Biscotti on the Brain

Do you ever feel like the universe is trying to tell you something?

After a long day at my regular 9-5, the last thing that has been on my mind is baking. Or so I thought. A couple of weeks ago, I had my first real cake order which was quite a learning experience and a little stressful to be honest with you. So after I completed that order, I wanted to take a little break. Apparently my brain had other ideas because for the next 3 nights, I dreamt about baking. It wasn't one of my normal baked items either...it was biscotti. Then I started to notice the biscotti in the coffee shops. Then in the cookie aisle in the grocery store. Hm, biscotti would be really good with this coffee....but of course I can't have it because it has tons of sugar. Okay okay fine, I'll make my own.

One of the first times I tried biscotti was when my mom was in culinary school. I use to watch her make it and it always seemed so complicated to me so I've never tried making my own. When I finally gave into my subconscious, I went in search for a pretty basic recipe because I didn't know what I was doing. Biscotti is out of my realm of cake products. There are a lot of recipes for biscotti on the Internet and most have your basic items....some kind of nut and some kind of dried fruit. So among the hundreds of recipes on the Internet, one stood out: Oreo Biscotti

Let me go on a slight tangent here. When I got diagnosed with diabetes, I looked high and low for items that would satisfy my sweet tooth. Most of the time, I was really disappointed because most sugar free items taste a little off. Oreo cookies are the exception. I must say that sugar free Oreos are BETTER than the real thing. They taste just like regular Oreos but for some reason they are crisper therefore making them taste fresher....like they haven't been sitting on the grocery store shelf forever. When I found the Oreo biscotti recipe, I was all over it.

Oreo Biscotti

1 cup Splenda

1/3 cup  butter or margarine, soften to room temperature

3 eggs

2 tsp.  vanilla

3 cups flour

1-1/2 tsp.  baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

16   OREO Cookies, coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)

1 cup of Hershey's sugar free chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 portions...mixing after adding each portion. Stir in chopped cookies. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into 9x3-inch loaf on lightly greased baking sheet with floured hands.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes. Cut each loaf diagonally into 16 (1/2-inch-thick) slices. Place slices, cut sides up, on same baking sheet. Bake an additional 10 to 12 minutes on each side or until lightly toasted on both sides. Cool completely on wire rack.

Melt chocolate chips. Dip half or drizzle chocolate onto cooled biscotti. Place on wax or parchment paper to dry. Store in air tight container.

                                                                                          Source: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/

So here's my advice on working with this recipe cause I ran into a few speed bumps.

1)Obviously, I changed a couple of the ingredients to be a little more diabetic friendly.

2) The original recipe says to melt the butter....don't melt the butter. Butter should be soft when you are baking and still creamy when you are mixing in the sugar. The butter shouldn't melt into the dough until you are actually baking it. I don't know if this is technically correct because I'm not "professionally trained" but I know from experience.

3) The dough is going to be dry. I had the hardest time trying to make it into a loaf. If your biscotti loaf looks lumpy, it's OK. I promise it will come together...just be patient with it. In the end, it will be worth it.

4) Tip for the chocolate. I did not have a microwave safe bowl deep enough to dip my biscotti in so I took my angled spatula, dipped it in the chocolate, and spread it along the bottom side of the biscotti. This helped get a thin, even coating of chocolate that doesn't overpower the rest of the biscotti.

Final product with a cup of strong coffee :)

Speaking of coffee to go with your yummy biscotti, I wanted to make a quick mention of an awesome coffee place in the Mission Valley area called Cuppa Cuppa (http://www.cuppacuppa.com/). I work in the area and discovered this place about 4 years ago when I didn't feel like driving to one of the 4 Starbucks in the area, wait in line, and be late for work. Cuppa Cuppa is a drive thru espresso bar that specializes in local coffee(slogan is "Be Independent, Drink Local"), baked items, and fruit smoothies. The staff is super nice, really fast, and you can tell they appreciate your business. The coffee is incredible and strong. My usual orders are a sugar free vanilla latte or a chai latte and just like the sugar free Oreos, I cannot tell the difference. They always have special drinks up on their bulletin board and sometimes they correspond with the holidays (ie The Irishman, Peeps Mocha). The cost is about the same as the chain coffee shops but here, you know you are going to get a consistantly good cup of coffee. Don't forget to get your punch card if you become a regular.  Try it out...I promise you'll like it.

My current punch card with the doggy bone hole punches. Three more to go!!
Address and hours listed.