TWD - Blueberry Nectarine Pie

There's something about pie, that no matter how bad the day, pie makes it better. This pie was no exception.  I was having a bad case of the "Mondays" at work, but I made this pie after work and it turned things right around. 

The pie crust is very similar to the one I always use so I knew I would like the dough. I haven't seen my mom's post yet, but I guarantee that she rolled her dough in a perfect circle (unlike mine that looks like I got it at the second-hand store).  She is really a whiz at rolling perfect pie dough.  Every.single.time.

Filling added - ready for top crust

Ready to bake.  I love using an egg wash - I know it will yield a pretty pie.

Mom had warned me this pie had a runny consistency and she suggested doubling the flour.  I did that, but it still was pretty runny.

But no worries, we all loved this pie, even if it was runny.  I liked the addition of the nectarines.  It almost added a floral and fragrant note to the pie.

TWD - Semolina Bread

I made this bread early as my family, along with my mom and dad, will be in Spain on the Tuesday this will post.  We are all pretty excited about the trip, so I didn't give this bread much thought.  But it turned out to be a great bread.  In fact it was my son's favorite TWD endeavor so far.

I made the sponge first as directed, but did not find it to double in size.  I called Mom about this and she said not to worry as long as it was bubbling.  It was, so I proceeded.

The first rise did double in size, so I moved on to the next step.

The second rising went well, until I deflated it try to make the slashes in the bread described in the book.  But it all worked out in the end and we all loved the bread.  I didn't find it to be too salty as some commented until the second day.

This recipe is a keeper.  Although it took most of the day to make this bread, I think it's a perfect bread to make when hanging out at home all day.

TWD- Hazelnut Biscotti

I love hazelnuts and I love biscotti, so this was a win win week for me.  I was a little fearful of the recipe because I usually find biscotti recipes with no fat make biscotti better used for a game of boules than eating, but this recipe turned out wonderful.

I was curious how the preparation of the hazelnuts would go because I had always used the towel method in the past.  This boiling method in baking soda water worked really well, but, what a mess it made of my pot.

The preparation of the biscotti itself went lickety split and was very straight forward. I did find the loaves to be skinnier than I was used to, but this yielded small biscotti which I think are perfect for eating with coffee. I only baked them 10 minutes the second time so they wouldn't get too hard.

My favorite part of the recipe was baking them right on the cooling rack.  Woo hoo for that idea! What a time saver - you don't have to flip the biscotti AND you don't have to transfer them again for cooling.

Well actually my favorite part was eating them!