My husband and I love to have after-dinner coffee and a biscotti every evening. Since we do this every night, it is a challenge to come up with creative variations on this humble little cookie. This is my newest recipe, and I think it is my favorite thus far...
What You'll need
½ cup of apple cider
¼ cup Bourbon (I like Four Roses)
1 baking apple (such as Cortland, Mac, or Braeburn)
2 eggs
¾ cup white sugar
½ cup butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract (optional but it makes a BIG difference)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup of hazelnuts (feel free to add more if you'd like)
· Preheat oven to 350.
· Lightly butter a cookie sheet. Dust with flour so it is covered and set aside.
· Peel the apple and cut into tiny cubes, about ¼" on each side.
· Place the cider, bourbon, and apple cubes in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the refrigerator overnight.
· When the apples are ready, begin making the dough. With an electric beater or stand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until light in color and fluffy.
· Add the cooled butter (it is important it is cool so it does not cook the eggs…ew) and extracts. Mix until blended.
· In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. You can sift these together if you like, but I always just take a whisk do a real good once over - who has time to sift?
· Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture very slowly and mix until blended.
· Remove the apples from the fridge and strain them. We don't want any of that extra liquid in the dough. Feel free to take the extra liquid and make yourself a cocktail!
· Using a spatula or spoon, mix the apples and hazelnuts into the dough.
· Halve the dough using your spoon and scoop the half onto one side of the prepared cookie sheet. Take the other half of dough and do the same on the other side of the sheet. Try to get the two piles as equal as possible.
· Using damp hands (this prevents the dough from sticking to you), form the piles into logs about 10" long and 4" wide. Smooth the edges and try to make the corners as square as possible.
· Place the sheet in the oven and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and fragrant.
· Once they are done, remove them from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes.
· Reduce the oven temperature to 300.
· Once your logs are done cooling, transfer them to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut each log crosswise into slices about 1" thick. Place each slice, cut side down, back on the cookie sheet.
· Return to the oven and bake for another 18 - 22 minutes until golden brown and crisp.
· Let these cool completely before you handle them as they are fragile when they first come out of the oven. They will harden as they cool.
· Place in your cookie jar and enjoy!
Yield: about 24 cookies
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