In case you were wondering, pre-shelled pistachios are worth every penny. There was blood. And both of my thumbnails, as well as the nail on my right index finger, have nearly separated from my flesh.
Last night I settled in the kitchen while my husband got WJ into bed. I was super excited to try this biscotti recipe from Ellie Krieger on The Food Network.
First things first: shell the pistachios. It turns out that in order to arrive at one cup of pistachios, one must shell half of the bag of nuts. The boys finished bath, snack, story, prayer, and back-rubbing. WJ was fast asleep. Dave wandered into the kitchen. I had nearly filled the 1/2 cup measuring cup. The recipe calls for a whole cup. That’s two 1/2 cup measuring cups. His fingers stretched out, reaching toward the fruits of my labor. “Mind if I take a few of these?”
You can imagine how the rest of that interaction went, but it was lucky for him that I was wounded.
Next time, I will pay the extra money, drive the extra drive, make the extra trip. I have learned my lesson. After finishing the shelling, I walked away from the kitchen, putting off the baking until the light of morning changed my attitude.
With my fingers covered in Band-Aids, I cautiously returned the recipe today. It uses partly whole wheat flour, partly honey for sweetness, and entirely olive oil. No butter. Very heart-healthy. And there is lemon zest, which adds a nicely bright flavor.
As I mixed the dough, WJ hovered at the mixer, sticking his nose as far into the bowl as he could from his perch on his stool. “I just can’t stop smelling that! It smells too good!” He was right. It smelled like a perfect cup of tea.
The dough was kneaded, shaped into a large slab, and slid into the oven to bake. So far, so good. Since the word "biscotti" comes from the Latin biscotus, meaning twice-cooked or twice-baked, my work was not yet finished, After cooling from the first bake, I sliced the slab of cookie into biscotti and baked again. The cookies were flipped halfway through the second baking and emerged out of the oven, toasted and golden.
My cookies are a bit chunkier than Ellie’s. Hers seem more crisp and delicate.
I will slice them differently next time. This go-around I missed the direction to cut on an angle. And after the first bake, the dough was a little too crumby for 1/2 inch slices. I also think I kneaded in too much extra flour before baking; that might explain my struggle with slicing.
Or maybe it was just the Band-Aids.