Chocolate-Dipped Nutella Biscotti

I told my coworkers that there would be no baking in Mike’s Christmas weekend.  The family was in charge.  I would sit sloth-like, only leaving the house to see this week’s new movie releases.

It turned out Christmas weekend had a different plan for me.  Sure, we got the chance to see Sweeney Todd and Walk Hard; but we also decided to personalize some gifts for Katie’s coworkers.  Everyone has to do them from time to time.  The mass gift that needs to fit everyone and no one.  Mass produced holiday confections.  To make it a little more personal, and to fit the season, we went to our local Trader Joe’s and pick up 3 types of tea.  We also decided to prepare some Nutella biscotti.  Tie it all in a little bag, and boom-shaka-laka, Christmas gifts with some tasty treats.

The hardest part about making biscotti?  Getting the dough onto the baking sheet.  It’s like working with a viscous tar.  But once you get it onto the parchment paper?  It’s all salad baby.

Chocolate-Dipped Nutella Biscotti (originally from Bakingsheet)

• 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup nutella
• ½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.

1. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs in a large bowl until frothy. Add sugar and continue beating on high setting for 2 minutes. Beat in nutella.
3. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and stir until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips and hazelnuts, if using.
4. Divide dough into 2 logs with well floured hands and arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet. Press logs into rectangles roughly ½ inch thick.
5. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. Remove logs from oven.  Turn oven down to 300F.
6. Using a serrated knife, cut logs into 1/3-1/2 inch slices. Arrange on baking sheet and return to oven.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, turn biscotti over and bake an additional 10-12 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Dipping the biscotti is totally optional, but we’re a fan of the chocolate, and the dipping of food in chocolate, so we figured why not?  In the photo above, we dipped the biscotti in a dark chocolate, and drizzled it with a white chocolate to offset the dark’s slight bitterness.

An H.P. Schmaltz Holiday Offer

I was contacted by someone working for H.P. Schmaltz this week.  They so liked my write up on their store that they wanted to include a link to it in their newsletter.  I told them they were more than welcome, because of how much I liked the deli.  As a thank you, I was given a coupon for my next meal.  But it’s no ordinary coupon, because they told me I was allowed to share it with my reading audience.

Your online coupon for the Naperville store is “twobite” without the quotes.  You can get to the Naperville ordering from our home page (www.schmaltzdeli.com) in the Quick Links section.  You’ll get a free soda & side combo with your Original Overstuffed Sandwich.  Just order your sandwich and the soda & side, and you’ll see the discount at checkout.  It is valid from today through December 31.  Only one coupon per person, per day, blah, blah.  Feel free to post it for your readers.

So, if you’re interested in trying out the deli, now’s your chance.  I recommend either the Jalapeno Dirty Chips or the Sesame Noodle Salad.  Looks like we’ll be going out there again before the week is through.

Let me take this moment to thank Kristin and the H.P. Schmaltz owners for their kind gratitude to myself and everyone reading.  This kind of service is exactly why I started writing the food blog.  I wanted to get the word out on the smaller places that might be overlooked otherwise.

Happy Holidays, everyone!  Deck the halls with latkes and blintzes!

H.P. Schmaltz Deli & Co. – Naperville, IL

“Uhm, The thing about eating the Black and White cookie, Elaine, is you want to get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate And yet somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie all our problems would be solved.”

I actually have a black and white cookie from Schmaltz’ Deli sitting here taunting me. I’m trying to behave, I bought it for Katie after all; but based on how delicious everything else was, I’m finding it quite hard to muster up any willpower whatsoever.

I haven’t been this pleasantly surprised, or disturbingly full, with a meal in ages, but this New York-ish deli in Naperville (and now Downer’s Grove) has instantly shot up to join few others on my “essential” list.

I first heard about H.P. Schmaltz Deli & Co. a few weeks back when the chefs were on WGN Noon News here in Chicago. They were discussing latkes which will always capture my undivided attention. It wasn’t long before I knew long that I had to go. Katie and I have been trying to make up there every since, but it wasn’t until today when I a co-worker and I decided to order lunch for pick up that I got to give the food a go.

