It has been a while since I baked with the TWD gang. The holiday season is generally a hectic one for me and with all that I was baking for gifts, I just decided not to bake anything more, because baking it means eating it and I have gained more weight than I care to admit at this point. (thanks menopause…)
Even so, I am a sucker for anything that claims to be a biscotti and to make matters worse, I apparently hoard cornmeal. When I checked the pantry for cornmeal, I found a complete rainbow; white, yellow, blue, roasted yellow and bloody butcher red. A quick look at the different colors led me to choose between the organic blue and the organic bloody butcher and since the latter was more coarsely ground, it was my first choice.
Stone ground cornmeal is always more coarse than the regular grind but the bloody butcher had a large range in particle sizes and makes it very easy to see the meal in the dough. This particular batch was grown and ground right here in Virginia and it is from Blenheim Organic Gardens which is located in Washington’s Birthplace, yes, that is the name of the town and no, I did not make that up! They come to the Williamsburg Farmers Market when it is open and I look forward to the return of the Market in March.
There was a box of currants lurking in the pantry and since they were a little dry, I added several tablespoons of dark rum to them and heated them so that they would plump up. To offset the extra liquid, I cut out the extra egg yolk and that made the dough slightly drier than I would have preferred. However, now that we have our own egg laying hens, I hate the thought of wasting an egg white. The recipe calls for the dough to be formed into a log and cut into scone-like wedges. After asking one of the other TWD bakers how they worked out like that, I decided to go with a slice and bake log which is what most of the recipes I read called for. The result was a crunchy, crumbly cookie.
The weather took a sudden turn towards winter today and turning on the oven was comforting in many ways and so was the scent of cookies baking-although, I really do not need to be eating cookies at this point! The bottom line, I love currants and cornmeal but it is not likely that I would think to make these again, at least not with this recipe. Personally, I would like them to be a little sweeter and a little crispier. Either way, these cookies are a lovely accompaniment to a cup of hot tea, especially on a chilly day!
To see how the other bakers fared, visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website and consider baking along with us!
will garden for cake 