Chocolate Anise Sour Cherry Biscotti
Supplying any kind of dessert on a regular basis professionally means that you have to guard against boredom. Something that used to be a pleasure can easily become monotonous. How many people have turned their hobby into a profession and regretted it? This was something I was really concerned about when I first began Roseberry Farm. Up until then, apart from in College doing Chef training, I had baked for the sheer joy of it and for the pleasure that came from giving desserts to people as gifts.
So I consider myself blessed to supply (The Bank Café, Creemore) a local café that encourages me to ‘switch it up’ whenever I like. What a luxury!
Today I needed to bake some Biscotti and I wanted a more unusual flavour combination. I have the most excellent book ‘The Flavour Thesaurus’ by Niki Segnit that I bought in the UK last year. It’s well worth buying if you are interested in taste combinations. I often use it as a place to start. I also go through my flavour extracts – gathered slightly obsessively from wherever I visit. My most unusual one at the moment is sweetcorn extract, kindly sent by a foodie friend from Brunei. Unsurprisingly, I haven’t quite got around to using that one yet.
I don’t know if anyone else does this (maybe it’s just me) but I sniff the extracts, whilst eating whatever I want to add, to try and combine the smell and flavour before I put it together. I know I must look really odd doing it but it’s a method that has yet to let me down.
After sniffing and tasting and reading I decided today’s Biscotti will be Chocolate Sour Cherry Anise. I can recommend this one just for the baking smell alone. I used a Nigella Lawson Biscotti recipe and adapted it, see in our recipe section.
To make these look spectacular, drizzle some melted chocolate over them whilst they are still warm.
If you made mini versions of these – just make 2 smaller logs to do so- they would be great with coffee at a dinner party.
Enjoy!
Sarah Hallett
Available in the market season from Creemore Farmers’ Market – see www.creemorefarmersmarket.ca
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