Demona: This Hediard coffee can was given to me by my team mate, P, as a birthday present last year. The pungent, smoky, aromatic, sweet, bitter roast aroma just surged up my nostrils when I opened the can. The ground coffee was an amazing class of its own. I saw this exact one in a Hediard shop in Singapore, cost SGD 17. Good quality ingredients.. I can't wait to start baking!
Demona: Times have changed. Everyone, everything, everywhere is becoming more and more digitized. My brother bought this digital weighing machine for my mom for Mother's day. I must say... it was very convenient alright! It made the ingredient weighing part SO, SO easy. It also reminded me of my science lab days, using the tarring machine.
Demona: Cubes of butter were rubbed with the plain flour, forming crumbly like dough. Next, some sugary grits!
Demona: A few big spoonfuls of ground Hediard coffee were added in, you could see the tiny black dots in between. The aroma had filled the whole kitchen. Two eggs were added in as well.
The dough was split into two, then formed into rectangular shaped ones, and was ready to be baked! Bear in mind, this was my first attempt, thus I did not know what to expect of the turn out.
Demona: I made a big mistake. The first shaped dough was too thick, it was not properly fully baked in some areas after the oven time was up. I had to put them back in to bake a while longer. My mistake again, for taking a break in the living room and left the biscotti baking without supervision. When I got back in, they were burnt! :(
See the overly brown edges. Some were fine, but half were burnt. Sniffs, careless.
Demona: I was feeling artsy farsty that cold, stormy evening (GREAT time to bake in a non-airconditioned kitchen!) so I took some chunky pieces of nicely baked coffee biscotti and put them in a small glass cup, attempting an artistic food picture. Did my artsy fartsy work ? LOL...
Verdict: I must admit, this first attempt definitely needs a few more rounds of baking this recipe to improve on everything, taste, looks, shelf life etc. I brought a batch of 'em back to KL, and packed another one nicely in a tight air-sealed container for Dogma to be collected the weekend after.
I realised the flaws. Fresh from the oven, the biscotti was very crunchy, and the coffee aroma was unbelievably fragrant, each bite was subtly sweet with the coffee's bitter note at the end. I was actually quite happy with the taste despite its looks which needs more improvement. I know that this will make a GREAT complement for a hot cup of coffee in a cafe.
However, the batch of biscottis which I brought back up, was just wrapped in a plastic bag and when I took them out to eat a few days later, they had softened quite a fair bit and strangely, the aroma of the coffee had greatly reduced too. I thought it was due to my biscotti's poorly stored condition.
I was hoping that Dogma's ones will be kept crunchy and hard (since I stored them nicely) like how I had tasted them back home. The useless fella had forgotten about my good will biscottis.. HMPHHH.. Sometimes I do feel like kickin' him in his derriere.
After lifting his sore butt over to my house to collect them, he later called me to say that they were also softened already. I was quite disappointed, it wasn't the storage then, but instead it must have gone wrong somewhere along the baking process. I don't know whether he had tossed the rest away or left for his doggies to eat, but I hope not.
I am not giving up on this recipe though, because it has potential to be in a great bakery's menu! My bakery.. one day :)
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