I am grateful for many of the material things that I have in my kitchen. I love my knives, I don’t know what I’d do without my soft spatula, and whilst I slice myself every time I use my mandolin, it is still a life saver. The newest addition to the family s is my standing mixer, which I’ve named Heston. I’ve had Heston for about half a year now and he’s made life so much easier. This recipe involves whisking the eggs and sugar until incredibly pale and fluffy, about 20 minutes with electric mixers in my hand. But with Heston, I can just watch TV whilst he does his job. Heston’s great, Heston’s a good boy.
Close to the kitchen is my bookshelf where my other collection resides. Of all the wonderful cookbooks I read over and over again, few are my go-to’s when I need something sure and fool-proof. Patiesserie by Christophe Felder is one of my favorite (and most expensive) books. It’s a 1000 page hardcover monster of a brick and if you buy one book on pastry, this is it. As guilty as I feel about admitting this, his biscotti are even better than my grandmother’s. It’s how he whisks the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy that does the trick. Heston was a great help as always.
Just to add an Asian touch, I added matcha. I love matcha. If it was cheaper I’d put it in everything.
Makes about 30 cookies
Recipe adapted from Patisserie
Ingredients
2 eggs
250g sugar
20g matcha powder
230g whole almonds, coarsely chopped
260g flour
Method
Preheat oven to 180C
Combine the eggs and the sugar in an electric mixer and whip at medium speed for about 15 minutes. Alternatively use an electric whisk and mix for 20 minutes.
Whisk in the matcha powder.
Stir in the chopped almonds
Fold in the flour. The batter should be thick.
Spoon the batter into a pastry bag and pipe 2 loaves about 25cm by 5cm. Alternatively, you can get messy and try to shape them into two logs by hand.
Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Immediately transfer to a cutting board and slice them on the diagonal about 1 cm thick. Place these slices cut side down on the same baking tray for about 10 minutes, until crisp but pale.
