the cup of coffee that took two years to brew

See that pretty, foamy cappuccino there? Saucy made it today using this:

Which is something she should have blogged about two years ago. Seriously. She bought the machine at Christmas 2009.

It took her this long to attempt to use it. She's more than a little ashamed to admit it, but the whole concept, even though she bought into it the moment she faced the Williams-Sonoma cashier in the eye - it sort of flummoxed her.

You must be thinking she's a bit of a dolt. First, hiding from people in Safeway and then, avoiding a countertop appliance.

Turns out, it's not that difficult to use. Sure, it can be tricky to clean it up the first few times you use it but now that Saucy has figured it out, she can actually get a beverage into a cup in just a few minutes. 

She's no Starbucks barista, but the house smells nice. Plus, she's only spilled coffee grounds on the floor once (so far). Saucy's only feeling stupid because she waited so long to give it a go. 

If brewing your own espresso isn't difficult, making your own biscotti for dipping shouldn't be! Well, it's not. It's easier than the coffee. And absolutely, definitely worth it.

Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone pad. Saucy prefers parchment for biscotti because it gets a little drier on the underside. It's a drag to have soggy biscotti.

Come to think of it, that would be an awful name for a garage band. The Soggy Biscotti. That would be a bad thing.

Sift together the dry ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Then, using your paddle attachment, beat together 1/4 cup soft butter (at room temperature) with 1 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy.

Add two room-temperature eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Beat in 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of pistachio flavour. It can be quite strong... a little goes a loooong way. If you don't have pistachio flavouring, use almond extract or just the vanilla. It doesn't matter. At least, we have to keep telling ourselves this.

Saucy prepped almost a whole cup of roasted pistachios. Baking pistachios are impossible to get where she lives so she just sits and shells the snacking kind. Yes, they're salty but for a recipe like this Saucy digs the salty/sweet thing that happens.

It's gooooood. She does not lie.

You can use the dough hook to incorporate the dry ingredients into the egg mixture but beyond that you'll have to use your hands to work the nuts into the dough. The dough should be sticky but dry and crumbly.

Turn the dough out onto your parchment lined baking sheet and pat it into two equal sized loaves for baking. Biscotti gets baked twice. That's how you get the nice dry crunchy bits.

Notice Saucy sort of shaped those loaves into rectangles, making the ends sort of blunt. This makes it easier to cut into the cookies after the first baking.

From the Wall of Sprinkles, three fun sanding sugars...

fancy coarse gold sugar

artisan dark brown chocolate sugar with white chocolate curls

... and vanilla sanding sugar.

Brush the loaves with lightly beaten egg and sprinkle generously with the sugar(s) you have selected. Don't worry, even white baking sugar will do nicely. 

Bake the loaves at 325 degrees for thirty minutes. Remove them from the oven and they will look like this: slightly larger with nice cracks on the top.

Before you forget, reduce the oven temperature to 300 F.

Place the loaves on a baking rack and allow them to cool for at least twenty minutes. Using a serrated knife, slice them to a uniform size - about a half inch thick is best. Place the cookies on their side back on the parchment lined pan and return them to the oven for another twenty minutes. Halfway through, flip them over. This part of the process really dries them out.

Remove from oven after baking and allow to completely cool on a wire rack. Store in a cookie tin, not a completely airtight container.

 Look how pretty that is! The green nuts in the brown cookie look so on trend.

A sweet, dry biscotti is wonderful when dipped into a hot cup of cappuccino.  Then you really will have yourself some soggy biscotti...

... and that would be a good thing.