Vanilla Bean Biscotti - An easy and delicious biscotti recipe

Biscotti cookies are a traditional Italian cookie that have been a part of my life since I was kid and my Auntie Ida would make them every Christmas from scratch.  She is no longer with us and I unfortunately, do not have her amazing biscotti recipe.  So it has been my mission and goal for years to find a really good and not so complicated biscotti recipe.  Then, all of a sudden this past year while looking for cookie recipes to make for Christmas to pass out to people, I happened upon this recipe and decided to give it a go. Helllooooooo! I have found an amazing biscotti recipe that earned me so many compliments this year, followed with "you'll have to give me this recipe."  Happy baking!

Vanilla Bean Biscotti

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 tablespoons butter, melted

If using a vanilla bean, scrape seeds from pod; discard pod ( or put the pod in sugar to make vanilla sugar).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly grease 2 cookie sheets; set aside.  In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Make a well in the center of flour mixture.  Add melted butter and vanilla seeds or extract; stir until dough starts to form a ball.

Divide dough into 3 portions.  On a lightly floured surface, shape each portion into a 14-inch loaf.  Place loaves 3 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets; flatten slightly until about 1 1/2 inches wide.

Bake in preheated oven on 2 oven racks for 25 to 30 minutes or until firm and lightly browned, switching pan positions halfway through baking.  Cool on cookie sheets for 15 minutes.

Using a serated knife, cut loaves diagonally into 1/2 inch slices.  Place slices on cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes.  Turn slices over; bake for 10 to 15 minutes more or until crisp and dry.  Transfer cookies to wire racks; cool.  Makes about 72 cookies.

Note: Definitely follow the directions to the t because biscotti cookies are a very labor intensive cookie for a reason: they are heaven when done right.  When I made these cookies, I set a timer for each part including when it said to let them rest.  When you are cutting them with a serated knife, the knife has to be serated or they will break when you cut them.  Also when you are cutting them, use a careful sawing motion so as to have as little breakage as possible.  Definitely use a vanilla bean if you can find them (Costco sells them) because it makes them so much more delicious. There is a part where you are supposed to stir until it forms a bal, it's much easier at that point to use your hands instead of a spoon.  Also when it says to add the butter and vanilla seeds, add the seeds to the butter because it is much easier for the seeds to incorporate evenly then when you don't put them in a liquid.  You could also put the seeds in eggs instead of the butter. Bake them until they are golden, not burnt because biscotti are supposed to be crispy anyways.

Food porn website

I love to bake and am now starting to dabble in cooking, but one of the things I love to do the most is browse websites looking for recipes.  One of the best websites to find recipes on or to just look and gawk  at food porn (yes, that's right, food porn) is http://www.tastespotting.com/.  It has some of the most amazing pictures of food you have ever seen in your entire life and a collection of some amazing recipes and websites/blogs.  If you are ever bored or looking for fun and new recipes to try, then definitely go check out http://www.tastespotting.com/ because you will have a blast looking through the pages upon pages of pictures to make your mouth water and recipes to fill collection; you will not be disappointed!

Giant Cupcake Pan - Tips and ideas for the Giant Cupcake Pan

The giant cupcake pan is a relatively new and fun cake pan that after some trial runs with it, is easy to use.  My advice to anyone trying to use this pan for the first time is don't try to make it on your sister's birthday a few hours before you would like to eat it like I did because it's going to be frustrating and the end product might not be what you want it to be.  For one, definitely follow the instructions where it says to grease and flour the pan especially the first time.  The first time you grease and flour the giant cupcake pan, it's like you are seasoning pan so it gets easier to use the pan and you will have less stickage (less cake getting stuck to the pan).  The other thing that is really cool about using this cake pan and making a cake with it, is that when you are actually icing the cake, you can make a kind of hole or well in either both or one side of the cake and fill it with icing or filling so that you have a filled cake.

Non-stick baking cups

Non-stick baking cups are, in my opinion, a great thing for a couple of reasons.  For one, if you like to take the cupcake completely out of the wrapper before you eat, then these non-stick baking cups make that so much easier.  The other reason, my favorite reason, is that when you bake cupcakes in non-stick baking cups, you can still see the design on the cup after you have baked the cupcakes.  When you bake cupcakes in the regular baking cups, the design is usually hard to see because the cupcake has saturated the liner preventing the design from standing out like it is supposed to.  Another good thing about these non-stick baking cups is that they are a bit thicker because the inside absorbs the cupcake oils and the outside has the design on it which is not altered during baking.

There are a few different non-stick baking cup designs availble by Reynolds for purchase on their website as well as local grocery stores.  I have used the new foil ones myslef and love the look and the fact that they are lined. I have purchased them in red and green for christmas and pink for a birthday.  I look forward to more non-stick design from Reynolds.

Baking Website-bakeitpretty.com

Baking is not only my chosen career path, but it is one of my favorite things to do because it allows me to be creative, have fun and it also calms me.  I love to just surf the internet all day for recipes and related products, even baking themed jewelry and tshirts. I especially love prodcuts such as cupcake liners, cookie cutters and sprinkles. One of my favorite places to find these things and to daydream that I had the money to buy everything on this site is bakeitpretty.com. They have so many interesting products from a wide variety of sprinkles to retro packaging materials. I love this website because of its retro, fun feel and huge selection of all things related to baking. I have purchased items from this site a couple times and can honestly say that the service is good and the product is even better. So if you are looking for a website to purchase something cute and fun for your next baking adventure, then I suggest you check out http://www.bakeitpretty.com/.