Glaze it up!

I’m not sure that I’ve ever been more thrilled about a poll result than when I saw that bourbon won last week’s poll. This excited me for a number of reasons.

1) I already have bourbon. I always have bourbon. So I didn’t have to go to the booze barn.

2) I very regularly sneak bourbon into all kinds of stuff because I find it delicious. Cakes, scones, sauces, whatever. Put bourbon in it.

Instead of giving you a single recipe for a bourbon thing, I decided to give you a recipe that you can use on dozens of things. When I say this is an all-purpose, any time glaze, I mean it.

Put it on chicken, pork, beef, or even grilled tofu. It’ll be great.

All-Purpose Bourbon Glaze

Yield: 1 Cup glaze

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup bourbon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons Braggs (or worcestershire sauce)
1/2 lemon, juice only
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Big pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Combine all the glaze ingredients into a small pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

2) Simmer, stirring regularly for about 20-25 minutes until the glaze reduces to about 1/3 of it's original volume.

3) Remove the glaze and let it cool slightly.

4) Put it on anything!

It’s all proportions

The key to any good glaze is nailing the proportions. You want a good base flavor which, in this case, is bourbon obviously. You need something that will give the sauce some body (ketchup). You want something sweet and something sour (sugar/vinegar). You want some acids as well.

Because this is mainly going on meat, you also want to make sure you give the glaze some savory flavor. You could add soy sauce or worcestershire sauce to get the savory flavor, but I chose to use some Braggs which is a fairly recent discovery for me. I’m finding that it’s delicious on many things and it worked great in this glaze.

All good flavors.

This glaze is not hard to make and yet another piece of evidence for why you have no need for store-bought sauces.

Basically, you just throw everything together in a small pan.

Starting out...

A cup of bourbon might seem like a lot, but remember that the alcohol will cook off and the flavors will reduce so it’s good to start with a nice amount of it.

Honestly, you could even use more than a cup if you wanted, but that gets the job done.

Heavy on the bourbon!

Just bring this all to a simmer over medium heat and let it simmer until it reduces down to about a third of its original volume. Stir it regularly so the sugars don’t burn.

It’ll make your kitchen smell like a distillery which is just fine in my book.

Don’t rush the reduction process, just let it do its thing and eventually you’ll be left with this slightly thick, glossy sauce that will knock your socks off.

Way reduced.

Glaze the world!

I’m almost positive that you could slap this stuff on pretty much anything and it will be good. Put it on some grilled chicken or a pork chop. Add a light coat of it to salmon or pork tenderloin.

If you’re cooking any kind of roast, just slather it on.

I happened to have something interesting to try put it on this time around…

What up moose?

Yep. You read that right. Moose roast! My dad always brings me all kinds of various goodies when he visits (like Alaskan salmon) or in this case a moose roast.

I think I’ve only had moose once or twice so I was excited to try it and I figured it would be good to put a bunch of bourbon glaze on it also.

You, of course, do not have to go hunt down a moose to make this glaze.

I also decided to prep some good roast veggies to go with the moose. These are just some fingerling potatoes and carrots tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and dried thyme.

Always good roast veggies.

To cook the roast (you could do the same with a beef roast), I seared it well on high heat and then surrounded it with the veggies.

Then I just inserted my digital probe thermometer and stuck it in a 350 degree oven.

Never start a roast without a good thermometer!

My target temp for the roast was 145 degrees, but starting at about 100 degrees, I began slathering on the glaze every 15 minutes or so.

It’s hard to go wrong really.

Get the glaze on.

To be completely honest, I didn’t love the moose roast. It was a bit too gamey for me.

But that’s neither here nor there.

The important part is that the glaze is really delicious and wonderful. I found myself sneaking spoonfuls of it while my roast cooked.

If you’re grilling or roasting something soon, give this glaze a shot! If you have questions on whether or not it would be good on something, leave a comment!

Easy ice cream.

Peaches and cream! One of the most classic combinations that I can think of. Well, it’s at least a classic R&B song (sound) if nothing else.

When it comes to ice cream, I’m usually a traditionalist. I like really good vanilla ice cream. Just plain with maybe a bit of cinnamon on it. Don’t mess with it too much, ya know?

But for peach week, I had to change it up a bit and my huge box of peaches was practically yelling at me: “CHURN US, DUDE!”

So churn I did. The fun part about this recipe is that there isn’t any custard base so it’s a really simple ice cream recipe. Perfect for the beginner ice cream maker.

Buttermilk Peach Ice Cream

Yield: About 6 cups

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes + freezing time

Ingredients:

2 pounds whole peaches (5-6), peeled and diced
1 Cup sugar
1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
1 Teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon bourbon (opt.)
Pinch of salt
2 Cups heavy cream
1 Cup buttermilk

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor
Ice Cream Maker

Directions:

1) To peel peaches, cut a "X" on the bottom of each peach and dip them in boiling water for 30 seconds. Let them cool and then the skins should just peel right off.

2) Dice peaches and add them to a bowl with other ingredients except cream and buttermilk. Let macerate for at least 30 minutes, but up to one day.

3) Puree 2 cups of peach mixture and stir in with cream and buttermilk.

4) Churn cream mixture with ice cream maker.

5) Once ice cream is a soft serve consistency, stir in other peach pieces. Mix well.

6) Freeze ice cream, stirring every 30 minutes to break up ice crystals and make sure ice cream is freezing slowly. After stirring a few times, you can let it freeze solid.

Adapted from a Homesick Texan Recipe.

Dealing with Peaches

We’ve dealt with a lot of peaches this week and we aren’t done yet. What’s always fun about doing a week of recipes around one ingredient is that I completely learn that ingredient by the end of the week. I know its oddities and flavor profiles.

As far as peaches go, I can peel them, dice them, pit them, and pair them without any problem these days. Besides the fresh peaches, this recipe has some other great flavors going on as well.

No eggs needed!

When it comes to peeling peaches, the easiest way to do it is to cut an “X” on the bottom of each peach and then dunk them in boiling water for 30 seconds. When you pull the peaches out and let them cool off, you should be able to just rub off the skin. They literally just slide right off.

Pretty cool stuff.

Easy peeling.

Last minute I decided to put some bourbon in this ice cream because, hey, why not right?

Don't forget the bourbon!

