A Sicilian specialty, this recipe produces a relatively hard biscuit -- perfect with an afternoon cup of coffee.
To make a larger crisp that serves 10, double all the ingredients, use a 13 x 9-inch baking pan, and bake for 55 minutes at 375 degrees, without increasing the oven temperature. If making an apple crisp, we recommend equal quantities of Granny Smith and McIntosh apples. Peel, core, and cut apples and pears into one-inch chunks. Peel, pit, and cut nectarines, peaches, and plums into half-inch wedges. If using plums, add one tablespoon quick-cooking tapioca to the fruit mixture. Half a teaspoon of grated fresh ginger makes a nice flavor addition to all the fruits.
This quick variation on our Dutch Apple Pie eliminates the pie crust, allowing you to have dessert on the table in less than an hour.
These tender, cake-like cookies, coiled into snails, have a subtle anise flavor. The recipe, from Andy and Jackie King of A&J King Artisan Bakers in Salem, goes back over six generations in Jackie's family to a small town in southern Italy. For a festive look, add sprinkles before the icing sets.
Eunice Feller, baker-owner of Bread & Chocolate, likes to have these cookies on the holiday dessert table for her husband’s large Italian family. The biscotti are packed with dried cranberries and pistachios, and a drizzle of melted chocolate sweetens each bite.
Celebrate wintry flavors of ginger, cinnamon, and clove in these spicy cookies that are lightly crisp around the rim, soft and chewy in the center. Joanne Chang, owner of Flour Bakery + Cafe, which has locations in the South End and Fort Point Channel, says these cookies have been a customer favorite since day one.
Americans have turned biscotti into a softer, richer, cakier cookie than it's supposed to be. Real biscotti (and all of the twice-baked cookies) contain no fat besides eggs. They're meant to be hard so you can dip them into sweet wine.
Smoked salmon is classic brunch fare. Chives and dill have a natural affinity for salmon, and in this recipe herbs are worked into a rich buttermilk biscuit dough with a simple cream cheese spread.
Fill these oat and nut cookies with your favorite fruit juice sweetened jam. We think strawberry, raspberry and apricot jams are particularly good.
The custard here makes a very thin layer, which is studded with pine nuts and squares of dark chocolate. One day recently I was just about to make this tart and remembered that one of my guests is allergic to chocolate. I quickly pulled some candied orange rind from the pantry shelf and snipped half a dozen pieces into the tart instead of the chocolate (I doubled the pine nuts). It was a huge success. Because the tart is so thin, you don't think it's going to pack the flavor it does. The recipe comes from French-born chef Antoine Bouterin, a master of culinary understatement.