lemon pineapple biscotti

these things have tortured me since sunday night, when the idea of lemon-pineapple biscotti first occured. first thing monday morning i rush to trader joe's, but they had no pineapple (and no hazelnuts, incidentally, which i needed for another project) and as there was no time to go to a different store they had to wait until today. or, i had to wait, and i don't do patient. not with a craving the size of montana.

it was a rough night, but here we are. zhara got very excited at the prospect of cookies, and she yelled 'me too' after every single gesture of mine. not to mention i had to measure the pineapple three times cause some of it kept dissapearing. (one mangled piece mysterioulsy reappeared in her hair.)
this recipe is featured in the recipe booklet that came with my food processor. the other morning i was de-junking my flyer drawer when i found the booklet. it's been sitting there for the past two years. there's more to come from it, a great little recipe for banana bread. anyhoo, this biscotti recipe originally had a lot more sugar and ginger, which i don't particularly enjoy, but i loved the lemon part so i started from there.

3 oz or 87 gr white chocolate
2 oz or 58 gr crystallized pineapple
12 oz or 2 1/2 cups or 345 gr all-purpose flour
2 ts or 10 gr baking powder
1/4 ts salt
zest of 3 lemons
3/4 cup or 158 gr sugar
1/2 cup or 113 gr unsalted butter, room temp
2 large eggs
1 tb brandy or grand marnier
1 tb vanilla extract

preheat oven to 325F or 160C.
chop chocolate so no piece is larger than 1/4 inch. if you have chips you're all set. do the same for the pineapple and reserve. sift together flour, salt and baking powder and reserve. using a vegetable peeler remove the zest from the three lemons in strips. process the zest with 1/4 cup of the sugar until minced. add the remaining sugar and the butter and process until smooth. the mixture may look curdled. with the processor running, add the eggs one at a time. and the grand marnier or brandy and the vanilla. scrape the bowl. add the flour, chopped chocolate and pineapple and process to incorporate. turn out to a lightly floured surface and gather into a ball. the dough will be rather sticky, be sure to flour your hands too. (when zhara saw this, she started again with the me toos, so i pulled the salt dough and talked sweetly about her having her own work station on the other counter. really i was thinking i'd rather be dragged around by wild horses than let her schmear that stuff all over the kitchen. cooks with toddlers, be warned.)

so once you have it into a ball, divide in two and shape into logs. you can make them as wide as you like, they won't spread too much. they will rise to about double. put them on ungreased sheets bake for 22 minutes. remove from the oven, let them sit for 5-10 minutes or until you can handle them, and slice using a serrated knife. place them back on the sheets, cut side up, and bake another 20 to 25 minutes, depending on how crunchy you like them. 20 was plenty for me. when you take them out they will still be kinda soft, but that's no indication. they will harden as they cool. once they're cooled you can drizzle more chocolate on top, they really are not that sweet and can easily afford another layer. store airtight for 6 weeks. they freeze well, too. they're my number one cookie.

later update: it's been 36 hours since they're out of the oven. they're firm, no doubt, but not hard. they don't really stand up to repeated dunking. it suits me fine cause zhara has taken quite the liking to them, but if you like yours good and sturdy consider adding 1/4 cup fine cornmeal when you mix in the flour. that way you'll get more crunch.

lemon pistachio sugar cookies

i'm not much for this valentine's day thing. perhaps it's because i did not grow up with it. even more likely, it's because i'm just not the kind of girl who cares about hearts and candles and whatever. i don't have a romantic bone in my body and i don't feel fundamentally impaired because of it. i don't even remember when i started dating my husband. (how could i know he was my husband?!) we just know it was the beginning of the year; he has some recollection of a super bowl at a friend's house - which of course is just a big blank for me, and frankly we only remember the day we got married because it's also his birthday. i'm terrible with dates and keeping track of time in general. my husband doesn't mind. and he knows he'll stir up a lot more excitement with a book than a bunch of roses. recently he gave me a kindle: now that was a blue-ribbon day! valentine's day is so low on the list of exciting things it barely generates a 'huh? what's that?'. however: i'm not about to pass a legitimate occasion of baking various cookies, especially now that we have so much fun decorating them. zhara insisted on the blue icing, which is incidentally kinda appropiate, since my hubby is away and so even if i wanted i couldn't celebrate zip. these are humble sugar cookies, perked up with some pistachio paste and lemon zest. low-key or not, they still deserve a decent pic, and i tried, but this kept happening so i gave up:

here's what:

1 cup/110 gr all purpose flour

1 cup/110 gr whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 ts salt

1/2 cup pistachio paste

6 oz/170gr butter, softened

1/3 cup/75 gr sugar

zest of one lemon, about 1 tb

1/2 ts vanilla extract

1 egg

mix flours with salt and set aside. cream the butter with the pistachio paste and sugar until fluffy, then add the egg, vanilla and zest. stir in the flour, mixing until just incorporated. form into a disk, wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

preheat the oven to 400F/220C. lightly sprinkle the work surface with powdered sugar. roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut out your shapes. alternately drop by tablespoons. bake for about 12 minutes. the dough will be set and kinda golden, but not browned. remove immediately to wire rack to cool. i left them on it overnight as it was late, and in the morning they were crispy on the outside, and chewy inside, just the way we like them. keep airtight for a week.

p.s. i expect next time i'll use a bit of lemon extract, too and possibly more zest. the flavour was quite subtle and we like the lemon punch.

flathead animal cookie

although my daughter is, by her own definition and in her own words: a lady-princess, she did not bat a lash at the prospect of getting elbow deep in cookie dough yesterday. i have no pictures of this process and it's probably for the best. the cookies will speak volumes. rest assured, they didn't suffer, the puppies, chickens, bears, bunnies and one unicorn we made. their heads are dreadfully bashed in, but it was all done in love. we got a bit overexcited. we're a good team though. i made the ears, noses and eyes, and zhara pasted them onto the heads. take a peek here to see how they're supposed to look.

dough:

1 stick butter

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

2 ts vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups flour

1 ts baking powder

1 tb cocoa

filling:

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tb butter

1 tb cocoa

make sure all ingredients are room temp. sift the flour with the baking powder and set aside. cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. beat in the egg, then the vanilla. mix in the flour. put about 3 tb dough in a different dish and mix in 1 tb cocoa. wrap both of them and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

mix the condensed milk with the cocoa and butter on low heat, whisking continuosly. you want to get it creamy but not too thick, it will harden some as it cools. when it's cool use two teaspoons to roll into small balls and refrigerate until cold. be sure to grease the surface, even waxpaper, these'll stick like a bad habit.

remove all sharp objects. appoint one toddler on decorating duty. breake or cut to portion dough to match the number of filling balls you've made, up to 35 if you've the patience to make them that small... i've made 24. so flaten the dough, put the filling in the middle, roll and give it a round shape. make ears out of the cocoa dough. use chocolate sprinkles for eyes. i only had red hearts, and zhara said they're scary as puppy eyes. bake at 325F for about 10 minutes. as soon as they start to brown underneath they're done.

zhara was very proud of herself. she kept dancing around, looking in the oven, singing 'mommy and zala made cookie' !!! over and over. (that swooshing sound? me melting).

when you come in from the snow have these with a cup of hot chocolate milk for a satisfying, cold-chaser treat. we loved the filling, it's called brigadeiro and it's a favorite in brazil. the original recipe called for more sugar, but i don't like my cookies very sweet, they were perfect for us as they were. soft and crumbly, with a backdrop of vanilla and that luscious caramel inside. i'm pretty sure these will become a staple around here. they'll be hearts for valentine's for sure.