The aura of a baker

Yesterday I met my friend, Mary, for a walk. It was a beautiful, sun-filled day in Rochester, NY (a normally cloudy place). When I opened the door of Mary's car I sensed a wonderful aroma - sweet, spicy, fruity. I looked around and saw that the car was empty of any food. When I mentioned the aroma to Mary she said that she had been baking apple pies that morning. I too have been having a similar experience. I tend to bake in the morning and I have been noticing that when I wash my hair it is sweet smelling and the clothes that I had on are also permeated with sugar and spice.

Well, last night I decided to make Chocolate Chunk Biscotti. My previous  forays into biscotti making were very pleasant. This time it was not pleasant at all Nick says that the dough will be sticky. This is a gross understatement. The dough was a mess. A big chuncky chocolate mess. I wrestled two logs onto a cookie sheet and shot them into the oven. They turned out fine, a bit larger than I had hoped but fine none the less.
I also made meringues. As most people know meringues are made of egg whites and sugar. These meringues also have walnuts and raisin bits in them. They are called Walnut Boulders. And since I had egg whites in the refrigerator and it was, as I mentioned, a gloriously dry day in Rochester and meringues don't behave well when it is raining I gave them a whirl.

Lemon Pistachio Biscotti, Sour Cream Cinnamon Drops, Chocolate Shortbread, Hermits

My adventure this week has taken me to try another biscotti - Lemon Pistachio. I was assisted by the lovely Ellen who shelled the pistachios for me. These biscotti are lighter in texture than either the Classic Tuscan or the Quaresimali (hazelnut Lenten biscotti). I sliced them fairly thin before the second toasting and they came out really great - a lot of lemon flavor from the zest of 2 lemons.
I also made a cutout cookie - Chocolate Shortbread. Unlike the classic shortbread this cookie is rolled and cut. However, like shortbread the ingredients consist of flour, sugar and butter (with chocolate added). These are not easy cookies. I did not experience a whole lot of joy making these. The dough is really fussy, sticky and generally hard to handle. I resorted to rolling it out between plastic wrap and I had to constantly chill the dough. The cookie did get a good review.
Then I moved onto my favorite type of cookie, the drop cookie. Fun to make and fun to bake. I made Sour Cream Cinnamon drops (left side of plate) and Hermits. Both cookies taste great. The Sour Cream Cinnamon drops have a great texture and a wonderful cinnamon flavor. The Hermits have a bit of coffee in them as a flavor. They also have brown sugar, nuts and raisins.