Once your peaches are peeled, just cut off as much flesh as you can and dice up the peaches. Then add the peaches to a bowl with the bourbon, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Let the peaches sit and macerate in this liquid for at least 30 minutes, but you could make this part of the recipe hours before you want ice cream.

Churning the Cream

If you’ve ever made ice cream before, you’ll know that it usually involves making a custard with eggs and milk. This recipe has none of that business. It’s just cream, buttermilk, and our peaches. I was worried that the consistency would be a bit off, but it was completely fine. Maybe not quite as smooth as a custard based ice cream, but I liked it all the same.

Other stuff you'll need...

Take about two cups of your peach mixture and add it to food processor. Process it until it’s a puree. You don’t want any chunks at all at this point. You’re going for a really nice puree.

For the mix.

Stir this puree in with the cream and buttermilk and get it all churning in your ice cream maker. Personally, I’ve used the Kitchenaid attachment a few times now with pretty solid results.

Follow the instructions for your ice cream maker to make sure you let it churn long enough. Mine needed to churn for about 20 minutes before it was set up enough.

KItchen aid mixer works okay!

Finishing the Ice Cream

Once your ice cream base is a nice soft serve consistency, pour it into a large dish and stir in the other peaches and all the liquid.

This is when this recipe gets awesome!

The mix-ins!

To be honest, I thought this recipe tasted the best as a soft serve ice cream. It was perfect like this if you ask me.

But, assuming you aren’t a weirdo, you’ll want to freeze your ice cream solid. While it’s not completely necessary, I recommend taking the ice cream out of the freezer ever thirty minutes and giving it a good stir. This will just make sure that you don’t have any huge ice crystals in your ice cream. Stirring it up will help it freeze slowly and your final ice cream will have a better consistency.

After you stir it two or three times then you can just let it freeze solid.

Stirring is important.

This recipe makes a lot of ice cream, but that definitely wasn’t a problem for me.

I eat it three scoops at a time.

Good lookin' dessert.

This is the perfect ice cream for someone who wants to start making their own. There’s no custard to make or anything too tricky about it. Just mix some stuff together, churn it up, and you’ll be well-rewarded.

Has anyone tried buttermilk ice cream before? I thought it was really good!

Well look at that!

Ok people. It’s time to get serious for peach week. We’re done with making baked peaches and peach salads. It’s time to kick it up a notch.

Or twelve.

This recipe features a trifecta of flavors that go really well with peaches: pork, maple syrup, and bourbon. All of them are slam-smashed into one thing, rolled up, and grilled.

This might shock you, but it was really tasty.

Peach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 3-pound pork tenderloin or 2 1.5 lb tenderloins
1 ripe peach, diced
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 Tablespoons bourbon
2 Tablespoons chicken stock
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
2 Cups breadcrumbs (approx.)
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Meat Tenderizer
Kitchen Twine
Meat Thermometer

Directions:

1) If you're making your own bread crumbs, toast bread in a 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes until very dry. Then crumble.

2) Stir other filling ingredients together and set aside until needed.

3) Slice tenderloin down the center (but not all the way through), then use a sharp knife to carve it open until it lays flat. Once it's mostly flat, cover it with plastic wrap and pound it out to an even thickness.

4) Add filling to tenderloin in a small layer and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Leave about 1/2 inch of room around the outside of the tenderloin.

5) Roll the tenderloin up and secure it with kitchen twine.

6) Grill the tenderloin over medium-high heat until it registers 135-140 degrees in the center. This should be around 16 minutes total. Use a meat thermometer to check the temperature occasionally.

7) Cover the tenderloin with foil and let it rest for 10 minutes.

8) Slice up the tenderloin into 1/2 inch coins and serve!

The Filling

When it comes to stuffing something like a pork tenderloin, you don’t have a lot of room, so you want to make sure to maximize the flavors in the small amount of stuffing that you’ll be using.

So I grabbed some of the most flavorful stuff I could think of.

Goood flavors here...

Besides those flavors, you need a good absorbant base for the stuffing. You could use store-bought breadcrumbs but I like to make my own so they have some texture to them and aren’t all the same size.

Just roast 5-6 slices of your favorite bread in a 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Then let the bread cool down and should be able to pretty much crumble it with your hands.

Use any bread you want!

Stir all the filling ingredients together in a large bowl and you’re all set!

I wish mine would’ve been a tiny bit dryer (I adjusted the recipe from what I used). Since the pork tenderloins cook relatively quickly, the stuffing won’t have time to really absorb or lose much moisture. So what you put in is pretty much the texture that you’re going to get.

I wish mine would’ve been just a tad bit dryer.

A bit too mushy...

The Tenderloin

This looks like an intimidating dish, but it’s 100% doable. The key part is to not rush cutting open the tenderloin and having a nice sharp knife. To start, slice the tenderloin down the center, being careful not to cut all the way through it.

Then carefully run your knife along the bottom of one side of the tenderloin. You kind of want to unroll it if that makes sense. Here’s one of my sides after being “unrolled.”

A steady hand helps...

Do that to the other side as well again being careful not to cut through the tenderloin. Then put a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the tenderloin and lightly pound it out with a mallet. This just makes sure that it’s a nice even thickness. There’s no need to bash the thing to pieces. Light strokes will get the job done.

No need to bash it in.

Now it’s time to fill it! Depending on the size of your tenderloin, you’ll need different amounts of filling, but basically you want a nice even layer all over the whole tenderloin. Try to make sure that it’s not too thick in any one part and leave about a 1/2 inch around the outside of the tenderloin. Sprinkle it with a pinch of salt and pepper also before rolling it up.

Basically, just make it look like this:

Not too thick...

Then, starting with the end closest to you, just roll it up! Try to make it as tight as possible without ripping the outside layer of tenderloin.

My first one had a small rip in it which will happen sometimes because, well, it’s not everyday I stuff a tenderloin.

One tiny rip there...

No worries though if yours has a small rip. It should still cook up just fine.

Tying the Tenderloins

Unfortunately, these tenderloins will NOT keep their shape on their own (although they will after they are cooked). So you’re going to need to tie them with some kitchen twine to get them to stay in the right shape. It’s always a good idea to tie stuff like this just to make sure everything stays in place.

Just cut off a big piece of twine and wrap it around each tenderloin a few times, criss-crossing it as you go. No need to do anything fancy with it. We’re going for function over fashion here.

