
2. Lightly butter and flour two loaf pans, shaking out the excess.
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat together eggs and sugar at high speed until tripled in volume and thick enough to form a ribbon, 5 to 8  minutes.
4. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and anise seeds.
5. Sift the flour mixture over the egg mixture in 3 batches, folding in each batch. 
6. Gently stir in lemon zest and juice.
7. Immediately pour the batter into the two loaf pans and smooth the tops.
8. Bake until top is golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. 
9. Cool loaves about 5 minutes, then invert onto cooling racks and cool for about 30 minutes more.
10. If you prefer to “double-bake” your cake slices, you can do so by drying them in the oven at low temperature until they reach the crispness that you like – a bit like Biscotti.
11. Decrease oven temperature to 120 degrees Celsius (250 degrees Fahrenheit).
12. Trim the ends of the loaves and cut loaf crosswise into 1.3 cm (0.5 inch) thick slices. 
13. Bake on a baking sheet until undersides are golden brown, about 20 to 30 minutes. Turn over and bake until undersides are golden brown, about another 20 to 30 minutes more
14. NOTE: loaves can be baked (but not sliced) 2 days ahead and kept, wrapped in foil, at room temperature or frozen 1 month.

These are cakes that I baked in two of my a special baking pans that look like long loaf pans curved in a half-moon shape with evenly spaced grooves across the width, and a flat section down the center, known as a “Half Round Loaf Pan” (Rehrücken Backform)*. But these cakes can easily be made in  regular loaf pans as well or you could try to find these baking pan in German or Austrian specialty stores or online. The baking pans are made from different materials such as stoneware, aluminium or non-stick.

Many thanks to my lovely and dear friend who thought about me while vacationing in wonderful Burgundy, France and brought me back these wonderful Anise, Violet and Mint Pastilles and inspired some nice Wednesday afternoon baking followed by a wonderful Afternoon Tea!

Colorful Funfetti Bundts

In the month of May, there were lots of birthday parties, celebrations, bake sales, Jamie Oliver´s Food Revolution Day, days off school and work and there were so many cupcakes, muffins, cakes and cookies to be baked that I was quite pleased to find a fun recipe (and a new one for me) on Laura´s lovely blog Baking in Pyjamas called Funfetti Cake. Laura is based in England and an avid and wonderful baker. With another three cakes to be baked for a bake sale at the primary (elementary) school sports event on Saturday, I did not hesitate too long before I decided to give Laura´s recipe for this colorful cake a try. I called the cakes Colorful Funfetti Bundts. The recipe calls for self-raising flour and luckily I had just replenished my stocks when visiting the Netherlands last week.

Funfetti cakes and cookies are not really known around here and I must say I never baked one before either. Of course, sprinkles on a cake are wonderful, but sprinkles baked inside was not something I had really considered before. This cake is a colorful confection that is easy to bake and it seems perfect for any celebration that involves at least a few little people.

I used round “Konfetti Sprinkles” from a well-known German manufacturer * that are available in many countries and they seemed to be the right kind of sprinkles for this cake. Nice, not too sweet and very colorful. Ususally, I am not the one to add food coloring to my baked goods but this cake looked so pretty and I knew that it would be a hit at the bake sale.

I decided to skip the seven minute frosting and bake two small Bundt cakes (6 cup capacity) instead of making a layered cake like Laura did. It seemed to me that Bundts are easier to slice at a bake sale and the weather was just so warm that I was afraid the cake would not to hold up for a few hours with a soft frosting (although the recipe for the frosting sounds delicious). I also decreased the amount of sprinkles to 100 grams and added a pinch of sea salt to the egg whites but other than that, I made no changes to Laura´s recipe.

My kids were delighted with the way the Colorful Funfetti Bundts looked like and were quite happy to take them to their bake sale on Saturday. This cake will certainly make a few repeat performances at our house, I am sure.

Colorful Funfetti Bundts
(Bunte Konfetti Gugelhupfe)

Ingredients for the Bundts

• 110 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus some more for greasing the pans
• 300 grams (1 1/2 cups) superfine (caster) sugar
• 300 grams (2 cups) self-raising flour, plus some more for flouring the pans**
• 250 ml (1 cup) milk, room temperature (I used 3.5%)
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 100 grams (1 cup) sprinkles (I used one whole box of “Dr. Oetker Dekor Konfetti”)*
• 4 egg whites (L), free range or organic if possible (plus a few drops of lemon juice for the bowl - optional see NOTE in the recipe)
• a pinch of fine sea salt
• some powdered sugar (optional)

** Self-raising flour is widely available in Dutch and UK supermarkets. Outside these countries and the US, it is not commonly used. Self-raising flour will not keep for very long. The baking powder absorbs moisture from the air, which reacts with other ingredients in the flour, affecting its ability to rise.If you do not have self-raising flour, combine plain flour with baking powder and salt, or add raising agents (such baking powder or use bicarbonate of soda) separately in your recipe.

