Pistachio-orange biscotti bites

These biscotti bites are a very happy recent discovery of mine!  Picture biscotti that does not need to be twice-baked, and in round, bite-size form.  This is a fun, easy, and very delicious way to take a twist on classic biscotti (which I love).

I found the idea for these biscotti bites from Martha Stewart Living's Jan/Feb 2014 issue.  It really caught my eye given my love for biscotti so I promptly ripped the recipe out...and then left it to languish in my "things to cook" folder for over a year.  I meant to try it during Christmas but it didn't happen but 'better late than never' certainly applies here!  

There's so much I love about these cookies.  Taste - first of all, they're delicious!  In my case, I went with one of my favorite biscotti flavor combinations, pistachio and orange.  The original recipe is made with shredded coconut and grapefruit zest so you can see how you could very much customize the flavor to your liking.  The original recipe has chocolate bits in the cookie itself as well as a chocolate coating at the base but I choose to only dip mine when it comes to the chocolate.  Once in a while, I like to practice restraint when it comes to chocolate.  In all seriousness, I think the thin layer of bittersweet chocolate at the bottom of these cookies is enough to add richness and to complement the orange zest and pistachios.  The cookies are good even without the chocolate.

Texture is another key thing we need to talk about because I think taste and texture go hand in hand in making this a great package.  I don't normally make biscotti with butter but I see the appeal after this.  There's just enough butter in this recipe to soften the cookies to the liking of the majority of people (I think most prefer a softer texture than I do).  More interestingly, there's ground cornmeal in the cookies to give it a grittiness and coarse texture that you associate with biscotti.  It's like a little shortcut to the biscotti texture without having to bake them twice.

Ease - these are easy to make and aptly called "speedy biscotti".  No need to roll into a log, bake, cool, slice, and re-bake.  Make the dough, scoop it out and let it chill for about half an hour before baking just once.  You could get playful and make these tiny bites (the recipe suggests teaspoonfuls) but I made them more normal in size, just slightly over a tablespoon of dough per cookie.  

As someone to loves to bake, I don't necessarily mind the steps needed to make traditional biscotti so the real selling point for me here was just how tasty these are! The texture is firm and crunchy but not too hard, the cornmeal adds a lovely element of texture, and there's plenty of flavor and richness from the pistachios, orange, and thin chocolate coating. I highly recommend this to any biscotti fans looking for a fun, easy, tasty twist to the typical!

All that corn...

I've got fresh corn on the brain lately.  All year round, I keep frozen corn (and peas) in my freezer and I love heating some up to eat with my lunch.  But this time of year, it's all about the fresh stuff. Since I live in New Jersey, you know there's plenty of "Jersey fresh corn" to be had and no excuse not to take advantage of it.

Of course, I love the simplicity of just eating corn-on-the-cob and I may throw together a succotash if I have some other fixings around.  But walking around the farmer's market and seeing the mounds of fresh corn all around had me wanting to find some different ways of cooking with it.

So I spotted a little recipe for fresh corn cakes in the latest issue of Cooking Light magazine (real time cooking again!) and that's what I decided to make with some of the corn I picked up at Sunday's farmer's market.  I used the yellow-and-white variety...I know that white kernels are supposed to be sweeter but I love the cheerfulness of the bright yellow ones and bi-color corn seems to be the best of both worlds to me.  

Silver dollar corn cakes: made with cornmeal, buttermilk, and plenty of fresh sweet corn

These little silver dollar corn cakes are easily made with cornmeal, some flour, a little baking powder, buttermilk, and the star of the show: fresh corn kernels.  Some scallions add a little color and savoriness and I tossed in a little paprika and white pepper to balance out some of the sweetness.  And speaking of sweetness - I could hardly believe there was just a teaspoon of sugar in my batch of about a dozen-and-a-half corn cakes!  It was so sweet, thanks to that delicious fresh, sweet corn.

This reminds me that fresh corn - at their peak like this - is good even eaten raw, maybe tossed in a salad.  I served my silver dollar fresh corn cakes for Sunday night dinner with some pork tenderloin and roasted fingerling potatoes.  

Dinner last Sunday night