Cranberry Pistachio White Chocolate Biscotti

Since we have moved down to Virginia my regularly scheduled baking has severely declined. Without having friends and family close by to deliver all the goodies to I have refrained from baking and then eating all of the sugary delights. Biscotti has been on my mind though. Usually the only time I even have it is when my mom whips up a batch of her holiday biscotti for Christmas that I LOVE and eat copious amounts of but I have been dreaming about it lately and NEEDED to make some. I used the Chocolate Chip Biscotti recipe from Tasty Kitchen as my base and went to town with my personal flavor choices.

Cranberry Pistachio White Chocolate Biscotti

(biscotti base recipe from Tasty Kitchen)

• 1 cup sugar in the raw (only because I had some in the house and figured why not)
• 1-¾ cup flour
• ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoons salt
• 4 Tablespoons butter, cold
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 whole eggs
• 1/3 cup chopped pistachios
• 1/3 cup chopped white chocolate
• 1/3 cup chopped dried cranberries
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a mixer, combine sugar, flour, baking powder and salt, and mix well. Add the butter and vanilla and mix until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Beat the eggs lightly and add to the dough until evenly moistened. Fold in the chopped pistachios, cranberries, white chocolate and lemon zest until well incorporated.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Form two 8″ long x 4″ wide logs on the baking sheet.

Bake until dough sets, about 30 minutes.

Cut dough into 1/2-inch slices; place cut side down on the baking sheet and bake for an additional 20 minutes at a reduced oven temperature of 275 degrees. 

Cool on wire racks.

Now I could be generous and offer for Brandon to bring some of these tasty treats to work but I am not going to be. He should be lucky I am not hiding them from him.

There's A New Tart In Town

I have mentioned before how much I L♥VE Martha Stewart's Pate Brissee {Pie Dough} recipe. Its amazing. Amazingly DELICIOUS. Well I figured it was time to break out the flour and whip up a special treat.

Pop Tarts have never been high on my list of favorites but when homemade tarts started popping up on the interwebs I knew it was something I HAD to try.

Really these couldn't be any easier to make. Step one make pie dough. Step two buy jelly/jam/preserves whatever tickles your fancy.

Now I am not all too particular with my measuring so I sort of winged it here and cut sorta straight lines in my rolled out pie dough. Basically make yourself some nice long rectangles so that when you fold them over they look like the you know whats.

Next up slap some jam on there. Easy enough. I figured I used about 2-3 tablespoons per tart but well I'm not very good at estimating that either. I used almost the entire jar of jam for the full batch of pie crust if that helps.

Next up dip your finger tip in a bit of water to moisten the edges, fold the dough over and crimp it closed with a fork. As Maddie says "easy peasy".

Don't forget your egg wash on top! Now you can certainly stop here and sprinkle your tarts with a bit of sprinkles before you toss them in the oven or you can....

Dress up with a bit of powdered sugar glaze when they get out!
I have to say these are WAY better anything out of a box!

**Okay well we just moved into our new house and that means new appliances. I set the oven at 350F to bake these but every time the timer went off I was some how turning off the stove so I really can't give you an exact baking time. I am thinking anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes would be great. Just keep an eye on them until they are nice and pie crust golden brown.**

Red, White & Blue Swirls

Remember those tye-dye-riffic cookies we made... LAST YEAR. Well it was time to break out the recipe again but go for a bit more of a patriotic look.

Can I state for the record I LOVE the 4th of July. Sure maybe it has a lot to due with my birthday being the 2nd and possibly me thinking for my entire childhood that the parades and fireworks were in my honor. Whatever. But I do truly love red, white and blue. So pretty. So festive. I ♥ it!

Okay back to the cookies. This time Madison was much more involved and excited to be working in the kitchen with mommy.

She added ingredients.

She colored the dough.

She stacked it all in the fridge.

And then she chose to do nothing until the cookies were ready to eat. So I rolled the balls.

And formed the cookies.

Miss Maddie came back for the eating part.

You can find the original recipe at The Secret is in the Sauce.

Eggs and Cake

Friday was a busy day at our house!

I spent the morning constructing this....

for a 1st birthday party this weekend.

Then it was time for Easter egg fun!

This year I found the coolest dyeing kit that is sorta like a salad spinner but for eggs!

Madison thought it was awesome and I thought it was CLEAN!

I love how our eggs came out and Mad had a great time creating them!

Mad just set out her basket for the Easter bunny and is headed to bed - she can't wait for an egg hunt in the morning!

Cupcakes! num num num mmmm

When we moved back to Connecticut I had high hopes that I could take on some baking jobs on the side and sell them out of my home. Bummer Alert. At home baking and selling is a no-no in Connecticut. Soooo I sort of put my creative baking aside and dedicated myself to this blog. I do still bake but only for friends and family.

Well my mommy dearest asked me to bake her some cupcakes for this weekend so I spent this morning baking away and look how pretty they are!


I have to say I had a bit of a panic attack last night though because I couldn't find my super favorite-most amazing-lick your lips and shove a whole cupcake in your mouth-cookbook. This little baby right here is a must!

I found it though, so all was good! I have tried quite a few recipes from this book and LOVE everyone! Today I whipped up some chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and chocolate buttercream frosting. If you do run out and buy this book {you should} be aware that the frosting recipes need to generally be doubled for each cupcake recipe.

Now I must go eat one!