Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti!

It was one of those days....I had the munchies (work induced) and I needed something sweet and carb like, but there was nothing that was fitting that description in my cabinet. I could walk to the store but I know how that always turns out! I buy Oreos (random but did you know these little favorites are 100 years old!) or Fig Newtons (these are also over 100 years old!) and then consume nearly the whole box and while I am not one to worry about calories - eating that many cookies is never a good idea. I usually never buy cookies in the store and I tend not to eat a whole lot of sugar or processed foods so while I may satiate my craving I don't feel very well later and sets off another wave of food cravings as my body, that is now hopped up on sugar, tries to handle the situation. So, while making the decision to bake when I should be working usually leads me to waste and hour getting up and down from my desk and walking in to the kitchen in the end I usually yield and bake something. I decided to cut the wasted hour out of the equation and just bake some biscotti. I would be happier at the end, I would not have wasted the hour, I would have something to blog and would have something to have with afternoon coffee while I worked. 

Now what kind of biscotti should I bake. Well, I still had pistachios from an impulse buy one night when ESFSW and I were at Whole Foods buying fish for dinner and 1 lb of pistachios were on sale for a ridiculously low price! And I still had Craisens® which are now ancient (embarrassed to say probably 2 to 3 years old!) and really only good for baking. I think I should just pair these classics together (nothing original or crazy here!)

The pistachios were sadly still in their little shells so I did have to take the time to shell them. But, that also gave me permission though to snack on a few. I did this task while reading so I made use of my time.

Cranberry and Pistachio a classic!

I am not an expert biscotti maker at all. One of my favorite kinds is actually a dried cherry and pistachio recipe that I got from a good friend. So I relied on the interweb to give me a recipe. Simple search and glance over of the results and I decided that the recipe from All Recipes looked the simplest and I had all the ingredients!

You can find the recipe on their site by clicking here: Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti. I will also re-write it below all my pictures!

The recipe used Olive Oil instead of butter. So the creaming the fat and sugar together yielded a very different product that creamed butter and sugar. In some ways it was much easier than creaming butter since olive oil is a liquid at room temp. You probably don't need a mixer, although these babies always help make baking easier! I can't wait for the day I have one of my own! This one is my roommates.

Next you need 2 eggs (the other one is already in the mixer), vanilla and almond extract. I didn't not have almond extract so I used orange. Citrus pairs well with both cranberries and pistachio so I figured it would be terrible if my biscotti had an orange flavor.

After you beat in the egg and the extracts add the flour and other dry ingredients and mix well!

Stir in dried cranberries and pistachios by hand. I chopped the pistachios up a bit before hand so that they weren't such large chunks. It also means there will be more pistachio spread throughout!

Form the dough in to two logs and place on a greased cookie sheet (or use a baking mat like I did!). The dough is a little sticky. If you hands are wet the dough won't stick as much. If you find it impossible to work with you can also refrigerate the dough and then form in into logs when it is cold. Need at least an hour in the fridge or 30 minutes in the freezer.

After you bake the logs, you then remove them from the oven and carefully (they are hot) with a sharp knife cut the logs into sections. Spread out the cross sections on the cookie sheet and return them to the oven. This step dries the biscotti out.

All done! They just need to cool before I can start snacking! So while I waited for them to cool I made some coffee!

Happy Baking and Noshing!

Recipe from All Recipes (slightly modified):
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp orange extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 cup chopped pistachios

Cream olive oil and sugar together. Add eggs, vanilla and orange extract. Beat well. Add dry ingredients (not fruit and nuts) and mix until incorporated. Stir in nuts and dried cranberries by hand. Shape dough into two logs and place on a greased. Bake in pre-heated oven at 375 F for 35 minutes. Remove from oven cut logs into 1 inch thick sections. Bake again for another 10 to 15 minutes (until dry).

~ Let cool and enjoy!

Happy Baking!

