best ever treats – My Whisk and I

I love to bake snacks that can be kept in a glass jar for a few weeks (very optimistic!) and biscotti has a place of honour amongst them. The recipe yields about 36 slices and can be kept for 3-4 weeks when stored in a sealed glass container.

62ml vegetable oil
190ml sugar
10ml vanilla
2 eggs
440ml flour
1,2ml salt
5ml baking powder
125ml dried cranberries
190ml pistachio nuts

Preheat your oven to 160℃ and line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Add the oil and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed until well blended.
Add the vanilla and eggs and beat for another 2 minutes. Set aside.
Add the flour, salt and baking powder to a large mixing bowl and give it a stir to mix.
Run the mixer on the lowest speed and gradually add the flour mixture, allowing time to incorporate between additions.
Remove the bowl from the mixer, add the cranberries and pistachios and mix through with a spatula.
Divide the dough in half.
Wet your hands (the dough is extremely sticky) and shape each half portion of the dough into a log shape about 25cm in length. The logs won’t look wide enough to “become” biscotti, but the mixture will spread during baking and end up being wider than the shaped log.
Place the logs onto the prepared baking sheets and bake for 35 minutes.
Remove the biscotti logs from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes.
Turn the oven setting down to 130℃.
Slice the logs diagonally into 1cm thick slices.
Lay the slices flat onto the same baking sheets and dry in the oven for about 50 minutes. Feel the biscotti – it should be hard and shouldn’t give when you press it between your fingers.
Cool the biscotti on a cooling rack before packing them into a glass jar.

If you like chocolate and you like prunes, this flourless cake is what you have been waiting for!

400g prunes
200ml Port or Madeira
30g granulated sugar

For the prunes:
Add the prunes, port and sugar to a small saucepan and place on medium heat.
Stir to dissolve the sugar and then allow the mixture to simmer on a medium to low heat until the liquid is reduced to a syrup.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and set aside to cool.

340g dark chocolate, chopped
170g butter, cubed
80g sugar
200g cooled prunes (from the mixture you have made above)
6 eggs, separated
1,2ml salt

Preheat your oven to 170℃.
Grease a 22cm loose-bottom cake tin and dust the bottom and sides with cocoa powder.
Add the chopped chocolate and butter to a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Allow to melt, stirring occasionally until completely melted and smooth.
Add half the sugar (40g) to the chocolate mixture and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the bowl from the saucepan.
Now take 200g of the prunes from the port syrup, drain and chop into small pieces and add these to the chocolate mixture.
Allow the mixture to cool for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate and stir to combine.

Add the egg whites and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
Whisk the whites until they form soft peaks.
Now start adding the remaining half of the sugar, a teaspoon at a time, with the machine running.
The whites should hold their shape and be glossy.
Spoon a third of the whites into the chocolate mixture and stir it through to slacken the chocolate.
Fold the rest of the whites into the mixture with a metal spoon, until there are no white streaks left.
Gently pour the batter into the prepared cake tine and bake for 45 minutes.
Cool the cake in the baking tin.
Serve with the remaining prunes in the syrup.

Tag: best ever treats

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