For The Love Of Baking

Wholewheat Coffee Raisin Chocolate Chips Oh So Good Biscotti

pennylanekitchen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:20:39 +0000

How many of you like black coffee? I mean black black. No sugar whatsoever.
I know Minangsari likes it black Me too. I’m not a coffee person, but I prefer black coffee rather than the sugared one. I have to admit though, that if only it got certain kick, the black black will be just perfect. It needs biscotti.

This coffee companion is supposed to be dipped into the coffee, so it is supposed to be dry. When you dip it into the coffee, let it hang there for awhile to absorb all the coffee liquid until it softens and ready for the kill. Ow, yeah, you know when it’s ready. And when you finally bring it into your mouth, you know, the eternity is right here, right now.

Wholewheat Biscotti
Original recipe by MadeHealthier.com, modified by Riana

Preheat the oven at 150 degree Celsius.

Combined in a bowl:
1 egg
3 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp coffee extract (optional, I used Seruni coffee extract)
1/3 cup sugar (reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup if you use raisin or other sweet dried fruits for filling variation)

Whisk them all together until well combined.

Then add:

1/3 cup almond or raisin or any good stuff you like
1 - 2 cups wholewheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

As for the flour, add 1 cup first, then add other ingredients, mix well. Gradually add more flour until you can easily form it into a log.

Bake the log for about 35 minutes, let it cool on the rack. Using a serrated knife, cut the log into slices, then bake them for the second time in 140 degree Celsius oven for about 20 minutes or until dry.

Note:

There are many biscotti recipes you can find around, but I was looking for the one using all wholewheat flour. This one I got from MadeHealthier was the easiest, easy to adapt, foolproof, yet so good you won’t believe how a satisfying nibble can be this easy to make.
You can use almond extract instead of coffee or omit it whatsoever. I just happened to have 1 bottle of the famous Seruni coffee extract, screaming to be abused.
I wished I had almond around! The flavour will improve with nuts. Damn.

In The Oven Lately

pennylanekitchen — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:28:35 +0000

Phewh..

It’s been so long since I left this kitchen empty. The classic dilemma naturally surfaced when a passion becomes a job had gotten over me and I gave in. When your hobby turns into what you do for a living, better watch out for some changes that might make you lose your freestyle touch. The “it” factor that had made you shine in the first place. That independent soaring bird inside you who might not be the same anymore. Basically you’ll lose huge amount of your time, that’s what I’ve been trying to say.

So.. what is up?

First of all, the donut brownie tower I posted a couple of months ago was featured by The Pastry Channel, a new foodie website to feature great desserts by Tim Fonseca, the Executive Pastry Chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston. I sure hope to see some videos by the chef soon in the future.

Pastry and Baking Asia Pacific magazine is now in digital format, shaping up its website to make it more enjoyable to the reader. Still, I would suggest you read the actual magazine, though. ‘Coz my article is not there

The annual jakarta food expo just ended a couple of weeks ago, and I had a blast. The tendency was changed from last year where mostly everything was about mass production, now almost every booth boasted more premium products in opposite to the cheaper solution that sacrifices quality. You got to taste oh so many product samples, including the wholewheat pastry produced by Corman, which immediately became my favorite. I mean, who on earth could ever think that wholewheat pastry can be that good?!

What else..?

In a not so fortunate event, I had a surreal opportunity to try a very very nice cafe in Kemang area, on Kemang Raya street to be precise, called Les Classiques. The ambience was Europe in late 40’s to 50’s, the cafe swept me of my feet with its homemade ‘just like mama used to make’ baked goods and… its hot chocolate! Man, you have to try this before you die. The chocolate was not coming out of chocolate powder or chocolate bar, it came from a few generous spoons of classic rich french ganache. the ganache was sitting in the bottom of a tall glass of hot milk, waiting for you to spoon it and lick it with your craving tongue. Beautiful.

Anything else..?

Well, I just came back home from Surabaya last week where I was lucky to have a chance to visit Arvian, a renowned baking shop where NCC classes were held for 4 days. A shop with an attitude, I fell in love in a matter of seconds. Nadrah and I were too busy browsing the pretty patterned tissue rolls we couldn’t care less to take pictures of the shop *regrets*. Aaargh, I should’ve taken at least a shot of those colorful mini baskets on the floor!!

Enough about me. How have you been?

One Tower Coming Up!

pennylanekitchen — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:23:56 +0000

“Something whose form is reminiscent of a ring-shaped cake.”
(Definition by Answers.com)

Well, that will do.

So my brownie can be a donut, too, as long it is ring-shaped. Yay.

PennyLane’s Brownies
(Published in the book of “18 Cakes & Cookies” by NCC)

Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 cup castor sugar
1 tspvanilla
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup of any roasted nuts to your liking

How-To:

Preheat the oven at 180 degree celcius. Prepare 2 brownie tins 10x25x 4 cm in size, line them with baking paper, grease with margarine.
Beat the eggs and sugar until the sugar dissolves and the batter looks pale. Add the vanilla, beat well.
Shift the flour and cocoa powder into the batter, fold. Add the oil, stir well. Add chocolate chips and nuts, stir well.
Pour the batter into the tins, bake for about 35-40 minutes.

PennyLane’s Donut Brownie

1 Recipe of PennyLane’s Brownies
Any filling you like (chocolate filling, vanilla custard, etc.) — I think custard is the best *pow wow*

How-to:

Prepare the brownies batter. Let it harden in the freezer so it’s easy to scoop. Preheat the oven at 170 degree celcius.
Scoop or spoon the batter onto cookie sheet giving enough spaces for the batter to spread.
Bake 10-12 minutes. Take out of the oven, while still hot, make a hole on every cookie using cookie cutter. Let it cool.
Spread the filling onto one donut, sandwich together with another donut.
Go crazy.

Chocolate is the answer to any human’s conflict. —kitchen anonymous a.k.a. me