At first, I thought I would be glued to the chair in front of my computer, writing about how wonderful my holiday in Europe was as soon as I am back in Sydney, when the memories are still warm and fresh. To my surprise, it has taken a few weeks to write this first post. I have been slacking off a bit, stretching the 6 weeks of holiday to 6 months while going through my holiday photos. Although the time in Europe had been a lot of fun, I felt so glad to be back to the homeliness and familiarness before I set out on a big adventure on my own. Only until I realised what I came back to seemed no longer the same as before I left. Except the return of the London Eye copycat to drag more people out to cold Darling Harbour for the winter remained unchanged.

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I guess everyone find it hard to get back to the old routine after a long holiday and I remember someone saying it is impossible to ever get back to the same routine you had before holiday and you don’t have to because you won’t come back from travel as the same person anyway. I wonder if I have changed, and if anything, I hope the changes have been positive ones.

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The only negative part that bothers me sometimes since my trip is that having tasted so many good cheeses in France and Italy, I keep being disappointed by the Australian cheeses I used to buy here. Now I am more careful about choosing the right cheese, then again, it you look at it in another way, I have been buying less soft cheese and trying to indulge in quality cheese every now and again since I can’t keep up with my cheese craving without breaking my bank account.

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During what I call ‘Travel through my stomach’, mainly France, Spain and Italy for my culinary discovery,  I had seen, eaten and taken pictures of so much food, but what I had realised towards the end of the foodie trip was that the essence of the joy I had came from coming across interesting people along the way and sharing different cultures and ideas. Thanks to this great website, Couchsurfing, I was able to have the beautiful memories to treasure for the rest of my life and the new perception on the world, people and life. After all, my trip had turned into a journey of humanity as time went on. I will probably bring the exciting topic of couchsurfing again in later posts, something for people who don’t know about the site should look forward to, as I am planing to share  some photos from my trip for trivial food talks that connect with the adventures I had through crashing on people’s couches across Europe.

IMG_5934_1 sm<Fig and Walnut Biscotti>

I was so lucky to be in France and Italy when fresh veggies and fruit were in abundance, especially figs and cherries were so delicious and cheap that they were a must-have for a picnic. Hmm…a fig wrapped in a slice of prosciutto.. one of the best food pairings I had found. Back in Sydney, however, figs make only a brief appearance in summer and they aren’t quite as cheap. Anyway, we have a plenty of dried imported figs available all year around, which I like snacking on for my calcium and fibre intake. So the first thing I did after I arrived at home was to stock up dried fruits and nuts for the week and bake some cookies for my sweet teatime treat. These biscotti have been approved by my French guest that I received a couple of weeks ago although she gave two thumbs up for my oat cookies- she was probably biased against Italian biscuits, being French :) All that talking of figs has led to me actually eating dried figs while writing this. Munch, munch…

The recipe below is a version adapted from Smitten Kitchen and I sneaked in wholemeal flour and honey.

Fig and Walnut Biscotti

Makes approximately 24 biscotti

1 cup walnut pieces
1 cup dried Turkish or Calimyrna figs, quartered
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons or 3 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Grated zest of 1/2 a large orange (I used a clementine)
1 3/4 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon. ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 egg white, lightly beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown and fragrant. Allow the walnuts to cool completely

2. Place the walnuts and dried figs in a food processor and process until they are finely chopped.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula occasionally. Beat in the vanilla and the orange zest.

4. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Beat the dry ingredients into the butter mixture to form a somewhat firm dough. Add the walnuts and figs and beat until thoroughly combined. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and chill 35 to 40 minutes or until completely firm.

5. When the dough has chilled, lightly grease a baking sheet. On a floured board, use your palms to roll the piece of dough into a log the length of the baking sheet. Place the log on the baking sheet.

6. In a small bowl, beat the egg white with a fork until frothy. With a pastry brush, glaze the log with some egg white and sprinkle it with granulated sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (this took longer in my oven, but everything seems to these days), or until the log is lightly golden brown, firm to the touch and just beginning to crack slightly.

7. Allow the log to cool on the cookie sheet until cool to the touch, about 40 minutes. With a serrated knife, slice the biscotti, slightly on the bias, into 1/2-inch slices. Lay the slices on the cookie sheet in single layer (I always end up needing a second baking sheet in this step, as they have a lot more surface area); Return the biscotti to the oven and cook for 20 more minutes, or until the biscotti are toasted and crisp.

Store the biscotti in an airtight container. They will keep up to about 2 weeks.

cornmeal biscotti_mod<Conmeal and Nut Biscotti>

As I was clearing my hard drive and putting files on to my new external hard drive to save some space- you wouldn’t believe how big the size of my food folder is- I stumbled across more photos of biscotti I made a few months back when I was fantasying about sitting around at a market selling my own biscuits at a market while reading a book. I had come up with some interesting recipes for biscotti at that time and I remember this was one of the nicest combos that was incredibly aromatic with rosemary and anise fragrant and had a good crunch.

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I usually use honey for my biscuits and cookies because home-made goodies are meant to be healthy, otherwise it is much easier and cheaper to just buy commercial ones. No?

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Cornmeal-Nut Biscotti

Yield: about 2 1/2 dozen biscotti

  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped, blanched almonds
  • 1/4 cup coarsely chopped skinned hazelnuts
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons fineley grated orange or lemon zest
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup coarse yellow cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup sugar or 1/3 honey
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon anise seeds
  • 2 large eggs
  • Egg wash made with 1 egg and 1 tablespoon water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the nuts out on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven, stirring occasionally, until they a lightly golden around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack (keep the oven on)

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Turn off the heat and add the orange zest and rosemary. Let cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer set on low speed, mix together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda, and anise. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. add the cooled, melted butter mixture and mix to combine. Stir in the nuts. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

With wet hands, (this really does help) form the dough into a log 2 inches wide and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the log with egg wash and bake until it is a deep golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let it cool on a wire rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees F.

Using a serrated knife, slice the log on a diagonal into 1/4 inch-thick pieces. Arrange the biscotti on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets and dry them in the oven until crispy, about 1 hour. Let cool on a wire rack.