Om Ali

I recently had a lunch event to attend and was asked to bring a dessert. I had inquired of the host, if there was anything special that she would like and her response was to make one of my favorites. Well, I sat down with my trusty Nigella How to be a Domestic Goddess cook book and leafed through the pages and pages of heavenly desserts. As I was drinking in each lovely picture I happened upon Om Ali. Now I have had this cookbook for about 5 years and have many favorites from it, but I also have many things that I have yet to try! Om Ali is one of those recipes. I have stared at the picture and read through Nigella's description of this dessert countless times often at night curled up in bed dreaming of the day where I would finally attempt this dessert! That day finally arrived! A lunch was the perfect event especially since it was forecast to be a cold rainy blustery day! And oh my it was it! Sunshineville may have mostly sunny pleasant weather but even here we can get storms that dump us with rain and shake the trees until branches litter the streets and side walks.

Well the dessert lived up to my every expectation and was loved by the women at the lunch. I am definitely keeping this recipe in my to repeat list. It takes a while to make and requires a lot of patience, but it is worth it. Just make sure that you pick a time when you are not under a time crunch. I will also mention, that it is really best eaten the first day straight out of the oven. It does reheat but is just not as delicious the second or third day.

Here is you need:

7 oz Filo Dough (thawed)

2/3 Melted Butter

3 cups Whole Milk (please don't use anything less than whole milk it won't turn out right!)

2 cups half and half

1/3 cup Sugar

Desired spices: ground Cardamon, Cinnamon, Nutmeg

3 oz Slivered Almonds 

1/4 cup Golden Raisins

3 oz Dried Apricots (diced - also the Blenheim dried variety are worth the price for the superior flavor)

2 1/2 oz Pistachios, chopped

2 1/2 oz pine nuts (I didn't add these here but mostly because I didn't have them)

Here is what I did:

Pre-heat oven to 300 F.

Some of the Required Ingredients and my trusty guide!

Melt the 2/3 c butter - I usually do this in the microwave. Carefully unroll the filo dough and cut the dough into smaller pieces. Then with a pastry brush, paint each side of the sheets of filo dough with butter and drop on to a cookie sheet like wet rags. I was generous with the butter and don't be afraid to melt more if you need it. If the filo sheets aren't covered with butter they will just crumble and they won't brown. 

Place cookie sheets in the oven and bake until the pastry turns a nice golden brown. This will take 20-30 minutes.

buttered filo sheets baking

Next, measure out the raisins, pine nuts, and slivered almonds and combine in a bowl. Measure out the apricots and chop them finely. Add to the bowl. Measure out pistachios and chop. Take the time with this step and breath in the heavenly aroma that comes when you chop these beautiful green little nuts. If you are anything like me you will need to measure out a few more so that you can snack on a few. Now add these to the bowl and mix the ingredients. 

Chopped Pistachios

Bowl of dried fruit and nuts.

Meanwhile in a large pot combine the milk, cream or half and half, the sugar and desired spices (not more than a 1/2 tsp each - except maybe the cardamom) in a large pot. Heat the milk stirring occasionally until it comes to a boil. Make sure the heat isn't too high or you'll scorch the bottom of the milk. Stirring frequently will also help to reduce the scorching.

While the milk is heating, crumble some of the baked filo sheets into the bottom of a buttered pie plate. Once the bottom is covered with the filo dough, layer with the fruit and nuts. Repeat this until all of the ingredients are done finishing with filo dough on top.

Assembled Om Ali

Once the milk mixture has come to a boil, pour over the layered ingredients. I put the pie plate on a cookie sheet so that it is easier to put in and out of the oven also if the milk cooks over the edge you will only have a cookie sheet to clean instead of an entire oven!

Sprinkle the top with nutmeg, if you have fresh that you can grate it over the top.

Place the Om Ali in a fully pre-heated 500 F oven. 

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the top turns a deep golden brown. Make sure it doesn't burn!

Finish Om Ali!

This dish is best savored fresh out of the oven. Take the time to savor and breath in the aroma especially since all the effort that is required to assemble this beautiful dish. But you should probably let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes after you pull it out of the oven so it has time to set up. The recipe says it serves 6 to 8 servings but I got a whole lot more out of it. 

I hope you enjoy it!