A very important step...

Grilling the Tenderloins

You could definitely roast these guys, but I prefer the hot heat of the grill. Just heat your grill up to medium-high heat and then toss on your tenderloins. Tenderloins cook pretty quickly, but this will take a bit longer than your average tenderloin due to the stuffing.

Mine took right around 16 minutes to get to the right internal temperature (135-140 degrees). In reality though, for something like this the only way to really know if your tenderloin is done is to use a meat thermometer, which I highly recommend.

Smells good already.

When the tenderloin comes off the grill, wrap them up with foil and let them rest for about 10 minutes. They’ll continue to cook in the foil and the temperature will rise another few degrees.

Done deal!

Once the tenderloin is rested, you can cut off the twine and slice it up! I like to shoot for about 1/2 inch coins of the tenderloin.

Assuming you don’t overcook the tenderloin, there’s no sauce needed for these guys. They are really moist and flavorful.

Really tasty!

There’s a few tricky parts about this recipe (wrapping the tenderloin, not overcooking it, etc), but if I can do it anybody can do it.

Just remember to give yourself plenty of time so you aren’t rushed and maybe have a swig or two of that bourbon to calm the old nerves.

Then you can cook up a storm!

Elegant and bacony!

A few weeks ago I was visiting a friend who is a certified bad ass mixologist. Every time I see him, which isn’t often enough, he’s always cooking up strange syrups and brews in which to make me happily drunk.

When I walked into his kitchen on this day there was a strange jar full of some new experiment on his counter. I asked him what it was and he just smiled.

“Smell it.”

So I opened it and took a whiff. BACON. Smokey bacon. And WHISKEY. Together in one happy liquid.

I took some notes on what he did and after confirming that the results were freakin’ delicious, I thought I’d reproduce the process here for making your own bacon bourbon! It turns out that it isn’t that hard really. Also included in this post is the perfect recipe for a bacon Manhattan!

Bacon Bourbon

Yield: 12 ounces bourbon.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes + resting time

Ingredients:

12 ounces bourbon. I prefer Maker's Mark.
3-4 thick slices of bacon.
A jar of some sort with a tight lid.

Bacon Manhattan (one drink)
2 ounces bacon bourbon
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
Dash of Peychaud' s Bitters
Maraschino Cherries (garnish)
Crispy Bacon (garnish)

Directions:

1) Render fat out of bacon by microwaving it for a minute or two or cooking it slowly in a pan. Be sure not to burn the bacon. Just get the fat out.

2) Add the liquid fat to the bourbon in a jar with a lid.

3) Let sit at room temp for 5-6 hours, shaking occasionally.

4) Freeze for at least an hour so fat solidifies.

5) Strain out fat solids. Once you get out the big pieces, use a coffee filter to make sure it's as clear as possible.

6) Store bourbon in the freezer or fridge. It should keep for many weeks.

Starting the Bourbon. There’s really no trick to this recipe. It just requires some time and patience, as do all good things. I definitely recommend using a pretty good bourbon for it though. The bacon flavor is not so intense that the bourbon quality doesn’t matter at all.

The end result is mostly bourbon with a tiny back taste of smokey bacon. So use decent stuff please.

A mason jar has many uses.

To make this infusion, you just want the bacon fat. I’ve found that the best way to get as much fat as possible out of the bacon slices is to either cook them on low for 20 minutes, or just microwave them (covered) in a bowl until all the fat renders out.

It’ll only take a minute or two in the microwave. Be sure not to burn the bacon or it’ll end up giving a burnt flavor to the bourbon.

Delicious bacon fat.

Once you have all your bacon fat, add it to your jar of bourbon! Depending on how fatty your bacon is, you’ll get varying amounts of fat from your slices. Ideally you want a few tablespoons of fat for the bourbon.

Add the fat to the bourbon and it should form little globs and float around.

See what I did there?

It’ll probably solidify pretty quickly which is fine.

The Waiting. Let your bourbon sit at room temperature now for 5-6 hours. Ideally, you could give the jar a shake every half an hour or so just to stir up the fat. I’m not sure that it’s really necessary to do that though.

After letting the bourbon infuse for a few hours, stick the jar in the freezer for at least an hour. The bacon fat will all float to the top and become really hard. The bourbon obviously won’t freeze because it’s too alcoholic.

This was my bourbon after a trip to the ice box.

Solid.

You should be able to scoop out some of the fat, but no matter what, you want to strain this through a coffee filter. This will remove any tiny bits of bacon or fat that remain in the liquid.

Straining bourbon through a coffee filter is a slow process. Just work slowly and don’t get in a hurry. It’ll eventually all drain through. Mine took probably 20 minutes to finish.

Slow drink.

You can keep the finished bourbon in the freezer or fridge for many weeks without a problem.

It probably won’t last that long though.

The Manhattan. A good Manhattan is one of my favorite drinks in the world. You can make a bacon version now with just a few other ingredients.

The makings of something special.

Add a few ounces of the bacon bourbon to a mixer along with a small amount of sweet vermouth and a dash of bitters. Shake it well with some ice and then you can either serve it in a cocktail glass or on the rocks.

I’m a rocks guy myself. The bacon garnish is obviously optional, but I thought it looked good.

If I owned a bar, I’d charge $10 for this.

Sooo good.

The thing that’s hard to describe about this drink is that the bacon flavor isn’t overpowering at all. After all, bourbon has a pretty intense flavor. It’s hard to overpower bourbon. So when you take a sip of this, you mainly get a familiar bourbon flavor, but then there’s this tiny smokiness near the end. It’s actually pretty subtle, but a really interesting addition.

If you’re a bourbon fan, a bacon fan, or just a cocktail enthusiast, you have to give this a shot.

BBQ. Meet nacho.

It’s no secret that Tex-Mex is way up there on my (and Betsy’s) list of favorite cuisines. I mean how can you go wrong? It’s spicy and cheesy and generally quick to make. Sometimes though I get a bit bored with the standard stuff (Betsy doesn’t). I’ve made some other types of nachos in the past but this is a new twist on them.

I really loved the BBQ sauce I made for this recipe. I’m not a huge fan of really ketchup-heavy BBQ sauces which means I generally don’t like store bought BBQ sauces (except for a few that I think are really good like Sweet Baby Ray’s). You could make this recipe really easy just by using your favorite store-bought sauce, but making your own BBQ can be really fun.

