TWD- Chocolate Almond Cinnamon Biscotti

This week's TWD is for Hazelnut Biscotti. Biscotti is Italian for "baked twice," and are crispy cookies (my husband, who speaks Italian, will remind me that "biscotti" is plural and "biscotto" is singular) that are usually eaten for breakfast with some kind of coffee drink. In Italy, they're yummy, probably because you're in Italy. But also because everything is better in Italy. 

I started mine with toasting some sliced almonds in a pan. I opted for almonds because I was on the fence about making these until yesterday afternoon when I saw Sugar Hero's picture on Instagram and that's what I had on hand.

I halved the recipe because I wasn't sure what we would eat these with since we don't drink coffee and it's not hot chocolate weather. I added about 1/4 c cocoa powder and 1/4 t cinnamon. I omitted the liqueur and added almond extract.

I followed the baking time- it says the first baking should be exactly 35 minutes (I took  mine out at about 33 because it was looking pretty hard). For the second bake, the recipe says at least 10 minutes. I baked mine for about 8. They are tasty, but pretty dry. Maybe nothing a dunk in some chocolate milk can't fix?

Jodi of Homemade and Wholesome and Katrina of Baking and Boys will have the recipe!

TWD- Almond Sticky Buns (the most-time-consuming recipe ever)

Ok, this every other week for TWD has messed me up! I keep getting confused on which week we're off and which week we're on! But since I've missed the last couple recipes, I made sure to check when this one was due! This week was Brioche Pecan Sticky Buns. According to Wikipedia, Brioche is "a highly enriched French sweet roll, whose high egg and butter content give it a rich and tender crumb. It is "light and slightly puffy, more or less fine, according to the proportion of butter and eggs"^[1] It has a dark, golden, and flaky crust, frequently accentuated by an egg wash applied after proofing." I've had Brioche bread, but not in the form of sticky buns. The bread is light and eggy, slightly sweet.
This recipe starts with making a batch of brioche. Yeast, milk, egg, flour and salt are left to rest for 30 minutes until the top cracks:

After the mixture has rested (one of many rests it will receive), you add sugar and more flour and beat it for 15 minutes:

Add lots of butter and beat it some more. After it's beaten, it needs to rise for a couple hours. Then deflated and refrigerated for a few more hours. Then you take it out and roll it out, dot it with butter, fold it up, roll it again, fold it up again, and then guess what? That's right , it needs to rest again (in the fridge). After that little vacation, you roll it out yet again, sprinkle in some cinnamon/sugar and nuts (I used almonds instead of pecans), roll it up in a log, wrap it and... what? Another rest? This time in the freezer. 
In the meantime, you smash up some butter in a pan, sprinkle it with lots of brown sugar. Remove the log from the freezer and cut it thick slices (I only made half of the brioche dough into rolls and froze the other half).

And what would this step be without another rest? The rolls need to rise for a couple hours:

Then bake at 350 degrees F for what the recipe says 30-40 minutes (mine took less than 20):

Once gorgeous and out of the oven, you immediately invert the pan onto a plate so all that yummy butter and sugar you put on the bottom of your pan is now a gooey and sugary topping.

What? That's right. These are for reals. Although they were major time-consuming, they were raved about by everyone, even my two year old who said, "Mom, can you make these again? They are so, so, so yum." He said that phrase twice. In a row. How can I not make them again for that? With the other half of the brioche dough in the freezer, I guess I'm halfway there!

The recipe will be here-  Lynn of Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat and Nicole of Cookies on Friday

Chocolate Almond Ice Cream

This is so three months ago, but I'm trying to catch up. For my hubs birthday, I made an almond cake and chocolate almond ice cream. This ice cream is his mom's recipe, and his favorite in the world. It's easy and quick- no cooking or eggs involved. Just mix everything together and throw it in the ice cream maker!

Chocolate Almond Ice Cream

makes 1 pint

1 c granulated sugar

1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 c evaporated milk

2 c half & half

1 1/3 c heavy whipping cream

1/2 t almond extract

Combine all ingredients and stir well until combined. Freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

Almond Cake with Homemade Almond Paste

My husband's birthday was last month and for a cake, he wanted an almond cake. I've always wanted to make a traditional almond cake using almond paste. I looked for a recipe for almond paste and found that it's relatively easy to make. There were cautions, however, that a food processor would not be able to ground almonds as finely as found in store-bought almond paste. I decided to go for it anyway.

I used this easy recipe from Taste of Home. You ground almonds in a food processor until very fine- mine took about 3-4 minutes. Be careful not to process too much or it will turn to mush. Then you add powdered sugar, an egg white, and almond extract.

Once the almond paste is made, you're ready to make almond cake. I used David Lebovitz's recipe for a traditional almond cake. The recipe is straight forward and comes together fairly quickly. The recipe recommends making the batter in a food processor, but mine wasn't big enough so I used a stand mixer.

The cake bakes in a 9" spring form, and is dusted with powdered sugar.

I served this with my husband's favorite chocolate almond ice cream (he likes almond flavor, in case you didn't catch it). The cake is dense and moist, but didn't have the almond flavor I was expecting. It tasted quite eggy, and more like a breakfast dish than dessert. The almond paste was yummy, though, and I used the rest of it to make Abby Dodge's Chewy Almond cookies- recipe to come!

Homemade Almond Paste

from Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups blanched almonds
• 1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1-1/2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• Place almonds in a food processor; cover and process until smooth.
• Add the confectioners' sugar, egg white, extract and salt; cover and
• process until smooth.
• Divide almond paste into 1/2-cup portions; place in airtight
• containers. Refrigerate for up to 1 month or freeze for up to 3
• months. Yield: 1-1/2 cups.

TWD- Almond Poppy Seed Muffins

Poppy seeds always remind me of that "Seinfeld" episode where Elaine fails a drug test because she eats a poppy seed muffin. I always wondered if that would really happen. Because I would be in trouble. I love poppy seeds. Poppy seed bread, poppy seed salad dressings... yum.

I made Almond Poppy Seed muffins for this week's TWD because we love (especially my husband) almond poppy seed instead of lemon. I omitted the lemon and zest and added one and a half teaspoons of almond extract.

The texture seemed off on mine- they were a little less fluffy and almost more biscuit-y. I would definitely make these again, but decrease the baking time a little. Head here for the recipe!

TWD- Chocolate-Almond Marbled Bundt Cake

So, I still don't have a bundt pan. I know, what baker doesn't have a bundt? We only have a tube pan, which we got for our wedding. Truthfully, before joining TWD, I never had use for a bundt. The only time I even use the tube pan is for angel food cake. So once again, the bundt is a tube.

This week's recipe was chosen by Erin for Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt. As you can see from the title, I changed mine a little. I used ground almonds instead of walnuts, omitted the coffee and espresso powder, and added a teaspoon of almond extract.

This cake is so dense, it's almost like pound cake. It's very moist and rich. We really loved the almond flavor, but I'm sure the walnut/mocha version is yummy, too. We used it for strawberry shortcake on Easter.

Erin will have the recipe on her blog!