Seriously, put down what you’re doing and go to H.P. Schmaltz Deli & Co. now. You’ll thank me later. I didn’t have one miss in the food I ate today, which ranged from sesame noodle salad, to knishes, to their one vegetarian sandwich on the menu.

As Jen, my co-worker, put it, “This sandwich is going to make me cry.” But I’ll let her review her Gramercy Park, the deli’s Hot Pastrami on Rye with Spicy Brown Mustard.

The first thing that stands out about this pastrami on rye with mustard (AKA the Perfect Sandwich) is the bread. It’s a light, fluffy marble rye. This is in almost direct contrast to most of the breads you find them building these sandwiches on in NYC. They stack ‘em high on the east coast and tend to rely on less fibrous bread to support all of the meat. (tasty, tasty meat.) But I really like this soft bread. First of all, it absorbs some of the mustard, which is spicy. I mean seriously, not kiddin’ around with you, spicy. It also sports a nice, think crust that has a smattering of seeds but not enough to get stuck in your teeth.

In the grand NY Jewish Deli tradition, Schmaltz’s makes a pretty stacked sandwich themselves. The pastrami is sliced thin which some people don’t like but I enjoy. While this sandwich may not be as tall as some of its NYC brethren it still has the same amount of pastrami on it. The thinner slices, and the softer bread, make it a lot easier to dig into this sammy without loosing most of the insides onto your plate as well. And, while the mustard is, sometimes, a little overwhelming the delicious fatty, usami of the pastrami shines through on every bite.

Proof positive it’s a good sandwich? I couldn’t eat it all in just one sitting. Hooray leftovers!

She’s from the New York area, so it’s hard not to trust her that this place stacks up to the NY delis she’s been trying to replace here in Chicago. Plus, she uses words like usami as part of everyday speech. She’s S-M-R-T.

Jen was smart, limiting herself to a sandwich and a knishe. I, however, needed to try some of everything. So, I found myself with the noodle salad, 3 latkes, 2 knishes and one very large West Village sandwich, which came with some Dirty New Orleans stlyle jalapeno chips.

The size of the sandwiches are amazing, but I was shocked…SHOCKED…by the size of the latkes. For 89 cents per, I was treated to latkes that are easily 6 inches round, if not larger. They’re light, fluffy, blended and fried in enough grease that my plate was shimmering under the light, and my arteries were wondering where the hell the healthy food went. My only regret is that I didn’t have any sour cream to go with them.

The sesame noodle salad was like a less spicy version of a spicy peanut noodle salad. The cavatappi noodles were perfectly al dente with a generous amount of dressing covering every last noodle in the bowl.

This is how good the sandwich was. I hate broccoli. Or I should say broccoli hates me. But that didn’t stop me from tackling the West Village. Described as a “Fresh Vegetable sandwich in a low-carb wrap with Cheddar and Swiss cheese and a splash of our Italian dressing,” it tastes even better when you swap out the dressing for the spicy brown mustard. Jen wasn’t lying about that mustard either. On at least two occasions it nearly made me cry, the spice hit me just right. Stuffed with fresh artichoke, broccoli, lettuce, spinach and red onion, the sandwich is easily two meals (which it was for me).

I ended on the knish, which thanks to research online I was convinced was filled with meat. But after talking to the guy behind the counter, I learned it’s more like a pastry wrapped shepherd’s pie. Mashed potatoes wrapped in pastry and fried? Yes please. I gave the spinach knish a try for dinner, and those could easily make a meal unto themselves as well. Needing only a little salt, the knish was easy to reheat. The pastry held up to the microwave incredibly well, not getting too softy or too stiff. The filling was hearty and delicious, the perfect winter food.

Meat lovers will undoubtedly get more out of H.P. Schmaltz Deli & Co. than I did. Their menu is a smorgasboard of meats. Meatballs are listed under tongue; which fills the same sandwich as liver. I find that truly disgusting, but I’m obviously not the main market a delicatessen is going for. And it IS a full delicatessen, more than happy to fill that need you have for a 1/2 pound of salami.