BBQ Chicken Nachos

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 pounds (approx) chicken. I used chicken breasts for this version which are probably the easiest.
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
8 ounces smoked gouda, shredded
red onion, sliced
Cilantro, sliced
Optional stuff: sour cream, serrano peppers, avocado, hot sauce, salsa

BBQ Sauce:
1 onion, grated
1 serrano pepper, diced (or jalapeno)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon neutral oil
2/3 Cup ketchup
2 Tablespoons molasses
1/2 Cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 Cup bourbon (optional)
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) To make the BBQ sauce, grate the onion over the big holes in a box grater. Also, dice the pepper and garlic.

2) Add oil to medium saucepan over medium-high heat and, when hot, add the onions, peppers, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until soft.

3) Add other BBQ ingredients and simmer on low until thick. Adjust to your tastes.

4) Meanwhile, poach chicken in lightly simmering water for 15 minutes until cooked through and tender.

5) Remove chicken from water and let cool. Then use two forks to shred the chicken.

6) Add the shredded chicken to the BBQ sauce and combine well.

7) Cover a baking sheet (or 2) with tortilla chips. Then top with the BBQ chicken mixture. Top with shredded cheese and sliced red onions.

8) Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted, probably 15 minutes.

9) Top with any addtional toppings and serve immediately!

Making the Sauce

The nice thing about making your own barbecue sauce is that you can, well, make it your own! I honestly make it a bit different every time but it usually has most of these guys in it. Not pictured below is some molasses that I decided to toss in at the last minute.

Make it your own people.

Prepping the veggies. One trick to help your sauce stay relatively smooth without having to blend or process it is to grate your onion instead of chop it. The grating makes it almost dissolve in the sauce and flavor it really nicely and evenly. Plus, grating it is actually easier than chopping it anyway.

I still chopped up my serrano and garlic as normal though.

Grated!

Start by adding the oil to a medium saucepan and once it’s hot, add the onions, pepper, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the onion is soft, then add all the other sauce ingredients.

Stir this all together and let it start to simmer and cook down over medium-low heat. It doesn’t need to be really thick. It won’t be as sugary or thick as some bottle sauces that you see, but there’s a lot of flavor going on in there. If you want it thicker you can cook it down until it reaches a consistency that you like or add a bit more ketchup or brown sugar which will thicken it up as well.

I simmered mine for probably 10-15 minutes.

I like mine on the vinegary side.

The Chicken

The easiest way to cook the chicken for this dish is just to poach it in some softly simmering water. Get a big pot of water boiling and add a few pinches of salt. Once it’s simmering, add the chicken and cook, covered, for about 15 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked through.

The good news about poaching chicken like this is that it’s basically impossible to overcook it. It’ll be nice and tender no matter what. Once it’s done, let the chicken cool for a bit before trying to handle it.

Perfectly poached.

The BBQ Chicken

Get a fork and use it to pull apart the chicken, shredding it to pieces. Then add all that shredded chicken straight into your BBQ sauce. Stir it all together and you have a big pot of deliciousness.

All mixed together.

As an aside, this chicken could be used for a number of things besides nachos (which is good because you’ll probably have leftovers). You could make a BBQ chicken sandwich with it, or a quesadilla, or a pizza… you get the idea.

If you’re making nachos though, just spread out a bunch of tortilla chips on a sheet pan and fork on a good amount of the BBQ chicken.

You probably know this part.

Next, add the shredded cheese. I used a combination of mozzarella and smoked gouda. The gouda works awesomely with the BBQ Chicken. I also sprinkled on some diced red onions to give it some bite.

Simple really.

Since the chicken is already cooked, just bake these guys at 350 degrees until the cheese melts. Should take about 15 minutes. Then sprinkle on some chopped cilantro and any other toppings you fancy.

Yum.

Betsy and I ate these without any toppings other than the cilantro actually and I thought they were really good but probably could have been even better with some hot sauce or maybe some diced avocado.

At the end of the day, this is a really flexible dish that is almost guaranteed to make some really good nachos. Do me a favor though and at least try to whip up some of your own BBQ sauce. You won’t be disappointed and might never go back to the bottled stuff.

Back in the pre-Macheesmo part of my life, I used to be a part-time bartender and it’s still one of my favorite past times to exchange awesome drink recipes with friends or occasionally come up with some of my own.

So pull out your stirrers and glasses and have a happy hour already! (Tuesday happy hours are the best by the way.)

The Cool Tease

Ok. So I changed the name of this drink to be G-rated. Macheesmo is family-friendly after all (as I write about ways to get you tanked.)

Anyway, the real name is “The Rhymes-with-Spock Tease.” I got this recipe from a bachelorette party so that name makes sense I guess. Whatever you call it, it’s very refreshing on a hot summer day.

The G-rated name.

Watch out with these. They are pretty dangerous. You can’t taste the alcohol at all. The fresh ginger and apple juice are a perfect match for each other and the club soda gives it some fix. This drink seriously rocks.

To make it, just rub a sliced lime around the edge of a glass and then dip it in some sugar to give the glass a nice sugar rim. Then grate fresh ginger in the bottom of the glass. Using the back of a spoon or a muddle if you have one, mash the ginger in with the vodka, just to get the flavors together.

Then add ice and enough apple juice to fill a tall glass 3/4 of the way to the top. Top with club soda and serve with a lime wedge!

Coolin' it down.

The Watermelon Julep

I happened to have some watermelon in the fridge and some mint and I figured that if I added a little bourbon I might just have myself something delicious!

This was a very solid drink. And colorful!

Bourbon. Gotta love it.

I don’t really like to give specific proportions on drinks, but I generally assume about a shot or 1 1/2 shots of liquor. For this julep I used a few small pieces of watermelon (take the seeds out obviously) and a few sprigs of mint. Add about a Teaspoon of sugar and mash all that up in the bottom of a glass. I don’t have a muddler so I just use the back of a spoon for this.

This is pre-muddle.

Do you know how to muddle?

After you get all that mixed up, add your bourbon and stir, then the ice, then top with club soda. Its really refreshing and the watermelon and bourbon work really well together.

The Night Cap

The person I learned this recipe from said that it’s best to drink it on the beach, but I kind of love it as dessert for a dinner or as a night cap.

Sleep tight!

