Here is a template for an ideal morning:

Wake up early, exercise. Shower, put on a dress and heels. Apply lip gloss, even though it’ll come off on the coffee lid. Brush your hair by running your fingers through it. (You don’t own a comb.)

Stop at a coffee shop (it can be Starbucks, but better pastries are to be had elsewhere). Buy black drip coffee and biscotti – just one. Get your own table, and a magazine. Nothing too serious, a tabloid is best. Eat and drink very, very slowly. Write down the things you want to accomplish that day, but don’t feel bad if you only get around to half of them.

Linger, then leave.

When I confessed that I wanted to make biscotti, my friend Daniel admitted, “I don’t bake. Baking is not cooking. It’s science.”

He’s right. You can just substitute oil for butter and expect an equally delicious result. The issue is, I come from a culinary tradition of imprecision.

I remember watching my mother bake her cakes in the brown glass dish on Saturday mornings. She has two cakes my tummy knows well: apple and sticky rice. Whenever she comes to visit me at school, she’ll bring a slab of sticky rice cake, lined in red bean paste and presented in white Tupperware. It’s always presented along with a set of clean bed sheets, or admonitions to exercise (I do, every morning, I’ll protest).

Growing up, I’d watch my mother’s recipe-following methodology. She would usually quarter the sugar (Chinese people dislike very sweet desserts) and halve the fat. Recipes were more of a suggestion, and as a result, her baking was delicious in its own way. It was made with love, an ingredient that cannot be boxed, canned, or sold as a self-rising yeast.

But her cakes always had a denseness to them that never resembled the spun sugar confections you’d find in a grocery store. I found their airiness exotic; the desserts I ate were never frosted or made out of pastry flour.

Even with all of this, I wanted my first real baking attempt to maintain a degree of precision. I also wanted to hedge by bets by trying at least two different recipes.

So I picked biscotti, because there’s nothing more luxurious to me than biscotti and coffee.

halfway there!

I tried one recipe that called for butter, and another than only used a splash of oil. I couldn’t find white chocolate, so I subbed in Valrhona bittersweet. (Only the best for my toddler baking!) I used slivered almonds and dried cranberries from Trader Joe’s. I didn’t have orange zest, so I put in some lemon instead. And Shaw’s ran out of almond extract, so I subbed vanilla.

I was already running into precision issues.

I also didn’t have an electric mixer, which might explain why the buttery recipe didn’t seem to hold together. That batch of dough was incredibly sticky and hard to work with. The non-butter dough held together much better, sliced like a dream, and ultimately, proved victor.

But who knows what might have happened if I had an electric mixer and another go at it.

My finished product

Although I can’t promise not to riff a bit on the recipe. It’s in my blood, after all.

Cranberry, almond, and chocolate biscotti
Adapted from Bon Appetit, December 2002 recipe

Ingredients
•    3 cups all purpose flour
•    2 teaspoons baking powder
•    1/2 teaspoon salt
•    1 cup sugar
•    3 large eggs
•    2 tablespoons canola oil
•    2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•    3/4 cup slivered almonds
•    1 cup dried cranberries
•    1/2 cup chopped Valrhona bittersweet chocolate

•    8 ounces Valrhona bittersweet chocolate for dipping

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract in large bowl until well blended. Add flour mixture and beat until smooth. Stir in almonds, dried berries, and 1/2 cup chopped chocolate. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls in two 12-inch-long strips on prepared baking sheet, spacing strips 3 inches apart. Using wet fingertips, shape each strip into 3-inch-wide log, pressing evenly (logs may look slightly lumpy).

Bake logs until lightly browned and almost firm to touch, about 30 minutes. Cool logs on sheet 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.

Carefully transfer logs to cutting board. Line same baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut each log crosswise into generous 1/2-inch-thick slices. Stand biscotti upright, spacing about 1/4 inch apart, in 3 rows on prepared baking sheet. Bake until pale golden (biscotti may be soft but will firm as they cool), about 20 minutes. Cool completely on baking sheet.

Line another large baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place 8 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate in a medium glass bowl. Microwave separately on medium in 20-second intervals just until chocolate is soft to touch, about 40 seconds total (do not overheat or chocolate will burn or seize). Stir chocolate until smooth.

Dip 1 end or 1 side of each biscotti in chocolate; place on baking sheet. Chill until chocolate is set, about 30 minutes. (Can be made ahead. Arrange in single layer in airtight container and chill up to 5 days or freeze up to 2 weeks.)

Orange-Chocolate Biscotti
From Bon Appetit
Since my version of this recipe lacked an electric mixer, I’ll republish this without changes – I can’t say whether my crumbly biscotti was a result of my ineptitude or the recipe’s basic structural problems. For the record, I tried whisking the butter and eggs, subbed in almonds for the pecans, and lemon for orange zest.

• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
• 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
• 1 cup pecans, lightly toasted, coarsely chopped
• 6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate, chopped

Preparation

Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl to blend. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then Grand Marnier and orange peel. Add flour mixture and beat until blended. Stir in pecans and chocolate. Gather dough together; divide in half. Wrap in plastic and freeze 20 minutes to firm.

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350°F. Using floured hands, form each dough piece into 14-inch-long, 2 1/2-inch-wide log. Transfer logs to prepared baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until light golden, about 30 minutes. Transfer parchment with logs to rack. Cool 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F.

Place 1 log on cutting board. Using serrated knife, cut log on diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Stand slices upright on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining log.

Bake biscotti until dry to touch and pale golden, about 30 minutes. Cool completely on rack. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Store in airtight container.)

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