I love this place. It seriously has become one of my favorite comfort food places, and I’ve only been there once. I can’t wait to bring Katie so she can try it for herself. But until then, I still have a latke and an entire mushroom knishe waiting here for her. Maybe. If they survive that long. I make no promises. To you. Or her.

H.P. SCHMALTZ & CO.
1512 North Naper Boulevard
Naperville, IL 60563
630.245.7595

1416 Butterfield Rd
Downers Grove, IL 60515
630.629.7597

We’re Moving On Up!

Something I completely failed to mention last week was that Gapers Block, one of the big Chicago-centric blogs linked to our post on Cayenne Cumin Almonds.

Next stop, Food Network!

Thanks Gapers Block!

Chocolate Covered Vanilla Chai Shortbread Cookies

There’s really no easy way to say the name of these cookies. You could call them shortbread cookies, but you’d be shunning the Chai spices. And you damn well better give it credit after spending 10 bucks on a bottle of Cardamom when you only need 1/2 teaspoon of the stuff.

So now you have Chai Shortbread cookies, but hell if you don’t make sure everyone knows you drove out to a spice store on a crappy winter day to pick up some Madagascar Vanilla Beans, because you want these to taste as good as the recipe sounds.

So now you have Vanilla Chai Shortbread Cookies. But wait! Let’s dip those bastards in some Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Taste dipping chocolate. Sure, they taste fine without it, but with it you’ve turned a B-Level cookie into an A-Level sugar addiction.

And that’s why there are called Chocolate Covered Vanilla Chai Shortbread Cookies, or CCVCSC for short (pronounced ka-siv-cisk).

I’ve only made a few cookies in my new baking hobby slash hopeful career, and I’m not afraid to say these may very well be the best. People have liked my other offerings (Root Beer Float Cookies, Dove Chocolate Cookies) but seldom have I gotten a call saying they were upset that they’ve run out at their house.

Chocolate Covered Vanilla-Chai Shortbread Cookies (Recipe adapted from Recipe Goldmine.)

• 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 medium vanilla bean

In a large bowl, sift or whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, allspice and cardamom; set aside.

Combine butter, sugar, honey and salt in a bowl. Using an electric mixer beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and beat until smooth.

Using a small knife, split the vanilla bean lengthwise in half. Scrape the seeds from both sides of the pod with the tip of the knife and add them to the butter-sugar mixture. Beat to combine.

Add in flour-spice mixture, 1 cup at a time, blending until fully incorporated.

Place dough in an air-tight container and chill for at least 2 hours, if not over night.

Heat oven to 350 degrees with an oven rack in the middle. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll out dough, and use a cookie cutter to cut into 1/8-inch thick slices in the shape of your choice. I went with a 2 1/2 inch circle. Place cookies 1/2 inch apart on the lined baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly brown around the edges. Transfer to a wire-rack and cool.

Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler or in a microwave according to directions. Lay out some wax paper, and dip half of each cookie into the chocolate and let dry on the wax paper. Cookies can be frozen or eaten immediately. But they make a handy snack.

Makes about 45, 2 1/2-inch cookies.

Note: A reason I’ll never be a Food Network Star?  I refer to cardamom as “cardyourmom.”  5th grade humor is hilarious!

Poor Man’s Lunch – Ramen Alfredo

Weather went from bad to worse here in Chicagoland today.  Trying to get my weekend running finished went from 90 minutes to 4 hours thanks to the sheet of ice that quickly covered the streets.  And to make matters worse, I finished all my errands save one, get lunch.  I got home to realize I was starving and didn’t pick anything up.  Nothing was prepared for quick consumption, so I used my stocked pantry to make a quick meal.

Tasty and quick, it was like poor man’s Italian food.  And you literally only need two ingredients.

Ramen Alfredo

• 1 package any variety ramen soup (I used Maruchan)
•  1/2 cup Cheesy Ragu Light Parmesan Alfredo sauce

Prepare the noodles by letting them steep in 2 cups of boiling water.  Toss out the seasoning pack.  You won’t need it.  Drain the noodles and transfer them to a bowl.  While still hot, mix in the Alfredo sauce until the noodles are coated.  And eat!

This technically makes two servings, but does anyone really eat only half a bag of ramen?  Didn’t think so.