So I made this drink a bit more complicated than it needed to be I think. The first time I made it I thought it’d be fun to make a really strong batch of cold-brewed coffee and use that for the drink. When I tried a round using the coffee with a few friends, the consensus was that it was good, but just missing something.

First we tried adding Scotch and that definitely changed the flavor! Not bad but not exactly right.

Then we tried a second batch with Kahlua and it was perfect.

The ratio I used for this drink was 1 part vodka, 1 part Kahlua, 1 part coconut milk, and ice. The liquid part should cover the ice in the blender.

Just blend it up, taste it and adjust to your liking and serve it up!

Coffee is okay. Kahlua is best.

If you aren’t a drinker, you could definitely make the first two drinks virgins. Just leave out the booze and add either more apple juice or watermelon/club soda to each drink. I think the night cap wouldn’t be great without the booze honestly.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the second leg in the 3×3 Series!

And of course, feel free to share your favorite cocktail recipe in a comment!

A pie in the hand...

I was pumped when I randomly selected peaches last week. They are in prime season right now so I knew I’d be able to find some good ones and make something delicious.

I’ve been pretty busy lately and while I wanted to make a peach pie, I also wanted to have something I could eat on the go! I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried to eat peach pie (or any pie) when walking around, but trust me. It doesn’t end well.

These awesome little hand pies, almost like empanadas, gave me my peach fill and kept me moving!

Portable Peach Pies

Yield: Makes about 10 pies.

Prep Time: 45 minutes + freezing time

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Pie Dough: (I adapted a Smitten Kitchen recipe for Galette pastry. I subbed Greek yogurt for the sour cream.)
2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 Teaspoons salt
16 Tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cubed
1/2 Cup Greek yogurt
4 Teaspoons fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
1/2 Cup iced water

Filling:
10 medium peaches, about 2 pounds
1/2 Teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon fresh mint, chopped (optional)
1 Tablespoon bourbon (optional)

Egg Wash:
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon water

Raw sugar for topping the pie(s)

Directions:

1) To make the dough, add the dry dough ingredients to a large bowl and mix them up. Cube your butter and cool it off in the freezer for a few minutes. Then add your butter to the bowl and cut it into the dry ingredients, using your fingers, a food processor, or a pastry cutter.

2) Once your butter is in pea-sized pieces, add your liquids and stir the dough together until it forms a loose ball. Then turn it out onto the counter and form two even balls with the dough. Wrap the dough balls in plastic wrap and store them for at least an hour in the fridge. You could make these a few days in advance without a problem.

3) For the filling, peel your peaches with either a veggie peeler or dip them in boiling water for a few seconds. The skins should just peel off. Then chop your peaches up into small cubes, add your other filling ingredients, and drain the filling in a colander or strainer for 10 minutes.

4) After your dough is chilled, pull out a ball and roll it out into a 12-14 inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Use a 6 inch bowl to trace perfect rounds in the dough and then cut them out. You should be able to get 6 or 7 smaller rounds for each dough ball. You'll have to re-roll it once.

5) Stick your rounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes to re-chill the butter.

6) To Make the Pies: Take out each round and put about 2 Tablespoons of filling in the center. Brush around the edges of the round with egg wash and gently fold the dough over forming a semi-circle. Press out as much air as possible and use a fork to seal the edges around the pie.

7) Brush each pie with egg wash and sprinkle on raw sugar. The sugar is optional.

8) Using a sharp paring knife, cut a few slits in the top of each pie to let steam escape.

9) When all the pies are formed, put them back in the freezer for an hour at least to freeze.

10) Bake the pies on parchment paper (you can use the same pan you used to freeze them) in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes until they are golden brown.

11) Allow them to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Making the Dough

This was a really excellent dough. As with most pie doughs, the key is to keep everything as cold as possible through the process.

Yep. Yogurt.

Start by mixing your dry ingredients (flour and salt) in a large bowl. Add your cubed cold butter (put it in the freezer for a few minutes even). Using your fingers, a food processor, or a pastry cutter, cut the butter into pea-sized balls.

I actually like using my fingers for this normally. Work quickly! You don’t want your butter to get too warm.

The butter should be a bit smaller pieces than the butter in this photo.

A bit smaller than this...

Once your butter is cut in, add your liquid and stir it together with a fork until the dough just comes together. Don’t overwork it!

Turn the dough out onto a counter top and form two even balls of dough. Wrap these in plastic and stick them in your fridge for at least an hour. You could make these the day before though and that would be even better!

Ready for the chill box.

Making the Filling

I kept my version of the filling very standard. Just peaches. You could add a bit of mint or even, gasp!, bourbon to it to spice it up a bit.

Start with nice fresh peaches!

Millions (6) of peaches!

There are two generally accepted ways to peel peaches. Take your pick. First, you can just peel them with a normal peeler. I find that this is the fastest way if you’re peeling under a dozen or so.

If you’re doing a lot of peach peeling though, you can also dunk them in boiling water for a few seconds and then the skins just slide right off the peaches!

Whatever method you choose, peel them and then chop them up into cubes and add your other filling ingredients.

Important

Drain your peach filling in a colander or strainer for at least 10 minutes before using it.

You might think that it’s a travesty to lose those peach juices, but trust me, there’s plenty of residual juice in the peaches. All of that extra juice would just make your pies very runny and soggy.

Draining the filling is very important.

Making the Pies

Once you’re ready to make the pies, grab one of your dough balls out of the fridge and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.

Roll it out gently and slowly until you have a large disc. You should be able to work out a 12 or 14 inch wide disc of dough.

Using a bowl or other round shape, trace out 6 inch rounds on the dough. You should be able to get 6 or 7 rounds out of one dough ball. I got six by pressing out four on my first roll, then re-rolling the scraps and pressing out two more.

Use a bowl for perfect circles.

Chilling the Rounds

This might sound crazy, but after rolling the dough and cutting the dough and everything, your dough will be room temperature. You want to keep it cold. So put all your small circular rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and stick it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. This will chill it down again.

Making the Pies

Finally! Time to make some pies. Take your rounds out of the ice box and add about 2 Tablespoons filling in the center of one. You want to make sure to leave yourself plenty of room to close the pie up. This is just about perfect.

Don't over-stuff these guys!

To finish off each pie

Brush the edges around the circle with a bit of egg wash and fold it over into a half-circle. Try to squeeze out as much air as you can. Next, use a fork to seal around the edges of the pie.

