it's simple stuff.
Mornings just come naturally to me. Night time's not really my time. I work at it. I get a second wind around eight, hit my stride by ten, and
Lists. Bird song. Crisp early air. The daily paper. Oily beans, freshly ground. Golden bolts of sun,
dust mites and all. The whole morning light business. Glorious stuff,
that last one. So much better, really, than the midnight glare of a
compact fluorescent. That alone was enough to make me an early bird.
Add to that dusky walks with the puppies. And very rare mornings when there's no agenda, nowhere to go, no hassle, no hurry up! Most especially, when I can sport pajama pants until lunch. You know how it is then, how sometimes, mornings are just magical.
Speaking of magical! Daffodils, a buck-fifty a bunch? Makes any morning. Strutting around all sassy and frilly and traffic-stripe yellow. Because right now? Feels like a benediction. Am I the only one to notice. After months of looking at drab I finally cried foul after breakfast the other day. "Hey, let's get some pink. And red! And yellow, I neeeeed yellow." Need, indeed. Those jolly primaries went way beyond want, lighting up my kitchen and spirits.
Our skies have been blue, and I'm back in the pink (thank you, kindly, for all your well wishes!) So, I'm unplugging this week, to spend time with my peeps (Mom's back in the hospital today), knitting by her bedside, soaking up the sun whenever it shines, reading seed catalogs and thinking about getting a good black line of grime under my nails. remembering last year this time, San Francisco with mom!
dreaming of a trip to the ocean. It's simple stuff...
Like biscotti. It always sounds a little silly, to me, to say "I make my own biscotti!" I'm not really that self-sufficient; stitching buttons still ruffles my every last feather. But homemade biscotti, oh, have you tried it? It's something else. The texture's lovely, silky and pliable, and fresh out of the pan, the warmth is unbeatable. It's delicious and all-natural and all that jazz. It's also cheap, and fast, and dead-simple, but none of that's the main thing.
The main thing is, homemade biscotti is happy. It's happy because you can do no wrong. There's never that sad moment And because I like my coffee strong and thick as tar (absolutely non-negotiable), it sometimes requires something to go with. Something slightly sweet, to offset the rich bitter; with crunch, to offset the slosh; with protein, to offset the zzzz's; with no prep time, to offset my schedule; with a small footprint, to offset the fact I'm not really very hungry but just need a little something to offset that right-back-where-we-started coffee. Something delicious. Did I mention delicious? Because what's the point of eating if it's not? Something like biscotti.
Now, biscotti hardly need an introduction. You and I both know these hockey pucks masquerading as biscuits, half-filling glass canisters in coffee shops across the land. Commercial biscotti fill a funny niche, not food so much as ballast against that awkward end-of-day hour when all the light, flaky, good baked goods have sold out. Sturdy, tough, practical, biscotti make a perfect pastry of last resort. Orthopedics in a sea of Manolo Blahniks. With a taste to match.
Maybe, it occurs to me, this isn't the best lead-in to a biscotti recipe. But the biscotti that I love, that I mourned running out of not long ago, isn't really of the same species as those over-the-counter billy sticks. Not even the same Phylum, actually. Take the texture. Fine cornmeal yields a sandy crumb; heaps of nuts, a toothsome give; a bit of butter, much-needed lightness. This biscotti has a pleasant, welcoming crunch. It snaps. It crumbles. It doesn't need to be soaked an hour for fear of undoing expensive dental work. I don't even dunk it. Hockey puck has never sprung to my mind while eating one. Addictive has. And then there's the flavor. To read the recipe, there's a lot going on here, orange and rosemary, anise and almond, and I'm not sure anyone other than Claudia Fleming could have pulled it all off. But pull it off she does, and along the way makes this motley crew taste like manifest destiny, twice-baked. Of all those star players, not one gets out of hand. (Who knew anise could be a background note?) The original is subtle, harmonious, just lovely as is. But for me, they are lovelier still with double the nuts. I like how their tender crunch plays off the crisp biscuit, and appreciate the protein they pack alongside. They're not perfect, these biscotti. They can't undo the effects of turning in too late, and were totally deaf to my Daylight Savings wailing. They don't guarantee a great morning. But they've made for many a good one.
Experiment with the nuts, here. I've used hazlenuts and pine nuts as well as the almonds and walnuts called for below, sometimes all together, sometimes just solo. I'm especially fond of the walnuts, here, for their buttery crunch and sweet flavor, but each variety offers something special. Play around.
Also, a polenta note: Fleming calls for medium-grind, which I've used often and liked fine. What I've loved though, of late, is a finely ground, instant Italian polenta, which provides all the sweet flavor and sandy texture of corn, without the grit factor. The brand name evades me, but if your grocery has such a good, it will make these biscotti sing. and maybe you too.
just sayin'.
4 Tablespoons salted butter
1 1/2 Tablespoons orange zest
1 Tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
1 cup unbleached flour (or 50/50 white and whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup fine polenta, Italian instant if possible
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon anise seeds
2 large eggs
Egg wash made with 1 egg and 1 Tablespoon water
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread nuts out on rimmed baking sheet and toast gently in oven, tossing occasionally, 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden and fragrant. Transfer to a plate to cool. Keep oven on.
Melt butter in a small saucepan on the stove, turn off the heat, and add the chopped rosemary and orange zest to melted butter to infuse. Allow to cool, but not harden, 20 minutes or so.
In the bowl of an electric mixer set to low speed, mix together dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda, and anise). Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add cooled, melted, downright heady orange-rosemary butter, and mix to combine. Stir in the cooled nuts. Let the dough rest 5 minutes.
With wet hands, form dough into a log roughly 2 inches wide and 10 inches long, and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush log with egg wash and bake until top is a deep golden brown, around 30 minutes. Let cool, 20-30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 200°F.
Using a long serrated knife (a bread knife is best), slice the log on the diagonal into 1/2" thick slices. The steeper the diagonal, the longer your biscotti. A 20° angle will get you respectable biscuits; 45° and you're approaching serious fortification territory. When I scale up the batch, I try for both. (Some mornings, you know.) Arrange biscotti on parchment-lined baking sheet, 1/2" apart (they do not spread), with cut sides exposed (set on their bottoms). Allow to dry in the low oven until crisp, about 1 hour. Cool completely, then store in an airtight tin or jar. These keep beautifully for months.
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