Currant Scones and Hazelnut Chocolate Biscotti

Currant Scones 

This recipe is from the Joy of Cooking.

This cook book is a must have, along with the cake bible. 

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, 

Pause for a picture!

Add cubed butter, make sure it is cold! This is very important. 

Mix with a cold pastry blender making sure not to make the butter cubes too small. Also make sure to keep the shape of the butter in cubes, only move up and down, not side to side. This will make big butter pockets of goodness. 

At this point the heavy cream is added,

These are currants, currants are very small raisins they do not have seeds in them and are not too big. Adding these to delicate scones are perfect because they are not over powering at all!

After mixing the currants into the dough, 

Make into a ball on a very lightly floured surface, 

8 inches wide

3/4 inch thick

Cut into 8-12 pieces depending on preference,

I recommend smaller, you feel less guilt eating a lot of little cute scones. 

Onto a baking sheet, 

and into a 425 oven for 12-15 minutes. 

Currant Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/2 cups of currants

1 cup heavy cream  

425 oven for 12-15 minutes

Using more cream and no eggs makes these scones less cakey and much more light and flakey. 

These scones can also be made with 1/4 a cup of dried blueberries, cranberries, cherries and apricots. 

_____________________________________________________

Mid-baking snack, yummy

_____________________________________________________

Now onto biscotti!

Gather the troops, 

Whisk eggs and sugar, 

Add dry ingredients 

Then all the goodies, toasted hazelnuts and bittersweet chocolate chips,

Mix with clean hands and make into two logs, 12 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide, 

Bake on a greased baking sheet for 35 minutes at 350 as a log, after brushing the top with egg wash

Then take out and cut into 1 inch thick pieces, 

Back into the oven for 15 minutes at 325

My friend Lee taught me some tricks. One of which is, don't put what you are baking right on top of each other, this way the heat gets to both racks. 

Yummy looks at these beauties!

Hazelnut Biscotti with Bitterswet Chocolate 

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 eggs 

1 egg yolk

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup bittersweet chocolate 

2 cups toasted chopped hazelnuts

I need a challenge! School is almost over and I want to make something really hard and interesting, any recipes?

Also how was everyone's memorial day? hot? 

Also a big thanks to my friend Lee for helping me out in the kitchen!

Lets just fry it all...

This is Najzali! We love sea food, so we went and got the freshest in the city. Chelsea Market!

First we fried the crab,

This is soft shelled crab so you just fry the whole darn thing. 

Setting up our stations, 

A big cutting board

Salt and pepper in a separate (to not cross contaminate)

One egg with a tablespoon of water

Some flour with cayenne pepper  

And finally a bowl to put everything once it is all floured up

Salt and pepper, then into the egg, then flour, then egg, then back into the flour, 

phew then your done. 

Then the fryer! 

About a quarter of an inch of peanut oil and fry for about 7-10 minutes a side. 

Repeat all of this with the big beautiful tilapia, but fry until both sides are golden brown. 

You could say it's a little messy,

We fried a lot so we wanted a very vinegary salad to cut all of the fried food

De-stemming the kale

Blanching for 30 seconds, 

It becomes such a beautiful bright green!

Adding halved grapes, 3 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese and a simple vinaigrette  

I am proud to say that I was there to witness Najzali's first encounter with kale!

 On a side note my dream is to own an English Bulldog, they just make me so happy. I literally squeeze whoever I am with on the street when I see one and I go and ask to pet it. So when I saw a baby English Bulldog in a puppy store I couldn't help myself!

I look crazy! I was so excited. 

Here is our master piece!