my first biscotti & failed tempura

You win some, you lose some...right? We'll that's definitely what happened to me! Let's start with the good news:

I wanted to make some cookies but am sooo tired of the regular chocolate chip variety (okay...MY chocolate chip cookies are no where near regular) and have had Biscotti on my 'To Try' list for a while. I went out and bought my Almond Extract and Anise Extract and then couldn't decide so I mixed up two different recipes (from AR). I must note here that Anise Extract is VERY strong, and for those who don't absolutely love liquorice -stay away! The dough didn't smell too strong so I was feeling optimistic with the recipe that included Anise...boy was I wrong! As it baked (the first time) the smell took over my kitchen but I followed through and cut the log up into biscotti shaped cookies but couldn't bring myself to eat them after the second baking, fail #1.

My second biscotti recipe called for Almond & Vanilla extracts instead (seemed much safer) as well as orange zest. This  recipe was easy to throw together since, by round two, I was a pro. And turned out wonderfully, so I sliced them up and baked them a second time to get that great biscotti crunch. Now the slicing, at least to me, was a challenge. I realized after the first batch that I was cutting them incorrectly and it took a second to figure out how to get them to look like biscotti! Here's my primitive sketch just in case someone has the same brain fart as I did when I read: "cut diagonally".

The top drawing is a side view of your biscotti loaf, the black lines are where you should cut to get that perfect biscotti. You'll end up sacrificing the ends since they're too hard to cut and end up crumbling. It worked best for me to try to hold the entire loaf together (picture putting your hand on the right end of the loaf as you cut diagonally with the other hand) that way the pieces don't crumble or break.

The bottom drawing is a view of the top of your loaf and is what NOT to do, cut diagonally. I was confused as to why my cookies seemed so small (they were only as wide as the loaf was tall, weird).

In the end, I figured it out, my lovely Italian cookies turned out delicious! I melted down some semi-sweet chocolate chips and spread/drizzled the chocolate on top. Check out my pictures!

They were so delicious! The dark chocolate on top with the hint of orange in the cookie -to die for. I can't believe it was so easy!? I might never buy Biscotti again. Oh, the recipe? Here:  Biscotti Toscani from Allrecipes.com

Two things to note: I didn't add the Nutmeg (didn't have any) or Almonds (topped with Hazelnuts instead) and I baked them a little longer than called for the second time around to get the crunch I love!

Okay...onto the BAD news. My failed Tempura.

I was digging through the fridge the other night trying to figure out what to make for dinner (yes, I almost always have a meal planned but got a little off track this past week). Something needed to be done with the frozen raw shrimp I had (no other protein in sight)! So I had shrimp and some veggies...what to do....um....fry them, of course!

I went to work finding Tempura recipes online and came across one on AR that only had 2 reviews but they were both 5 stars then found another on some random cooking website that had a video and seemed legitimate.

I tried the video one first. The batter was just ice water, flour and a little baking powder...and the finished product reflected that. It looked like real tempura but tasted like water and flour.

The second recipe, from AR, was pretty much the same except it called for corn starch instead of baking powder and added eggs. This one tasted a little better, let's just say it didn't taste like air, and looked almost as good but after chopping and frying and chopping and frying; I gave up. J had to finish the rest and I felt sick.

So what have I learned? That one of the keys to making Tempura is to use ICE water, apparently when flour is mixed with water it expands but if you use ice water it slows that expansion until the batter hits the hot oil which causes the wonderfully fluffy tempura. The other thing I learned is this might be one better left to the professionals!

Eh, at least they looked pretty...