Cookie-baking and other holiday randomness

[thegrrrl2002]

I just finished baking three batches of biscotti--almond, chocolate chocolate chip, and chai tea biscotti. The chai tea biscotti are awesome. This is the first time I made them and I was quite pleased by the results. Next up will be cinnamon biscotti, walnut biscotti, and gingerbread biscotti. And oh, yes I do want to try these cappuccino biscotti. Then I have to hide them all (from myself and my husband) until it's time to head out and visit the family for the holidays.

I've been making biscotti for the holidays for a few years now. All the recipes I've used are ones I've found on-line, which makes me realize we don't have much in the way of a family tradition for baking. My mother makes cheesecake or creampuffs for holiday desserts, and I don't get along well with dairy (not lactose intolerance, but allergies, I suspect) so I tend to avoid those. My sisters don't bake much at all (we all like to focus on the serious business of COOKING, heh.) I'm not very fond of baking either, I'm far too willy nilly for it to always work but for some reason I like making biscotti. Sawing up the little loaves of cookie amuses me, I guess.

My italian grandmother used to bake these cookie-like objects known as knots, which were rock-hard and not very sweet. They struck fear into the heart of all children (I guess we didn't have any coffee to dunk them in?). My mother modified the recipe to use cream cheese, which softens them up a bit, but by then the damage was done. I just don't like them.

So I'm starting to think of the biscotti as self-defense against the cream cheese knots and cream puffs and cheesecake I will be faced with over Christmas.

Anyone else have tales of holiday treats that are anything but? :D

Now I must go and drizzle melted chocolate over my almond biscotti.

And in conclusion:


Alex, are you hugging Scotty or dancing with him?

Comments

[dogeared.livejournal.com]

I AM SO MESMERIZED. (Also, YUM biscotti, those all sound DELICIOUS. :D)

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

THEY SHOULD HUG ALLLL THE TIME.

The biscotti are quite good! I think! I'm starting to hit biscotti overload, but fortunately the husband is willing to taste test for me. He's generous that way.

Hug him again, Alex! And again!

[finduilas-clln.livejournal.com]

I very much like your conclusion. And to answer your question, both! Totally both! Wouldn't you?

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes yes yes! That and many other things. :D

[destina.livejournal.com]

That gif is so hypnotic! Also, your biscotti deliciousness is making me very very hungry. :D

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

I could watch them hug all day. :D

The biscotti are quite tasty, and very easy to make! Trust me. I wouldn't be making them otherwise.

[oxoniensis.livejournal.com]

Those chai tea biscotti sound delicious! I'm puzzled by the 'tablespoon of black tea' though - what's that, some sort of powder? I have green tea powder (which is awesome in soya smoothies), but I've never heard of black tea powder.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

I just used regular black tea--it's about three teabags worth. It has to be the kind that's sort of ground up into smaller bits, rather than leafy. I had some oolong I wanted to use but once I took a good look at it I was afraid it was too chunky to use.

[pennyplainknits.livejournal.com]

oooh biscotti! I want to try them :D

Today I made tiny meringues (to be dipped in dark chocolate tomorrow) and nutella fudge. It's all go on the holiday baking!

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Now see, you make all the super complicated stuff! I love meringues, but I don't think it's anything I'd ever try to make. The biscotti are simple, although the dough can be a sticky mess. But they are indeed tasty.

[delicatale.livejournal.com]

Awn, now you've made me hungry!

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

They're very easy to make! And very tasty! Although I'm hitting biscotti overload right now.

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

Mmm! You've made me long for my stepmom's Christmas biscotti, which she makes with little bits of fruit--just a couple more weeks til I see her & she delivers my batch!

Do you happen to have the recipe for the chocolate & chocolate almond biscotti? I'd like to try making them...

And Steve & Danny are never not cute together...

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Oooh, those biscotti sound very intriguing. I've seen a few recipes for various dried fruit biscotti, maybe I'll try some of those, too.

The chocolate biscotti recipe is here:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/double-chocolate-biscotti/

And the almond one, here:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-nut-biscotti/
I use a cup of slivered almonds instead of hazelnuts, and almond extract instead vanilla. And I just use regular semisweet chocolate for the dip. I love the texture of these, they're actually quite delicate for a biscotti.

Have fun!

[gunslingaaahhh.livejournal.com]

that gif makes me lol so bad haha, like when alex goes to kind of shuffle/step back, scotty is almost pulled onto tip-toe.

that and the "whoops, we cant have the entire front of our bodies touching during this hug, that would look awkward; quick, lets put some distance between our pelvises!" shuffle happening there.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Aw, he is pulled up onto his tip toes, that is adorable! :D I hadn't noticed before. And that is a whole lot of body contact right there. Sweet.

They are so damn cute.

