bake-off of the biscotti babes

mise en place

i hate coffee but i love biscotti. especially classic almond biscotti. however, the biscotti goddesses were not with me this night. i tried two (2!) recipes tonight.

the first one was a disaster. of course, it could have been of my own making, who knows? i had all great hopes as it smelled sooo delish after it's first bake. but it was strangely still moist when i sliced it, and hardly risen at all. i went ahead and baked it twice, but it was a mess. a burning mess that is. one toppled off the rack, unnoticed, until that rancid burning smell could be ignored no longer. i saved the rest but the taste was too sweet, and almost lemony?

the flat sticky mess

but i was determined to enjoy biscotti tonight. so i pulled out another cookbook, with slightly different ratios in the recipe. hmm, could this be the source of my consternation? unfortunately i did not have whole almonds, as i love the crunchy nuts in my biscotti. and the logs came out a little mini looking. and the taste? meh. it was okay. but nothing like what the best bakery in carroll gardens can provide. although after trying them again in the morning, they actually aren't too bad. maybe it's the missing whole almonds.

meh tasting minis

one recipe was from dorie. everyone loves dorie. and one recipe was from martha. and well, you either love her or hate her. but which one was which?

if you guessed that dorie's was the one that didn't come out right, you are correct! but martha shouldn't be too proud of herself either because hers didn't come out tasting all that smashing. hmm. or maybe it was just me? can a baker have such a ridiculous off-night that she ruins not just one, but two!, recipes of the same thing?