Potato Lefse

Lefse?  I did not know such a thing existed or even such a word.   A thin tortilla- crepe- swedish pancake type thing but made with potatoes?  Eaten with hot dogs or with cinnamon and sugar?   And I can make these at home?

Yes, yes, and yes. But it is actually Norwegian in origin and technically requires some pretty fancy specialized equipment (none of which I had).

The dough sounded intimidating to work with but wasn't.  It rolled out easily with plenty of flour and the use of a silpat mat.  And cooking them on a hot griddle was quick and clean.

A surprising success in this household.  All made in 15 minutes (with exception to the dough prep and chill time (8 hours)).  All eaten within 15 minutes.

This recipe represents many reasons why I love the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group:  I make things I never have heard of, never would have thought possible in my kitchen, and never would have the gumption to try.

Rhiannon enjoying the lefse.

Hazelnut Biscotti

Biscotti, biscotti, biscotti.  How I love thee.  How I love to be able to eat a cookie in the morning and not feel the least bit guilty!   Because of this, I have made a number of biscotti recipes over the years and have also come to love how simple they are to make.  These hazelnut numbers were definitely easy, but they did require an extra step of peeling and toasting hazelnuts (which I would normally not bother with, since it goes against the whole point of simplicity).  

To peel or skin the hazelnuts usually requires a lot rubbing with towels and even with a lot of effort the skins usually stay on.  This recipe uses a baking soda bath to get the skins off and it works just fabulously (but I did read from one of our other group members that it can stain pots- so be sure to use an old or aluminum pot if you do this).  

Toasted.

In the peeling process.

Once the hazelnuts were ready then it was a simple batter, shaped into sticky logs, and baked.   Once they cooled a bit, they were sliced and baked again to get that crispiness so particular to biscotti.  The recipe suggested baking these on cooling racks to avoid having to flip them all over halfway through the second baking period, but I only have one cooling rack and had to do it the old fashioned way.  Not a big deal.

The sticky logs prior to the first baking.

Logs cooling, ready to be cut.

To check out this recipe follow these links:

Katrina of Baking and Boys

Jodi of Homemade and Wholesome 

And I have decided to include a picture and maybe a little tidbit of Rhiannon with my twice monthly blog entries since I am "Baking with Rhiannon".  I thought it might be nice to note her progress along with all my baking progress.  So here she is....

Car camping at the coast.

She's almost 9 months.  She's eating tons of food (not the biscotti, but maybe they would make good teething biscuits?) and starting to commando crawl all over the place.  Time to re-babyproof...