Recipe: Orange-Anise Biscotti

This recipe was modified from a Moroccan feqqa (biscotti) recipe I found in Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Traditions from Around the World. The flavor combination was inspired by a menu item at Finch's Brasserie in Bloomington, Indiana USA.

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Recipe: Orange-Anise Biscotti

Ingredients

1	cup	sugar
3		eggs
1/4	cup	vegetable/corn/peanut oil
4	tablespoons	melted butter (cooled)
5-7	drops	anise oil (optional)
1	teaspoon	vanilla extract
1	teaspoon	mahlep (optional)
1	zest	orange
3	tablespoons	whole anise seed
1	pinch	salt
2	teaspoons	baking powder
1	cup	raisins (optional)
1	cup	blanched almonds (optional)
1	cup	almond meal
3	cups	all-purpose flour

Equipment

large mixing bowl
whisk/electric mixer
spoon
baking sheet

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Lightly oil/butter baking sheet.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs and sugar. Add oil and butter and beat once again. Add flavorings (anise oil, vanilla, mahlep, orange zest, anise seed), salt, and baking powder. Stir in almonds and/or raisins. Slowly integrate almond meal and flour.

When the dough is thick and no longer very sticky, transfer to lightly floured surface, knead gently and shape into one or two flat logs about 1-2 inches high; the length and width are not so important as the depth, though cooking times will vary slightly.

First baking:

Transfer log to oiled/buttered baking sheet and bake in oven at 350°F for approximately 30 minutes (for two smaller logs) or 40 minutes (for one larger log). Stick a toothpick into the center of the loaf and make sure that the inside is cooked (though slight underdone-ness can be rectified somewhat in the second baking).
Transfer loaf(loaves) to a wire rack to cool. Let sit at least four hours, or overnight.

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Preheat oven to 325°F.

Carefully cut the log along its length into third- to half-inch cookies. Transfer to (un-oiled/un-buttered) baking sheet, laying each cookie flat on one of its newly exposed sides.

Second baking:

Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes on one side, remove, flip over and bake another 10-15 minutes on the other side.

Remove from the over and transfer cookies carefully to a wire rack to cool.

Let sit for at least four hours, then store in an airtight container.

Biscotti keep well.

(photos forthcoming... whenever I decide to take some)

Introductory Post

It's nearly 10pm. I'm sick. I've just had a minor failure in the kitchen. Why on earth I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog (of all things) I do not know.

But for better or worse, here it is.

The title of this blog, Le métier qui touche, is a reference to a quote from my late maternal grandfather and chef, Raoul DESPREZ (photo forthcoming). The quote may very well have been around before him, but -- like "French" loanwords in Uyghur that really come from Russian -- here it's the proximal source that counts. It means literally 'The profession that touches'. Here, touche has the dual sense, as in English, of 'emotionally touching' and touching in the physical sense; he used it to describe the profession of gastronomy, referring to the fact that it can both be of great significance to the chef and diner, and physically scar the chef in the process. A better translation might be 'The profession that leaves a mark'.

Well, I don't know that the blog will will be mostly culinary in nature, and I can promise that whatever recipes or food pic I put up here will pale in comparison to anything my grandfather ever did. But it's nice to memorialise him however, and I'll try my best.