Then brush the top of the hand pie with more egg wash and sprinkle on some raw sugar if you have some. Also, cut a few slits in the top with a sharp knife.

Kind of a lot of work, but look at this beauty!

Ready for the oven!

Back to the chiller!

I know. Lots of chilling involved here. But the problem now is that your filling is room temperature. If you put this in the oven now, your filling will be boiling by the time your crust is cooked. In other words, your pie will explode.

Exploding pies are fun if you’re Gallagher, but not after you just spent all that time rolling and cutting and filling and pressing…

So put your pies in the freezer on the same baking sheet lined with parchment paper for about an hour. This should basically freeze them solid.

Baking the Pies

Finally! Bake them in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes. You can bake them on the same sheet you froze them on.

They should be a nice golden brown color.

Flaky and delicious!

Want to eat it now?

Can’t. Sorry. Let it cool for at least 15 minutes on a rack. Trust me. That filling is really hot and it’ll burn your mouth.

Plus you want to give a chance for some of the sugars in the filling to set-up which means when you bite into the pie, everything will stay in place.

Like this:

Damn near perfect.

These were awesome. I remember buying the little apple, cherry, or peach pies at the gas station as a kid and these are kind of like those, but about 100 times better.

Do they take some time and patience? Yes. I won’t lie to ya. But the results are pretty delicious.

And if you’re really worried about it, you can of course just bake an entire pie. It’ll cut out some of the steps and the final result will still be pretty delicious.

But if you’re feeling ambitious, make some hand pies! You can eat them on your way to work and impress your fellow commuters.

My only issue with tiramisu is it generally uses Brandy which isn’t something I have laying around. Bourbon, however, I do normally have and tend to like more anyway. So I figured I’d try a version of tiramisu with bourbon instead of brandy. It had a much stronger flavor, but was still very tasty.

You want this.

The hardest part of this recipe, if you ask me, is actually finding ladyfingers. At least in DC, they are incredibly hard to find. I went to three different grocery stores before finally throwing in the towel and just deciding to make them myself.

Bourbon Tiramisu

Yield: Makes a 13x9 pan.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour + chill time

Ingredients:

Ladyfingers
Makes 40ish ladyfingers
1 1/4 Cups cake flour, sifted
1 Tablespoon sugar (for flour)
1/8 Teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
1/2 Cup sugar + 1 Tablespoon (for eggs)
1 Teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted but not hot
Powdered sugar (for dusting)

Tiramisu:
About 40 ladyfingers
2 Cups very strong coffee
2/3 Cup Bourbon (original recipe was 1/2 Cup but come on...)
1 Cup heavy cream
1 pound mascarpone cheese
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Cup powdered sugar
Cinnamon (for dusting)
Cocoa powder (for dusting)

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer
Pastry Bag

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift cake flour, then measure and add sugar and pinch of salt. Then sift everything again on some wax paper so you can easily transport the flour.

2) Add eggs and 1/2 Cup + 1 Tbsp. sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk until sugar is mostly dissolved. Then beat egg mixture on medium high for 5 minutes until you have a very light and fluffy meringue. The batter should form a ribbon that rests on top of the other batter when it drips.

3) Gently fold the cake flour into this mixture. Fold the flour in 1/3 at a time until it's well mixed. Think of the batter as a foam and you want to keep as many bubbles as possible.

4) Once your flour is incorporated, gently fold in your room temperature melted butter.

5) Add the batter to a pastry bag and pipe onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Coat heavily with powdered sugar.

6) Bake the ladyfingers at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

7) For tiramisu, mix your cofee (cold) and brandy in a bowl.

8) For filling, add mascarpone (or cream cheese in a pinch) and heavy cream. Mix on high until it forms stiff peaks. Then add in vanilla and slowly stir in powdered sugar.

9) Dip a ladyfinger in the bourbon-coffee mixture for a few seconds. Layer dipped ladyfingers in the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish.

10) Next, spread on a layer of the filling. You should use about half of it. Then dust on a general layer of cocoa powder and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

11) Do another layer of soaked ladyfingers, followed by the rest of the mascarpone filling, and another good dusting of cocoa powder and cinnamon.

12) Let chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving.

Adapted from a Young and Hungry recipe.

After some research, I decided to go with Julia Child’s Ladyfingers Genoise. If you plan on making these, I’d recommend watching that video. She makes it pretty easy to follow.

Making the ladyfingers

This batter is called a Genoise batter, which is actually a bit tricky. The problem is that when the batter is finished it’s in a pretty fragile state, so you want to bake it as soon as possible. More on that later.

First thing to do is get all your ingredients ready and preheat your oven to 400 degrees. For your cake flour, sift it (very important for this recipe), then measure it and add 1 Tablespoon of sugar and 1/8 Teaspoon of salt to it, and then re-sift the mixture onto some wax paper which will make it easy to transfer into your batter later.

Sifting is important

Then add your eggs and your 1/2 Cup + 1 Tbsp. of sugar into a mixing bowl. Whisk together the eggs and sugar just to make sure the sugar is mostly dissolved. Then, with either a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the eggs on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes until they form a light and fluffy meringue. The key is that when you lift the whisk, it should form a ribbon of batter and that ribbon should rest on top of the rest of your batter.

The ribbon!

I think I actually could have beaten mine for another minute. Once your egg mixture is nice and light and fluffy, you need to fold in your cake flour. At this point your batter is in its most stable form, a meringue. From here on out, time is working against you, but that doesn’t mean RUSH. Just work gently but quickly.

FOLD your flour into your batter using a flat spatula, 1/3 of your flour at a time. Do this by pushing your spatula all the way to the bottom of the bowl, turning the bowl, and gently lifting and folding. Think of the batter like a foam and you want to keep as much of the air bubbles intact as possible. Stirring would just pop them all! Again, if you haven’t folded something like this before, check out this video. At about minute six she does some serious flour folding.

Careful!

Once all your flour is folded in, gently fold in your melted butter. It’s very important that your butter isn’t too hot or it will just melt your batter. It should be a bit over room temperature. Once your butter is folded in, your batter will be at its most fragile state.

At this point, we need to make the ladyfingers! If you have a pastry bag, more power to ya. I use a gallon-sized plastic bag and just cut off the corner.

Ghetto pastry bag.

