Step One….My First Gluten-Free Biscotti

  No, it’s not Christmas, just a raw, rainy day here…….so fire in the fireplace!

Ever since I was in Florence in July 2011, I have had a dream of opening up a Biscotti Shop there.  My husband thinks I am crazy, but every morning as the kids slept in the hotel room on the Piazza Repubblica, I went out strolling around the immediate environs alone, experiencing, what for me is the most enticing time in a big city, when it is very early morning and things are just coming to life.  I would walk, dreamily, and peer into the shop windows, or in a few cases, the shopkeepers would be there, sweeping their stoop and getting ready for the day’s business.  My favorite shops were the tiny biscotti shops, with bowls and large glass jars filled to the brim with various varieties of candies and cookies.  I felt that in some other life, I could have lived happily here, doing this.  As time has gone on I have developed a nagging feeling that I didn’t need to be in some other life to do this and so, I still look at empty store fronts, where ever I go, and yearn.  While the image of being married to a little old Neopolitan lady, always attached to a flour-smudged apron,  with black sox rolled down around one’s ankles, a stout profile and indiscriminate facial hair doesn’t exactly appeal to my husband, (that’s Naples, not Firenze!) I could so easily see myself, baking, sweeping, sharing chit-chat with the neighboring shop ladies and wiling the days away.  I don’t know, does anyone else have these auras of existing in another time and place?  It is a substantive understatement to say that I would love to live in Italy, but alas, I don’t have a spouse that shares this passion right now.  When he retires, I envision myself happily coaxing him onto planes for trips there over and over again.  Frances Mayes did it, why not me?  Well, anyway, today is not that day.

I decided, since it is pouring rain today, that I would light a fire in my kitchen fireplace and do some research on biscotti recipes.  I had one small box of King Arthur Gluten Free Flour in the pantry – so off I went in search of a recipe to try.  I settled on Nancy Baggett’s Cranberry-Ginger-Spice Biscotti  (see Recipe Section) from her new book, Simply Sensational Cookies.  I am not sure why I consider making my first Gluten-Free Cookie such a venture into new territory – tons of bakers have been doing this for a long, long time.  But, for me, well, it’s my first time – and I really don’t know what to expect.  And, I hate flops and disappointments.

The recipe is one which would appeal to me on any level – dried fruits, nuts and good spices – cardamom and two gingers – ground and crystallized.  I don’t have any pistachios in the house so I am using pecans.

They are out of the oven, now have to cool completely before the second bake, and I am pretty happy with the results so far.  The dough was a little on the wet side, but I worked with it with my spatula to make the “logs”.  Next time I will make them a little narrower still.

  After the first baking.

Well, now that they have cooled, been sliced (always a dubious task for me) and twice-baked, I took a sample.  Not bad…….. the flavors are good…….. I’d have to make a batch with regular flour to do a true taste test, but, all in all, these are very acceptable!.

        Try these, with or without Gluten, they’re really good!  I didn’t glaze these because I don’t have any “real” white chocolate in the house – if I did, I’d just dip them in a melted white chocolate with a little orange extract mixed in.

I’m going off to Williams Sonoma to get some of the Cup4Cup Gluten-Free Flour for experiment #2. .  If the sun doesn’t come out tomorrow, I’ll be here doing this again.  Sunday, is dinner at Blue Hill after the  Grub Street Food Festival.  Thanks, Dorie for your post!