The Epic Biscotti

I promised my friend that I would blog about the EPIC BISCOTTI. I had planned on documenting the entire process but, well, I arranged all my ingredients and took a picture. Then realized I had too little sugar, so I went out to get more sugar, got sleepy and decided to make the biscotti in the morning. By then I had completely forgotten about documenting it.

Anyways, here we go.

The ingredients are as follows:

• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• however many sliced almonds as I could find (about 1/4 cup)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 cups of flour
• some vanilla and almond extracts to taste

I beat the eggs and sugar until they went all pale from freight. Then I added the almonds, cocoa powder and extracts. And, because I didn't have a second big mixing bowl to mix the dry ingredients, I added the salt, stirred a bit, then the baking powder and stirred a bit more and then finally added the flour last.

The batter is then separated in two and shaped into two loaves on a pan. I baked for 40 minutes at 350F (rotating half way through). After that, I let them cool for a bit, sliced them up and baked again for about 7/8 minutes per side. Then I was left with delicious biscotti to enjoy with my morning coffee! And because they're small, I can tell myself it's ok to have 3 in one sitting.

Just look at that perfection!

Yuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm!

Chocolate Substitute

Yesterday was a tough day. I went overkill on searching for jobs online, returning phone calls, making other phone calls, doing laundry and getting groceries. I was sore, and aching all over and then went to band practice until about 11pm so not only was I sore, but I was "working" for about 14 hours straight. I underestimated the toll it would take on me because I figured I was "just doing housework".

So I took it easy today. I'll be doing a bit more laundry (I can only do so much at once since the laundromat is a couple minutes' walk away) but I've spent today reading, chatting with people online and walking around in the beautiful weather we're having here. The highlight of the day though has to be the past hour that I spent sitting on the balcony, drinking a cooler and slowly eating a box of raspberries, savouring every bite all the while listening to The Magnetic Fields.

I realized through this experience that raspberries are by far my favourite food. It's better than chocolate, by far. Many women will say that they prefer chocolate to sex. I've never found that to be true, mainly because I crave chocolate but then once I indulge in that craving, I am almost invariably disappointed (however, Ritter Sport chocolate is rarely a disappointment). Raspberries always leave me wanting more. The flesh of the berry is unbelievably soft, and the inside is filled with the most gratifying juice I've ever had, though orange juice is a close runner up. I would gladly take raspberries over chocolate any day.

A week or two back, I posted about taking care of myself as best I can. Well, I believe that part of that will be indulging in my raspberry cravings from time to time. They're sweet, satisfying and healthy (though somewhat expensive for how little you get). I can spare the extra 50 cents or so to opt for the healthier, better option than for a chocolate bar.

I'd be curious to hear about other people's healthy alternatives to chocolate treats, or general chocolate-related opinions.