Gently pipe these onto baking sheets that have been lined with parchment paper. Work quickly and try to make them as uniform as possible. One tip is to draw lines 3 inches apart on the backside of your parchment paper before you start. That way you’ll have guides for when you are piping.

After you pipe them, dust the ladyfingers with a serious coating of powdered sugar. This will help them stay in place! I got better at piping as I went a long.

Hurry!

Bake these guys at 400 degrees for about 12-15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through if necessary. They should be a nice golden brown color. I’m really proud of the middle row of ladyfingers in the below photo. Most of those turned out pretty nicely. The top and bottom rows are a bit rough.

Not bad.

Honestly, I wasn’t too worried about the shape because I’m dipping them in coffee and bourbon and then layering them between layers of filling. So whateva.

Tiramisu is actually one of the easiest things to make once you get the ladyfinger situation worked out. Just combine your coffee and bourbon (or brandy) in a bowl. The only important part to remember is that your coffee is cool or at least room temp before starting.

Best dessert ever.

For the filling, add your mascarpone (or cream cheese in a pinch) and heavy cream and mix on high until it forms stiff peaks and holds its shape. Then add in your vanilla and slowly add in your powdered sugar. The final mixture should be pretty stiff.

I’ve done this by hand before with a whisk and it’s definitely possible. It takes some elbow grease though and about 10 or 15 minutes. If you have a mixer, use it.

Light and fluffy

To make the dish, dip a ladyfinger in your bourbon-coffee mixture (make sure the liquid is room temperature) for a few seconds. Let the ladyfinger soak up some of the mixture. Then layer them in the bottom of your baking dish. Squeeze in as many as you can.

Bourbon and cofee soaked...

Then do a layer of your mascarpone filling mixture. Use about half of it. Then give the filling a generous dusting of cocoa powder and cinnamon. I probably sifted on about 1/2 Tablespoon of cinnamon and 3-4 Tablespoons of cocoa powder.

After that, do another layer of your soaked ladyfingers, followed by the rest of your mascarpone filling mixture. Finally, give the top another good dusting of cocoa powder and cinnamon. The white filling should be completely covered.

This is what I mean by a good dusting:

Don't skimp on the cocoa people.

Set this all in the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours and then serve it up! I think it’s best the next day after all the flavors meld together a bit.

Fantastic.

Tiramisu is so good. You’ve got to try this if you’ve never made it. If the ladyfinger situation is stressful, I’ve used store-bought pound cake in a pinch also. You won’t really be able to dip the pound cake in the bourbon-coffee mixture though. Just cut slices of it about 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick, make a layer, then pour over a bit of your coffee mixture. That works also!

I’m telling you. Tiramisu is good stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, I can do healthy, but if I’m going to make a pie or a tart or something, I generally want it to be delicious and not half-assed. So I’m very skeptical about light recipes, but it did look really good so I gave it a shot and tried to restrain myself from making too many adjustments to the recipe.

Not quite as light as the original recipe...

There were a few changes that I couldn’t help but make though. First, they call it a tart. To me, it’s a cheesecake. Semantics I guess. Second, I’m sorry but their crust recipe was just not going to work for me. I tried it and I couldn’t get it to stick together.

Also, I don’t believe in low fat cream cheese. Sorry, but that’s just the way I feel!

Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake

Yield: One Pie.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes + cooling time

Ingredients:

Crust: (From How to Cook Everything)
1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs (about two sheets crumbled)
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 Cup sugar

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin
2 large eggs
2 Tablespoons bourbon (plus some for drinkin'!)
2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 Teaspoon ground allspice

Whipped Cream:
1/3 Cup cold heavy cream
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla

Helpful Equipment:
Springform Pan

Directions:

1) Crush up your graham crackers (or you can buy crumbs if you want) and then add your sugar and drizzle in your melted butter. Mix everything together with a fork. It should be loose, but if you press on it, it should clump together.

2) Start loading crust into springform pan. Use a measuring cup to press down the crumbs. Work around the edge with the measuring cup until all the edges are about the same thickness and pressed firmly together. Work slowly and make sure it is all really packed down well. It’s very important to have a good sturdy crust.

3) Bake this crust in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Then let it cool completely on a wire rack. It should harden up nicely as it cools.

4) For filling, beat together cream cheese and sugars. Once they are well incorporated and light, add the eggs and pumpkin (be sure to buy 100% pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie filling). Mix that all together and then add all other ingredients.

5) Once pie crust has cooled down, you can pour filling into crust!

6) Set pie pan on a large baking sheet and then pour 1 Cup of boiling water around the pan right before sticking it in the oven to create a water bath.

7) Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the center barely wiggles when you tap the side.

8) Cool the pie to room temperature on a wire rack and then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.

9) Whisk all the whip cream ingredients together and then dollop it on top!

Adapted from Cooking Light.

Making the Crust

I really did try to make the crust from the original recipe and I couldn’t get it to work out. I didn’t want to risk it falling apart so I just used a recipe that I’ve used before. It’s pretty surefire.

A simple, normal graham cracker crust.

Crush up your graham crackers (or you can buy crumbs if you want) and then add your sugar and drizzle in your melted butter. Mix everything together with a fork. It should be loose, but if you press on it, it should clump together.

Clumping is good.

Start loading it into your springform pan (or you can use a normal pie pan I guess). One trick I learned, I think from Alton Brown, is to use a measuring cup to press down the crumbs. Work around the edge with the measuring cup until all the edges are about the same thickness and pressed firmly together.

Work slowly and make sure it is all really packed down well. It’s very important to have a good sturdy crust.

Get it?

Bake this crust in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Then let it cool completely on a wire rack. It should harden up nicely as it cools.

Making the filling

I used nice bourbon for the recipe not because I think it’s necessarily important for the pie, but because I intend to drink the leftovers and so I bought the good stuff.

You’ll need a variety of other ingredients as well. The only other change, besides the crust, that I made to this recipe was to sub in real cream cheese. I don’t trust low fat cream cheese! Give me the real stuff please.

Filling ingredients.

Start by beating together your cream cheese and sugars. Once they are well incorporated and light, add the eggs and pumpkin (be sure to buy 100% pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie filling). Mix that all together and then add all your other ingredients.

It’s a pretty quick filling to pull together actually. I used whole spices and ground them up myself, but feel free to just use ground stuff if that’s what you have available.

