50th Anniversary Recipes
In celebration of our Golden Anniversary and 50 years of Baking, Gay Lea Foods is proud to partner with BetterBaking.com in presenting specially created Ontario heritage butter recipes, created by Marcy Goldman and BetterBaking.com
A Marcy Goldman/BetterBaking.com © Recipe Created for Gay Lea, in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Gay Lea
Maple Butter Walnut Biscotti
What could be more welcome in spring than a taste of maple, newly drawn from Canadian maple trees. It is the first "harvest" of our quartet of seasons. For over a century, maple has had its place in Canadian homes — in pancakes and homey puddings and pies but it is recast in a trendier way, in biscotti that combines the heritage of pure maple syrup with another heritage flavor: the rich, warm taste of Gay Lea's unsalted butter. The butter is a perfect foil to the natural sweetness of pure maple syrup; add a few toasted walnuts and a touch of vanilla to round it all out, and you have biscotti that ensure at least another 50 years of tradition. This biscotti is not teeth-breaking — it is more tender/crisp that stale coffee shop biscotti! That is also because the butter makes all the difference (commercial biscotti feature little butter or none and often use oil instead). This is an easy recipe that yields perfectly shape biscotti making it a superb recipe for beginners as well as bakers who collect biscotti recipes like other people collect stamps. This is far tastier! If you have some real maple sugar on hand — crumble that up to replace some of the brown sugar called for. Created especially for Gay Lea and their visitors, by Marcy Goldman of www.BetterBaking.com in honor of their 50th Anniversary.
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure maple extract *
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup toasted walnuts, finely ground
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
Maple Fondant Glaze
2 cups icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
Cream, as required
* Maple extract is usually available in supermarket baking ingredient aisles.
** These biscotti are luscious without any finishing touches but a coating of maple fondant or melted white chocolate makes them company-special.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Stack two baking sheets together and line the top one with parchment paper. Line an 8 by 11 inch rectangular pan (a brownie or pan used for squares is ideal) with parchment paper. If you don't have that size, use a 9 by 9 inch pan. Spray the pan (parchment lining as well) with nonstick cooking spray.
Have walnuts prepared and nearby.
In a large bowl, hand whisk the butter with the white and brown sugar. Blend in the maple syrup, extracts, and eggs. Fold in most of the flour, salt, baking powder, ground walnuts and chopped walnuts to make a thick batter. If it is very gloppy, add in another 1/4 cup of flour to make a stiff batter. Spread or pat into pan.
Bake 40 minutes until set and seems firm to the touch; lower temperature to 325°F and bake another 15-20 minutes if biscotti seems not quite baked through (i.e. sides seem down but middle seems "tender").
Remove and cool 30 minutes and then invert on a platter. Freeze one hour (this facilitates cutting it).
Prepare the Maple Fondant by whisking all ingredients together to make a stiff fondant (soft icing). Alternatively, melt white chocolate (about 1/2 cup, chopped; Baker's works nicely) in a microwave for 1 minute. If you want plain white chocolate coating, use as is. For maple flavored coating, drizzle in a few drops of maple extract.
Smear fondant or white chocolate on the biscotti (it's nice to have some with white chocolate and leave some pure and simple).
Makes 1- 1/2 dozen, depending on size. You can leave some in long sticks (cafe style) or cut the biscotti in half, for more modest sized treats. Makes a great gift.