Deep, Dark Innocence

My Whole Foods sells Valrhona cocoa powder in plastic tubs for $11.99 per pound--though I saw these luxe boxes for sale in NYC last month at the Plaza Food Hall @ the Plaza Hotel. My $4.92 tub will make several batches of biscotti; each batch calls for 1/2 cup.

One good thing to report today: I made double chocolate walnut biscotti, a recipe from my friend/neighbor/fellow baker, Amy. She is quite amazing. Over the 15 years we've lived across the street from each other, I have sampled and savored Amy's chocolate-chip cookies with fleur de sel; cashew bars; apple pie; and cinnamon scones. We've also helped each other out in a pinch, borrowing eggs or ground ginger.

So I toasted the walnuts, measured the dark Valrhona cocoa [imported from France, via Whole Foods in Montclair], stirred in the bittersweet chocolate chips. You could call these triple chocolate walnut biscotti, since I then proceeded to drizzle the baked biscuits with melted Lindt dark and bittersweet chocolates.

Brought some to Moey's house [there for dinner] and filled a tin so we have some on hand here.

Until now, all the cookies I baked these season I gave away--so I'm glad to have a stash.

And of course, biscotti contain relatively little butter, and are a bit hard to binge on [they take such energy to chew] vs. softer, more buttery and calorie-dense cookies.

I felt a bit like a baker in an Italian village, shaping and baking the flat logs, slicing them diagonally and sliding them back into the oven for a second crisping. Or maybe I just wished to be transported, even for that one hour, to a simple kitchen and a simple life in a faraway home in the mountains.

Good night.

P.S. I've also made a very good cup of cocoa using this Valrhona gold/frankincense/myrrh. I heated half regular milk and half evaporated milk in the microwave until steaming, then whisked in equal amounts of cocoa and sugar [maybe three or four heaping tablespoons each per 2-cup glass measure]. In the words of Fig and her friend A., it was mad good.