Yum.

Once your pie crust has cooled down, you can pour your filling into your crust!

Don't worry. The filling is pretty runny at this point.

Baking the cheesecake

You need to bake this in a water bath to ensure that your filling sets and stays moist. I did this by setting my pie pan on a large baking sheet and then pouring 1 Cup of boiling water around the pan right before sticking it in the oven.

The water will form steam and help the pie set up nicely.

Water bath!

Bake this creation at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the center barely wiggles when you tap the side. Again cool the pie to room temperature on a wire rack and then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.

Eating the Cheesecake!

Ok. There aren’t really any instructions on how to eat it. You know how to do that. What’s nice about the springform pan is that you can take out the entire cheesecake which makes it really easy to cut and serve.

Some tiny pieces of my crust fell off in the process, but in general it held together fine.

Spring form pans are pretty sweet.

If you are making your own whipped cream, just whisk all the above ingredients together and then dollop it on top! Honestly, the cheesecake is pretty good without the whipped cream also so if you’re looking to really save some calories that might be the place to do it.

How pretty is that?!

Ok… so I stayed pretty true to the recipe. I think my changes definitely improve the final product (especially the crust). Granted I didn’t taste them side by side, but I just have a feeling that my version is worth the few extra calories.

I can say this because, well, my version turned out delicious.

I think this would be a pretty great alternative to the classic pumpkin pie for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast.

I had never made them before, but these were my biscotti results.

Cookie for breakfast? Don't mind if I do.

The trick to biscotti is to make sure they don’t dry out. This means be careful not to over bake them as they will lose moisture after cooking also. Also it helps to have a really solid recipe.

This is that recipe.

Almond Biscotti

Yield: About 30 biscotti.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

3 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/3 Teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Cups sugar
10 Tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon whiskey or orange liqueur if you have it
1 Tablespoon orange zest
1 Cup almonds toasted, coarsely chopped or sliced almonds

1 large egg white for brushing on loaves

Directions:

1) Sift the flour and baking powder to make sure it is really fluffy.

2) In a second, larger bowl, combine sugar, eggs, melted butter, vanilla, booze, and orange zest together. Stir in the flour mixture 1/3 at a time until you end up with dough that resembles cookie dough.

3) After the dough is formed, gently fold in the almonds.

4) Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Take out about half of the dough and form it into a loaf that should be about 13 inches long and 3 inches wide. Repeat so you have two loaves.

5) Beat the egg white until it has medium peaks and brush each loaf with the frothy mixture.

6) Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until they are golden brown.

7) Cool completely on a wire rack. Make sure they are cool before continuing – approximately 30 minutes. Keep the oven hot at 350 degrees.

8) Once each loaf is cooled, slice it on a diagonal with a good, sharp bread knife or serrated knife. Take the time to try to make sure that the slices are pretty even and uniform.

9) Get rid of the parchment paper and lay each slice down on the baking sheet.

10) Bake at 350 for 12 minutes and then turn and bake for another 8-10 minutes until they are a light, golden brown color.

11) Again, cool them on a wire rack.

12) Optionally, dip biscotti in chocolate. Store the regular biscotti in a sealed plastic bag once they are entirely cool. Store the chocolate ones in the fridge.

Adapted from Bon Appetit.

Making the Dough

This dough is pretty straightforward to pull together. It’s really wet though. It’s almost more of a batter than a dough. To start, sift your flour and baking powder to make sure it is really fluffy.

I’m not really sure if sifting is necessary, but given that it was my first time making the recipe, I thought it was worth doing right.

Not entirely sure how important this is.

There are some interesting ingredients in this recipe. Most notably the orange liqueur. I’m sorry, but I’m just not going to go buy a whole bottle of the stuff for 1 Tablespoon, so I just used some whiskey I had around. Seemed to work just fine.

Now a skeptic might say, “Nick. Hold the blog! You take the time to sift the flour, but then you just willy-nilly substitute an entire ingredient?”

To this skeptic I would say yes. Unfortunately I have very little justification sometimes for why I adhere strictly to some parts of the recipe and liberally change other parts. I guess you could say that the sifting is a method and liquors can usually be substituted pretty freely.

I kind of made that up though.

I guess whiskey is optional. I guess.

In a second, larger bowl, combine your sugar, eggs, melted butter, vanilla, booze, and orange zest together. Stir in your flour mixture 1/3 at a time until you end up with a dough that will basically resemble cookie dough.

Seriously this is cookie dough.

After the dough is formed, gently fold in your almonds and you are all set.

Forming the loaf

This part is a bit awkward. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. That part is easy. Next you need to take out about half of this dough and form it into a loaf that should be about 13 inches long and 3 inches wide. This might end up being a bit messy. Use some flour if you need to on your hands to get the dough to shape correctly.

I think my dough was a bit too runny because as soon as I made my loafs they started to spread out. I was worried about this, but it turned out to be okay since they do that in the oven anyway.

Finally, beat your egg white until it has medium peaks and brush each loaf with the frothy mixture.

This worked surprisingly well.

Cooking these guys

Bake these guys at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until they are golden brown. Then cool them completely on a wire rack. Make sure they are cool before continuing. Mine took about 30 minutes to cool down.

Keep your oven hot at 350 though.

Slicing the biscotti

Once each loaf is cooled, you can slice it on a diagonal with a good, sharp bread knife or serrated knife. Take your time to try to make sure that the slices are pretty even and uniform. I was able to get about 15 slices out of each loaf. If you make your loafs longer and narrower though, I can see how you could get 20 or so slices.

Try to make these pretty even.

The second baking

Get rid of the parchment paper and lay each slice down on your baking sheet. They will be pretty moist so be careful. I snapped one in half by accident. Oops.

Bake them at 350 for 12 minutes and then turn them and bake for another 8-10 minutes until they are a light, golden brown color.

Again, cool them on a wire rack.

Nice.

The craziness

Because I had some chocolate left over from these guys, I decided to dip some of my biscotti in chocolate because, why not?

Yea... why not?

Store the regular biscotti in a sealed plastic bag once they are entirely cool. They can keep for a few days easily before they take on that rock like texture that I hate. Store the chocolate ones in the fridge.

These would be great to serve with coffee if you were having a lot of people over for brunch or something. My experience was that it was hard for us to eat them all before they turned into granite structures.