Anise Biscotti

I am absolutely in love with this basic biscotti recipe! (Obviously!) I really wanted a third variation, but was running out of creative ideas. I had a few leftover pecans from making candies, so I decided to do an anise biscotti and throw them in too. These had a really light, delicate flavor and were the favorite among my extended family. Clean and simple is just better sometimes! I'm sure these would taste great without the pecans too if you're not a fan of nuts.

The ones in the upper right hand corner are the Anise biscotti. Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of them. I decided to keep the chocolate decoration simple, like the biscotti's flavor, and just drizzled them with some milk chocolate. Dipping them would be pretty too, and you could add chopped pecans to the top as well. Chocolate is not a necessary addition, but makes them look pretty and it's kind of fun!

Anise Biscotti

(Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 tsp anise extract 

2 3/4 all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs on at a time, beating well after each addition, and then add the extracts. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix until almost combined. Add thepecans and mix until well incorporated and the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and rub a little flour on your hands. Divide the dough in two equal pieces and shape each into a log approximately 4 inches wide and 10 inches long. Bake on parchment lined baking sheets until lightly brown and small cracks form, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Transfer the logs to a cutting board. Slice on the diagonal in 1/2" slices using a very sharp kitchen knife. Place them back on the trays with the cut side up. Bake for another 16-20 minutes until lightly browned, turning over half way through baking. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Orange Almond Biscotti

Orange and almond is the flavor combination I usually stick with every year when I make biscotti. Each time I've made it, I've changed the ingredients slightly. I would typically add anise, but have found in the past that it overpowered the orange and almond flavors. I decided to leave it out this year and love how these turned out. You can really taste the orange and the almond adds a delicate background flavor. I got a little distracted while I was baking them, and they browned a little farther than I would have liked, but they still turned out awesome, and I just covered up the over browned bottom with chocolate. I hope you enjoy!

I love how these ones turned out! I didn't have a bowl big enough to dip these in since I was melting the chocolate in the microwave. Instead I drizzled them with milk chocolate, sprinkled on some sliced almonds, and then drizzled some more chocolate on the top to help the almond stick. Some people may not like dipping these in cocoa (or coffee) because of the nuts, but they make a great snack too!

Orange Almond Biscotti

(Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon orange extract

Zest of 1 orange

2 3/4 all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 ounces almonds, chopped or sliced

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs on at a time, beating well after each addition, and then add the extract and zest. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix until almost combined. Add the almonds and mix until well incorporated and the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and rub a little flour on your hands. Divide the dough in two equal pieces and shape each into a log approximately 4 inches wide and 10 inches long. Bake on parchment lined baking sheets until lightly brown and small cracks form, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Transfer the logs to a cutting board. Slice on the diagonal in 1/2" slices using a very sharp kitchen knife. Place them back on the trays with the cut side up. Bake for another 16-20 minutes until lightly browned, turning over half way through baking. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Biscotti

One of my favorite things about Christmas the past few years has been making biscotti to give away as gifts, and enjoy with a cup of hot cocoa. I like to try out different flavor variations and the basic recipe from Brown Eyed Baker is perfect for that! She also has some other great variations I will be trying at sometime in the near future, but wanted to make my own for Christmas. She also has a Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti, but I'm not a big fan of chocolate cookies, so I decided to tone it down by just adding some chocolate pieces to the dough. I also love the flavor of anise in almost any kind of biscotti, but it's completely optional. My little helper dumped in more than is called for here while I wasn't looking, so ours was extra licorice-y. It still seemed to compliment the other flavors well. Check out the Brown Eyed Baker for other great recipes too! She's one of my favorite resources for spectacular, and often fairly simple to make, meals and desserts. Happy cooking!

Aren't they purdy? I loved how these ones had little specks of green from the pistachios, and the pistachios on top helped the flavor stick out. These seemed to be my husbands favorite and we had a hard time staying out of them. For these I drizzled a mixture of half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate over the tops. Then I sprinkled on some chopped pistachios and drizzled some more chocolate. Honestly, who doesn't love MORE chocolate? ;)

Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Biscotti

(Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 tsp anise extract (optional)

2 3/4 all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 ounces shelled unsalted pistachios, finely chopped (I bought salted and roasted shelled pistachios, shelled them by hand and then rinsed them and it turned out great)

5 ounces finely chopped dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs on at a time, beating well after each addition, and then add the extracts. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix until almost combined. Add the pistachios and chocolate and mix until well incorporated and the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and rub a little flour on your hands. Divide the dough in two equal pieces and shape each into a log approximately 4 inches wide and 10 inches long. Bake on parchment lined baking sheets until lightly brown and small cracks form, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Transfer the logs to a cutting board. Slice on the diagonal in 1/2" slices using a very sharp kitchen knife. Place them back on the trays with the cut side up. Bake for another 16-20 minutes until lightly browned, turning over half way through baking. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Christmas and Beyond

Wow what a week it's been! This was our first Christmas married and boy was it different from last year's when we were dating. Between the two of us there was a lot of family to visit and visiting. I don't think I've ever tried to cram so much of it in one weekend! All in all, it was a wonderful time spent with our families and an awesome reminder of the birth and life of Christ, the greatest gifts we could ever receive.

I spent the week before Christmas trying to bake a few things each day so that all the homemade gifts would be done on time. The result was a new love for the ease of using my kitchenaid mixer, a demolished kitchen covered in floor and sugar, and very happy family members. (Check out below for a quick recap of everything I made. Tutorials and recipes will follow soon!)

