Hunting for Biscotti

Tip of the iceberg: My small sun room office contains my
treasure trove of cookbooks.

 

I sent H. and Punch to our friend's Super Bowl party down the block. I had a melancholy day. Well, it was ok at first but then it kind of descended. I was not in a party mood. I was in a get-out-my-cookbooks-and-find-a-great-biscotti-recipe mood. I've been avoiding sugar but allowing myself some crunchy biscotti made with a little sugar and a little honey. So I decided to make some. Finally settled on the Anise Almond Biscotti in Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, tweaking it a bit. It makes a big batch and calls for 1 cup sugar, so I cut that to a half-cup and added a few big squeezes from the honey bear. Let me know if you would like the recipe.

As much to partially document my baking books as to inform you of my efforts, here are the books I leafed through, at my leisure. Some had biscotti recipes, some didn't. I loved looking through them all.

1. Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies. This small soft-back is special to me because I love Alice Medrich and because my friend Madonna [nickname, Candy] gave it to me one year in NYC for my birthday. The inscription, in green marker, says: 1/21/03 To Alice: A Book of Sweets for a Sweet Friend! Happy Birthday! XXXOOO Madonna.
2. Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser. I adore my hardcover copy of this book.
3. Back in the Day Bakery Made with Love. Kim, a blog reader and friend, lives down in Savannah and when I was at Tybee Island ["Savannah's Beach"] for a press trip, Kim gave me a quick car tour of her beloved city and this bakery, which was charming and wonderful. I bought my copy there and the owners signed it!
4. 125 Cookies to Bake, Nibble, and Savor by Elinor Klivans. My friend Elly gave me this recently!
5. BAKED New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.. I adore this book. And it's been on my bucket list for years to get to this bakery in Red Hook, Brooklyn Kim, have you been there yet?
6. Chocolate & Vanilla by Gale Gand. Such a clever book. Half is chocolate recipes; then turn and open it from the other side for the vanilla recipes. I used to make the Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Balls after school sometimes for Figgy and her friend Christy. 
7. The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins. Memories of the days as a young writer at Woman's Day Magazine when my friend Kim and her editor, Susan, talked about the chicken with prunes and the soup recipes. And my sister-in-law Therese made her wedding cake from a recipe in here. It was so delicious.
8. The All-American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett. I bought this years back at Kings, the supermarket. I picked it up and put it down on several visits until I succumbed. Cookie cookbooks are hard to resist!
9. Giada at Home by Giada de Laurentiis. She is so pretty, and Italian, so this was a good book to check for Italian twice-baked cookies. 
10. Miette by Meg Ray with Leslie Jonath, recipes from a San Francisco pastry shop that I would love to visit! The edges of the pages are beautifully scalloped. I bought this at a pretty winery in Maine one summer with H.'s sister and her family.
11. Sarabeth's Bakery From My Hands to Yours by Sarabeth Levine. I forget where I bought this big, beautiful book, but I saw Sarabeth at Macy's in Herald Square, making piecrusts.I have made the chocolate pudding in this book; it is complicated but divine.
12. BAKED Explorations, again by Matt Lewis and Renate Poliafito. Again, I want to go to their bakery in Red Hook! Have to drive in one day.
13. The UnCook Book by Tanya Maher. I was drawn to the hot pink type on the cover and bought this raw food cookbook in Whole Foods.
14. Baking with Julia written by Dorie Greenspan. Nice book.
15. Julia Reed's South. Love her writing and her recipes look great.
16. Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum. This is a beautiful keepsake book. I bought a copy for both my Sis and for my friend Jean Rose. My friend Meggy got me The Cake Bible by this author, another wonderful book.
17. In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite, by Melissa Clark. Clark is the gifted NY Times food writer. I like her roasted butternut squash pie.
18. The Black Dog Summer on the Vineyard Cookbook. I nabbed this on the Cape one summer. H. was mad because he thought I was wasting money. I do have a thing about cookbooks--and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks for taking this trip down cooking memory lane....what are your favorite cookbooks? Good night, sweet dreams.