Equipment needed

two small Bundt pans (6 cup-capacity)

Preparation of the Bundt Cakes

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
2. Butter and flour two small Bundt pans, shake out the excess flour and set aside.
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment set to high speed, cream together the butter and the sugar until the butter mixture turns light and creamy. This will take between 5 to 8 minutes. Scrape down your bowl with a spatula as needed.
4. Using the medium speed of your mixer, starting and ending with the flour, add 1/3 of the flour, mixing until the flour just starts to disappear then add 1/2 the milk and vanilla and keep doing the same until everything has been added, taking care not to over mix the batter. 
5. Gently add the sprinkles and mix just until the sprinkles are incorporated into the batter.
6. Using the whisk attachment of your mixer, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. NOTE: to make sure that the egg whites whip up properly, use a very clean bowl. Following the advice of a much admired cook and baker, I always wipe out my bowl with a few drops of fresh lemon juice on a clean cloth before I start beating my egg whites.
7. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the cake batter until no traces of the white can be seen. 
8. Divide the batter equally between the two Bundt pans and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
9. Transfer the two Bundt pans to cooling racks and leave the cakes to cool for about 15 minutes before turning them out of their pans and transferring them to cooling rack to cool completely.
10. Dust with powdered sugar (optional).

To round out the very colorful theme of these cakes, it is nice to decorate the table with colorful plates and forks and to showcase some even more colorful glass cake stands and deck the Bundts with some colorful paper flags.

The kids told me that the Colorful Funfetti Bundts were very well received at their bake sale in school and I was very happy that this recipe worked out so well.

Many thanks to Laura for posting this fun recipe and another big fat thanks for writing such a wonderful and kind résumé about my blog as part of your blog post about my Rhubarb and Almond Bundt Cake!

FFwD: White Asparagus Soup - Crème d´asperges blanches

Today´s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is Asparagus Soup or Crème d´asperges.

Asparagus season (Spargelzeit) is very short and German white asparagus (Spargel) is well worth the wait for its unbeatable flavor and freshness.

Asparagus is best when grown and picked fresh. Regardless of whether you are buying thin asparagus or big jumbo spears, you should always choose stems that are firm and lush, rather than dry and wrinkly. Avoid any stems that are discolored, scarred or turning slimy at the tips. If you are using whole spears, then make sure the buds are tight and firm. If you are making soup like Dorie Greenspan´s Asparagus Soup, though, you could also use the somewhat more affordable spears called “soup asparagus” that you will sometimes find on market stalls.

The less time it takes to get asparagus from the field to the plate, the better it will taste because the sugars in the plant start to turn to starch once it is picked. Trim the stalks and, if the lower part of the stem seems tough, break off the bottom third of the stem. White asparagus always has to be peeled completely. The cooking time varies according to the thickness of the stems, but usually ranges between 8 to 12 minutes.

For today´s recipe I choose to use white asparagus, the season will last only another three weeks or so and green asparagus is hard to find locally – we only get white asparagus in the month of May until mid-June and we use it in as many dishes as possible while it is still available. So if you find white asparagus, grab some of this elegant vegetable while you can. As already mentioned,  the fresher it is, the better, of course, which is why farm shops and roadside stalls are generally the best source.

Dorie´s recipe is easy and, apart from fresh asparagus, the ingredients required for this soup are staple items in our house. You will need two leeks, an onion, a shallot, a garlic clove, some pepper (I used delicious freshly ground "white kampot pepper" from Hennes Finest based in my hometown, beautiful Cologne * ) and some French sea salt. The asparagus trimmings simmered in your hot stock really add to the intense, yet delicate flavor of this sophisticated soup. When the soup is fully cooked, it is whizzed up in the blender. I did not strain the soup, so it had plenty of texture from the asparagus, leeks and onions.

As one very talented and much admired chef once said: “Forget the traditional three-course meal. Eating in, or out, these days is all about small plates” – and I would add “small glasses” - so I chose to serve the asparagus soup in various espresso glasses from my collections and instead of adding crème fraîche, I decided to top the mini soups with some creamy milk foam topping, fresh dill and shrimps for color and for taste.

This is a delightful White Asparagus Soup, elegant, seasonal, tasty and pretty  - what more could one want from a late spring recipe.