Homemade Gift List

• Pumpkin Bread --Without the nuts... We've got enough of those in the family already! ;) I wrapped it with plastic wrap, wrapped a strip of burlap around it, and finished it off by tying a thinner strip of brown gingham around the middle.
• Biscotti -- I adapted this basic recipe (It's a good one!) and made a Pistachio with dark chocolate, Orange Almond, and an Anise version with a little bit of leftover pecans. Watch for the recipes with my adaptions.
• Holiday M&M cookies -- I just used the tollhouse chocolate cookie recipe but used the red and green m&ms instead of chocolate chips. They turned out super cute and fun!
• Sugar cookies -- I cut out snowman shapes and frosted them with white and brown vanilla frosting (yes from a can.. I was tired), and I also cut out circles so that Xavier could help me decorate them with colored sugar. I'll have to post pictures and a tutorial for the colored sugar since they turned out so darn cute!
• Orange Marmalade -- I still haven't ever tried this, but it sounded like a fun idea. It reminds me of Paddington Bear every time I think about it! My Ball canning book didn't have a regular orange marmalade recipe, so I found this one by Alton Brown and it seemed to have good reviews. I don't have a mandolin, so I had to hand slice the oranges, but it still turned out pretty. One lady in the reviews said she was going to try mixing in limes for a color contrast, and I might have to try that sometime too.
• Pecan Candies -- Mine definitely didn't turn out that pretty, but man were they good!
• Chunky Crayons -- We melted down crayons to make chunky crayons for my youngest brother, and they were so cool we had to keep some too!

Our Christmas Adventures

 

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and drove to my parents house to open gifts before they left to go see other family. I was pretty excited to get a new RED camera. Word of advice -- if you're sweet little children love your camera as much as mine does, get a cheap one they can play with and take pictures and not ruin your notprofessionalbutstilltakessuperawesomepictures camera. Unless of course you have a mom as awesome as I do who will gladly replace it if you put it on your very short Christmas wish list ;) We got to spend most of the rest of the day just relaxing, and finished our day with an elaborate dinner with my husband's family and extended family. I've only been to a $20+ dinner restaurant a few times, and rarely ordered much more than the less expensive sandwiches, so it was a totally new experience for me. I still haven't decided how much I liked the house salad, but I have an extreme desire to try to recreate it, so watch for that as well.

 

Christmas morning started off a little earlier than I would have liked, but it was awesome to get to have that time with our little family. Xavier amazed me by spending about 5 minutes with each new thing and then moving on to the next thing to try it out. This was the first year he really understood that he was going to be getting presents, and all he would ask for was a new train. So of course we obliged and bought some of the pricier Thomas the Train toys. We spent a long time in the toy aisle, and honestly I wasn't very impressed with the selection for his age group. Anyway, we also got to have Christmas morning with my hubby's family which was a lot of fun. By this time in the weekend I was getting worn out from all the excitement and enjoyed just getting to sit back and watch everyone else's excitement. My mother in law had the awesome idea of buying tamales and other Mexican foods the day before, so after church and nap time we had a Mexican style dinner with them. It was a nice alternative to the typical heavy, but delicious, holiday-fare.



What were some of the exciting parts of your Christmas? Is there anything you do to help aid in the post-Christmas clean-up or recovery?

First Christmas Tree!

This year is our first Christmas together as a family, and I'm so excited! I've been a little over ambitious with my ideas, and have given up on most of them. There's just something about being 6 months pregnant and not having a lot of energy that's taking the motivation out of all the project ideas I had.

I've always wanted to cut down my own tree, so we decided to do that this year. We got our pass and headed out to the forest with the in-laws!

I was really hoping to get something more full and comparable to the ones at the store, but we had a lot of fun! Xave loved getting to run around outside, and was maybe a little to excited about cutting things down.

I stumbled upon this abandoned birds nest while I was looking for some good boughs for a wreath (*ahem* one of the projects I still haven't gotten around too..). Xave thought it was pretty dang awesome. I think his camo carhartt jacket is pretty awesome too (and so was the deal I got on it).

Now since I bailed on making a majority of our Christmas ornaments, it was either leave the tree bare, or find some good deals. I got a couple boxes of candy canes for $1 or so a piece, and bought all the lights on sale. Then I decided to visit the Dollar Store and to my delight, they had some pretty decent looking stuff, so I bought the rest of my ornaments there! I'm definitely hoping to get some better ones made or bought before next year, but not bad for the price! :)

These balls came in sets of 5 in mostly red and green. They were tucked on a bottom shelf, and I almost bought a not so pleasant alternative. I was quite relieved a little excited to get these instead.

My absolute favorite find was the little bells that are hiding in the upper part of the above picture. I wish I had a better picture, but they were so adorable! The bottom has a little snowflake, and I loved the faux metal finish. These will definitely be hanging around for a few years at least. And 9 for $1! LOVE that!

These are one of the projects I started but never actually finished. The plan was to make stuffed burlap star ornaments. I put some heat and bond on the back of the burlap and then cut out little star shapes. Then I decorated a few with some haphazard embroidery, and ribbon bows like this one. My plan was to sew them to a plain star backing, stuff them, and attach a ribbon for hanging. Instead I just set them around the tree and they're actually pretty cute just like that.

What are some fun things you've made for your Christmas tree this year? Did you find any new ornaments that you absolutely LOVE?