Chocolate-Pistachio Biscotti

A crunchy, not too sweet snack.

A few weeks ago we were looking through Baking at République, by Margarita Manzke, and, as usual, we saw a number of recipes we wanted to try. We copied down a few to store in our vast archive here at Scratchin’ It Central, figuring we’d try at least a couple, including this one for biscotti. If you’re wondering how we can get recipes from so many different cookbooks, we have two words for you: Public Library.

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Snickerdoodles

snickerdoodles
snickerdoodles
Done, and soon to be packed.

Near the end of the month, we put together something for a coffee/social hour at church. It varies in terms of complexity, but, lately, we’ve been tending toward cookies. Not so much because they’re really easy to make, but because they’re easy to serve, easy to handle when you’re standing, and not very messy. All good things. But, we do try to vary the type of cookies from month to month, so, this month, we thought we’d try snickerdoodles.

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Ad Hoc Pickled Cauliflower

ad hoc pickled cauliflower
ad hoc pickled cauliflower
Pretty simple pickles.

We’ll be posting pickles and condiments over the next week or so — all will be pretty easy, and most will be coming from one of our favorite cookbooks, Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller. This is partly because they were recipes that we wanted to try, but, mainly, it was because we were busy making these things for a small French-style picnic luncheon we were catering. With everything going on during the holiday season, these simple recipes were really lifesavers, just as they were listed in the book.

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Pepperminties

peppermint patties

peppermint patties
Minty and cool!

We wanted to try a new type of candy this year and had just read a recipe for peppermint patties, or, as we’ll refer to this version, pepperminties. We found this in Prune, by Gabrielle Hamilton, which we really enjoyed. It’s printed to look like the notebook that the staff uses in the restaurant (maybe it’s basically a copy; we don’t know), including handwritten notes about handling and plating the food. If you want to have some feel for what goes on in a high-pressure restaurant kitchen, check out this book. But, for now, let’s check out how to make pepperminties.

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