To see how the other members of the French Fridays with Dorie group prepared this vegetable soup, please do click here.

Sources:

White Kampot Pepper from "Hennes Finest" available at www.hennesfinest.com/de/weisser-pfeffer.html

Almond, Hazelnut and Dark Chocolate Biscotti

Yesterday was a public holiday around here with schools and stores closed and a day off work, so we decided to visit the breathtakingly beautiful City of Maastricht in the Netherlands. We have paid many visits to this City and I do not think that we will ever tire of spending time there.

The day before we left, I decided to bake two kinds of Biscotti and today, I am posting the recipe for one of them, our new favorite, namely Almond, Hazelnut and Dark Chocolate Biscotti. Last time we were in the Netherlands, I caught a glance at a very similar recipe which we tremendously enjoyed and I decided to re-create it. In our house, these Biscotti that are studded with two kinds of nuts and dark chocolate, now go by the name of the “Dutch Biscotti".  Therefore, it seemed fitting to take them along for a quick photo session along the Mass river. The Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea. It has a total length of 925 km (575 mi). One of the many cities that borders the Maas is Maastricht.

These crunchy Italian biscuits or cookies were traditionally made with hazelnut and aniseed. But nowadays they are often flavored with a wide variety of nuts and lemon or orange rind or different kinds of chocolate and all sorts of dried fruits. They are hard and crunchy because they are twice-cooked ("bis" is the Italian word for "twice" and "cotti" for "cooked"). This makes them ideal for dipping into dessert wine or coffee, as a delectable after dinner treat. But they are equally good with some tea or just on their own. Recipes for Biscotti date back as far as the 13th century in Italy.

Almond, Hazelnut and Chocolate Biscotti

Ingredients for the Biscotti

• 100 grams (3.5 ounces) whole almonds 
• 50 grams (1.7 ounces) whole hazelnuts
• 100 grams (3.5 ounces) dark chocolate of your choice (I use Lindt Excellence 70% cocoa solids)
• 125 grams ( 4.4 ounces) AP (plain) flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• one pinch of fine sea salt
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla sugar 
• 125 grams (4.4 ounces) powdered sugar
• 25 grams (0.8 ounce/2 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 egg (L), free range or organic if possible

Preparation of the Hazelnuts and Almonds
(you can skip these steps if you have almonds and hazelnuts that are already blanched)

1. Place the almonds in a pot of boiling water, boil for about one minute, carefully pour them through a sieve, place them on a kitchen towel and squeeze the almonds out of their skins. 
2. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
3. In a baking pan toast hazelnuts in one layer in middle of oven 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly colored and skins are blistered. Wrap nuts in a kitchen towel and let steam 1 minute. Rub nuts in towel to remove loose skins (don't worry about skins that don't come off) and cool completely.

Preparation of the Cookies

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (unbleached if possible or use Silpat baking mats).
2. Chop the chocolate into chunks (this is best done using a serrated knife).
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, powdered sugar, and vanilla sugar until well combined.
4. Add the butter and egg and stir all the ingredients together until the mixture is well combined and begins to comes together as a dough.
5. Add the whole almonds, hazelnuts and chocolate chunks and using your hands knead the dough, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface.
6. Divide the dough into two equal parts.
7. Wrap each dough piece in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for abut thirty minutes and up to a day.
8. When you are ready to bake the Biscotti, pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit), take the dough pieces out of the fridge and dust your work surface with some more flour. Then shape the dough into two fat logs.
9. Transfer the two logs of the dough to your prepared baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the logs have doubled in size. 
10. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, place on a cooling rack and leave to cool for about 15 minutes.
11. Reduce your oven temperature to 150 degrees Celsius (300 degrees Fahrenheit).
12. When the logs have cooled but are still warm, carefully transfer them to a cutting board and slice each about 1 cm (½ inches) thick, you should cut on the diagonal, using a very sharp knife.
13. Place each Biscotti slice onto a baking sheet or onto cooling racks that you place onto the baking sheets thereby allowing for the hot air to circulate around each Biscotti cookie slice and return the baking sheet to the oven for a further 10 to 15 minutes, or until crisp, golden-brown and cooked through. 
14. Transfer to cooling racks and cool completely.
15. Place them in cookie tins, they keep well for up to one month.

Twice-baked, these sophisticated Italian-style crunchy Almond, Hazelnut and Dark Chocolate Biscotti are not only a perfect foodie gift, but are just the thing to accompany a silky dessert or a strong espresso.

Buon Appetito! - Eet smakelijk!