Two for Tea: Pistachio Biscotti Thins and Coconut Sticks

When our office recently hosted some foreign visitors I volunteered to handle refreshments. I decided to serve hot jasmine tea and a selection of dainty cookies. Macarons were an easy decision because they are always popular; I made strawberry macarons by adding freeze-dried strawberry powder to Stella Parks' macaron recipe and I filled them with the frosting from a Food & Wine strawberry shortcake cupcake recipe.

I wanted to add two more cookies to the assortment but I also didn't want to be in the kitchen all day, so I decided to try two recipes that are quite easy because the cookies are sliced and baked from a loaf.

The Pistachio Biscotti Thins from epicurious.com are essentially slices of toasted angel food cake. To make the batter you beat egg whites with salt and sugar until they form stiff peaks; and fold in sifted flour, pistachios, and vanilla. You pour the batter into a parchment-lined loaf pan, bake the loaf until golden, cool it completely, and then cut thin slices that you toast in the oven until pale and crisp. My loaf sank a little in the middle during the first bake, so you can see in the photo below that the center of the cookies had a concave dip on top.
I think I might have overtoasted my biscotti because they were very dry and created a lot of fine crumbs during handling and consumption. The cookies tasted like an airy, dry version of a sweet angel food cake with pistachios. They were ideal for serving with and dunking in tea, and I loved the pistachio crunch and flavor. Except for the nuts, these cookies are fat free; the are like a homemade pistachio version of Almondina.
The other cookie I decided to make is Alice Medrich's Coconut Sticks from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your Mouth Cookies. While I love Alice Medrich and own several of her cookbooks, I have resisted buying Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy solely because it's only available in paperback. I find paperback cookbooks so irritating because they're difficult to keep open while you're using them, whether on the kitchen counter or in a cookbook holder.

But back to the cookie. You make the batter by hand by: mixing together flour, sugar, dried unsweetened coconut and salt; cutting in cold butter; drizzling over vanilla and cold water; and stirring until the mixture is damp, crumbly, and sticks together when squeezed. You press the resulting dough into a parchment-lined loaf pan and chill for a few hours. After it's cold and firm, you slice the loaf into thin cookies and bake.

I was able to get 70 thin slices from my loaf of cookie dough and I really liked the resulting long, narrow, slightly irregularly-shaped cookies. They baked to a nice golden brown and I had to keep an eye on them because they went from golden to burnt in the blink of an eye. I loved these cookies. They were very crisp, super buttery, and the bottoms had an almost caramelized texture. What a coconutty delight.

The final assortment of cookies was just lovely with tea. In particular, I loved the coconut sticks so much that I went ahead to order a copy of Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy. I can't wait to try some of Medrich's other stick cookies!

Recipes: "Pistachio Biscotti Thins" from epicurious.com and "Coconut Sticks" from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich, recipe available here at Lottie + Doof.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Your office is so lucky you bake delicious treats for them! I have Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your Mouth Cookies, and will try making the Coconut Sticks. Have you ever tried Flo Braker's Pain d'amande?: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/04/flo-brakers-pain-damande-cookies/ It is similar to the Coconut stick and hands down delicious as well. Thanks for giving such a great start to the week! Raylene
Omg, I've never tried the Pain d'amande, but I'm definitely adding it to the to-bake list now... those look amazing! I really like Flo Braker -- I made one of her cakes over the weekend (post forthcoming). Thanks for the tip, Raylene!
Louise said…
I've been trying to figure out why the outer edges of your coconut sticks are so rounded. Mine always have sharp edges. Oh, and I too like Flo Braker's recipes. I think I've been happy with everything I've ever baked from her books.
Hmmm, I dunno... the cookies did spread a bit in the oven -- the edges were definitely sharp before baking.
DB said…
Its weird, I have had bad luck with this cookie. Every now and then a batch will come out too crunchy and kind of hard. The cookies will have a lace like pattern (holes) and be very crunchy instead of a crisp shortbread like texture. Another friend is jokingly annoyed with me after she tried the recipe after I posted it and they turned out hard and crunchy. Any insight? Thanks!
db said…
Whoops, should have specified...with the coconut sticks.
Oh, this is such a bummer! I've only made this cookie twice, I think, but I haven't had any problems with it. I make sure that the cold butter is very well cut in and then press the dough very firmly into the pan. I wonder if the lace pattern is from chunks of butter melting? Although I have to say that I am such a big fan of biscotti and crunchy cookies that I think I would really like a hard and crunchy version!