Maui Wowee

A few days ago I found myself extremely bored at my parents' house. Computer-less and banished from the TV room, baking seemed like the perfect solution. I had limited time, so making cookies was the obvious option. However, after the previous week's cookie dough extravaganza (one night I made cookie dough just to eat the cookie dough...), it was clear that whatever I concocted would have to be unappealing in dough form.

In honor of my mother's impending birthday, I decided to make her favorite: biscotti. My personal feelings about biscotti are mixed. While I rarely crave them, there is something very soothing about a rock-hard biscotti dipped in coffee or tea and soaked to softened perfection. Indeed, in my youth I would often make tea just for the sole purpose of biscotti dipping. That said, biscotti are a staple in my mother's diet and their absence is infrequent in Parent-house.

Fortunately, on this particular day, there were no biscotti to be found. Naturally, I, along the with the Big Book of Baking, came to the rescue.

Plain old Biscotti
Adapted from the Big Book of Baking

* 1 3/4 cups flour
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 2 eggs
* zest of 1 orange
* a few handfuls of slivered almonds (whole almonds are better, but one must work with what one's got)

Preheat oven to 350˚ F.

Beat the eggs in a bowl (or don't if you are lazy). Mix with the sugar, along with the orange rind. Combine the with the flour and baking soda until they form a dough. Stir/knead in the almonds.

Divide the dough into two logs and stretch/roll them out until they are a little over 1 inch in diameter.














Bake the logs for about 15-25 minutes on a baking sheet. Note: this part involved some guesswork on my part. The recipe in the Big Book was very blunt with its baking and cooling times, almost leading me to blindly trust when it said to bake the logs for 10 minutes then remove. After 10 minutes, though, the logs were clearly not ready to leave the oven. I poked one with a knife in anticipation of thinly slicing the logs into individual cookies. Rather than gentle resistance but ultimate submission from the logs, I was met with oozing dough out when I jabbed the log. After about 25 minutes (it took longer because I kept taking the baking sheet out to check for doneness), the logs looked ready for slicing. Let them cool first for 5 minutes.














Use a serrated knife to carefully cut the logs diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices. Place these almost-biscotti sides down on the baking sheet. Bake for another 15 minutes. Let them cool/dry on the sheet. Dip in your hot liquid of choice.

Mushy

On Saturday night, we had a housewarming/birthday party for me. Naturally, I made cookies. I kept it simple and went with plain chocolate chip. I was well on my way to being passed out face down on my bed (yes, that is how the night ended) when I began the baking process. Miraculously, I managed to make a batch consisting of a good balance of raw and pseudo caramelized cookies. The cookies seemed to be a success, stealing much of the attention from me until they disappeared twenty minutes after emerging from the oven. Relief.

Anyway, I was in no state to document this cookie process. Instead, I will share tonight's bake sesh. Wilma, despite being spread thin with philanthropy, generously donated two overripe bananas to the feed-Marissa cause. Obviously, banana bread was in the near future. On the whole, the creation of the banana bread was standard. It involved a trip to the grocery store to replace the bag of chocolate chips my lovely roomie may or may not have consumed in a moment of chocolate desperation. Once the key ingredient (contrary to popular belief, it is chocolate chips and not bananas that are most necessary for making banana bread) was obtained, the rest fell together with ease.

Commonwealth Banana Bread
adapted from allrecipes.com

* 1 stick butter
* 3/4 cups brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 bananas
* 2 cups flour
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 - 2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350˚ F.

Cream butter and sugar (or, in this case, have Dani beat the shit out of the butter and sugar until they are indistinguishable from each other). Add the eggs and bananas. Mashing the bananas in advance is not a bad idea. Obviously, I did not do this and instead used a combination of wooden spoon and fork to get the banana sufficiently mashed.

Add the flour, b.s. and salt. Mix well. Then add the choc chips. Stir until combined. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Note: don't let Dani try and force you to take it out early. She will be persistent, but it is imperative that you resist.