[ms-artisan.livejournal.com]

YUMMM! Okay, that was originally for the biscotti, but transferred pretty quickly to your conclusion ;)

(and I think AOL had a moment of 'oops, I am suddenly very groin-to-groin with my do-star, better fix that!' Whereas SC was all 'c'mon dude, it's HUGGING'. :D )

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

That is definitely a full-body hug in the beginning there. With SC being pulled off his feet. So adorable! And then the hug turns more polite. Hee!

[verasteine.livejournal.com]

All I'm taking away from this post is CHOCOLATE and BOYS HUGGING. I'm happy :).

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

\o/ ALL THE GOOD THINGS!

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

I have this weird thing where I *love* how candy canes look on christmas-time desserts (like, crushed into shards and sprinkled on cookies or brownies or ice cream) but they make me not enjoy EATING the dessert because they are too sharp and crunchy and sticky. It's a real problem for me!!!!!!

(Is the gif from an episode, or is it from bloopers of some sort? I don't really watch the show.)

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

OMG yes. I keep seeing recipes that call for crushed candy canes and all I can think is NO. The texture is all wrong, sharp and crunchy, as you said. It's such a good flavor with chocolate, but I just can't do it!

The gif is from the blooper reel, although the hug was in the penultimate ep from S1. We only saw the hug from the shoulders up in the ep, it was sweet of them to give us the whole hug on the gag reel. :D

[feather-autant.livejournal.com]

It looks like Alex forgot for a wee second that they were being filmed, because he seemed pretty intent on propelling Scott onto his back on that bench.

Or maybe it's just me. *g*

Icky holiday traditions? We used to go to my Grandmother's house. Granny was a Hoarder, with a capital H. There were very, very narrow paths between teetering towers of cardboard boxes fill with who-knows-what. Every year she'd try to get me to eat canned peaches-- I have no idea why. The thing is, the can would already be opened when I got there, and I had no idea how long it had been sitting on the little square of table that you could see, and I just couldn't eat it. Even at the delicate age of 6 or 7, my Microbiology instincts were kicking in. *g*

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

I think that is exactly what Alex was doing. :D

Yikes! Canned peaches of an indeterminate age! That sounds very scary. You were wise to the ways of bacteria even as a wee little one.

My sister's mother-in-law is a hoarder. I've never seen the inside of the house, but it sounds very, very scary. She's in her 90's, and they are dreading the day they have to go and clean it out.

[pollitt.livejournal.com]

Oh my the biscotti sounds fantastic. NOM.

I have spent most of the day doing some sewing for presents. They're all special snowflakes, but I'm happy with them, warts and all ;)

And Alex is talented, he can both hug and dance with Scotty (*nods*)

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Sewing! Is a mystery to me! I think I'll stick with baking. :D The biscotti are very easy to make, thank goodness.

And I think you are right, there is both dancing and hugging going on. Lots of bodily contact. Yay!!

[nova437.livejournal.com]

Now see, where is the AU where Rachel and Stan are getting married and Danny gets paired up with the tall guy in his dance class?

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Eeeee, that would be so adorable! :D

Because that tall guy is such a dork, honestly.

[gyri.livejournal.com]

BISCOTTI!

Hmmmm....holiday treats that are anything but. Fruitcake. Yuck.


And I love that clip. I watched it over and over and over again. What is that little clapping thing Alex does? That just cracks me up.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Fruitcake! Fortunately, all my holidays have managed to be fruitcake-free, except for that one year where my cousin made these awesome ones, I don't know what was in them but it wasn't the usual icky fruitcake stuff. But the traditional ones, yes. Ew.

I love the little clap. I like to think it's an 'oh boy, I get to hug Scotty now!' kind of thing. :D

[lunachickk.livejournal.com]

And now I want to make biscotti!

That gif will never ever get old! Makes you wonder how many takes there were of that hug... and what they did with the one where they just started making out during the hug.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Biscotti are remarkably fool-proof! And tasty.

I do love watching them hug, over and over and over again. And yes, where's the gif where they don't let go? :D I'm wondering where the rest of the cast is. There were of hugs with Jenna, Kono and Chin before this one. Was this a practice run?

[violetvision78.livejournal.com]

*reads about yummy food and watches yummy men*

Thanks for the dinner and a movie. :)

*ponders how many times I have already stared at the gif*

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Hee! Dinner and a movie indeed! :D

I've done a fair amount of staring at the gif, myself. It's utterly fascinating.

[veggiesueh.livejournal.com]

Yum, I love biscotti. I never think to make them, though. Today I made gingerbread cake and Orange-cranberry-walnut muffins, both for church tomorrow.

BTW, I'm new to H50 fic, but always loved your Stargate Atlantis stories. I'm looking forward to catching up on your current work.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

The biscotti are very easy to make! But orange cranberry walnut muffins sound absolutely delicious.

And thank you, you are too kind! :D

[sobelle.livejournal.com]

MMMMmmmmmmmm biscotti & boys dancing.

All very very good!