The Super Fun Lemon Milk Drink with Alex 😔: Sour Power

I'm not sure entirely why I decided to put lemon and milk together but if this book hasn't brought me fantastically delicious natural snacks as advertised, I would've never. After my 1 am trip to the grocery store for the ingredients I'll need for the next three rapid-fire posts, I was ready to get lemony fresh and also milky fresh I guess. Jill Pinkwater didn't give a little detail or fun caption to this recipe so in the passage for the "Beverages" section, she says, "Unfortunately, with the exception of dietetic drinks, that are loaded with chemicals, all flavored sodas and most fruit drinks available are full of sugar" (Pinkwater 41). The sentence still holds true today and nothing really gets more straightforward and healthy with said ingredients:

1 tbs. of lemon juice

1 tbs. of honey

1 cup of ice cold milk

Surprising I got all those things and set them up super nice:

Wow I got it all!

We also need the basics of a bowl, a mixer, and some measuring utensils of course. To get started, I threw (and dripped for the honey) into the bowl as delicately shown here:

I hate how slow honey drips

Next I mixed the ingredients until it's fluffy as the book calls for. My whipping skills are obsolete these days to it was a matter of no time until my beautiful milky lemony drink was ready:

I can't wait...

Mmm tasty mmm mmm. I poured it into a measuring cup and then a cup (because bowls are hard to pour into a cup) and took a sip. Can you guess how amazing this foam tasted!?!?!? It scars my taste buds to this day. I had my father (the only one brave enough to say yes) try it and he promptly said drank a Powerade afterwards. Shows just how exhilarating and pumped you can get off such a refreshing drink. One thing I took away from this experience is how if a product doesn't sound good, it probably isn't good. Another things is that the drink is more concentrated than the foam it also has so in my next drink I made, I took that into consideration and it was a lot better. Luckily, my next blog will tell you all about that drink! See you next time fellers and don't forget to bring mouthwash.

The final product

Question: How much honey does it take for you before things actually start tasting better/sweeter than before? 

Pinkwater, Jill. The Natural Snack Cookbook: 151 Good Things to Eat. New York: Four Winds,   
    1975. Print.

Chocolate Dipped Almond Biscotti

Hello! For this blog post I have chosen to make "Chocolate Dipped Almond Biscotti" from my book, Petite Sweets. 

This recipe was chosen by my mom because she loooves biscotti. She says it's perfect to eat in the morning with your coffee. I think it's just an excuse to eat some tasty dessert for breakfast. My mom also makes these around the Christmas time and dips the chocolate covered part into crushed candy canes for decoration (and taste).

Chocolate Dipped Almond Biscotti from Petite Sweets (Ojakangas 138)

 To make the Biscotti, I first had to gather all the ingredients I would need:

• ½ cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
• ½ cup almonds, chopped
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Before I started baking, I preheated the oven to 350°F. 

Then, using the electric mixer, I creamed the sugar, butter, and eggs until smooth (Ojakangas 139). Because my family isn't a huge almond fan, I left out the chopped almonds and also added a little less than the recommended amount of almond extract. When everything was smooth, I poured in the flour, baking powder, and salt. 

When everything was combined together, I split the dough in half and rolled out each half on a floured board. 

Once that was done, I transferred the dough onto a cookie sheet.

Then I baked the dough for 20-25 minutes. When it was firm, I "removed from the oven and let [it] cool slightly" (Ojakangas 139). Once it was cool enough for me to handle, I sliced both pieces of dough diagonally. 

 After slicing them, I evenly spread them out on the baking sheet and placed them back in the oven for 10 minutes.

 Then I took them out again, flipped each one, and placed it back in the oven for another 10 minutes, or until it was lightly browned and toasted (Ojakangas 139). 

Since the biscotti part was done, it was time to work on the chocolate dip. I took a small bowl, filled it with chocolate chips, and placed the bowl over boiling water. Every so often I stirred the chocolate chips until they started to melt and from there on I continued to stir them so they wouldn't burn on the bottom. 

When the chocolate was fully melted, I took each slice of the baked biscotti and dipped each one into the melted chocolate and voila! You have your biscotti.

If I were to do this recipe again, I would maybe think of a way to jazz it up, such as a decoration on top like my mom's crushed candy canes (but something different since I've already tried that) or maybe incorporating something into the dough like chocolate chips so you get them throughout the whole biscotti.

This recipe was a lot easier than my previous baking attempts, since I have perfected it by watching my mom in the past and getting her help during the process. I recommend this recipe if you want something good to go along with your coffee in the mornings. 

What recipes have you perfected? How did you perfect them? Did it take time and help?

Thanks for reading!

Ojakangas, Beatrice, and Roger LePage. Petite Sweets: Bite-Size Desserts to Satisfy Every Sweet Tooth. Portland, Me.: Sellers, 2009. Print.