SC - back to Biscotti

[Phil & Susan Troy]

Decker, Terry D. wrote:
> 
> That looks like biscotti to me.
> 
> I have some of the recipes from The Good Huswifes Jewell, but I don't have
> this one.
> 
> Beating the dough for two hours should break down the gluten and provide
> some aeration for the dough, but I have no idea how much it will lighten the
> final product.  I think making this recipe will wait until I have a mixer
> capable of working dough.

Obviously you need a fighting cook, or a passel of them. But there's the
conundrum, i''nt it? It would be hard to say how long to beat the dough with,
say, a Kitchen-Aid mixer with dough hooks (although I'd be tempted to use the
paddle attachment myself) until you'd seen what the stuff looks like after two
hours of more traditional beating. 

As for the question of gluten and aeration, the other problem is that aeration
is not really stable unless there is gluten present to hold it in place.
Remember that faint sizzling noise you get from low-gluten breads as they
proof, and the carbon dioxide escapes? I think the reasoning behind the 2-hour
beating is more about making the final product tender or brittle.

But yes, I'd agree that it sounds like biscotti.

Adamantius
Østgardr, East 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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