My first experience with biscotti was a recipe for Cranberry-Pistachio that used the food processor to mix the dough. I was dubious but it worked beautifully and the cookies were very popular. Have never seen that technique used again.
As for the recipe search, these days I enter the name of what I want in a search engine ending with the word 'recipe' so I'm not too deluged with sources to buy the item. But when my then boss asked if I could combine her two favorite flavors in her next birthday cake - chocolate and scotch whiskey!!!! - I figured it would be an impossible task. I went to Epicurious and wound up in some odd search site, entered my request intimating that my job depended on success (it didn't really, well, maybe, sort of). I was just amazed to have a response from allrecipes.com within about two days. The cake was quite simple - it had raisins soaked in the whiskey and then added to the batter (raisins and whiskey). It was a huge success and watching the expressions on people's faces as they bit down on a raisin - wonderful fun. I've never made the cake again. It's not too suitable if children are around and my events these days almost always include them. I should make it for my birthday (today) but I now live alone and it's too much for just me.
Baking sure has multiple rewards.
Happy holidays to all and the best of new years.
December 20, 2009 at 1:05pm