Julie Andrews can have her cream-coloured ponies and whiskers on kittens. My personal list of favourite things largely feature comestibles. Cake crusts, warm oatmeal with dried cranberries, and breakfast.

Having breakfast is like pressing the Start button to my day. Sometimes I wonder if it’s possible to eliminate lunch and dinner altogether and just stick to breakfast three times a day. That way, if you happen to be stuck in the middle of a particularly bad day, you could potentially ‘reboot’ your day by having breakfast again – a theory I’ve yet to truly test out, even though I have been known to eat cereal for dinner, in another (student) life.

On days-off when I get to indulge in late and long breakfasts, my day will typically begin with a yawn and a stretch as feet finally hit the ground. It continues as a slow shuffle across the tiled kitchen floor and concludes with emptied mugs of tea and a plate of crunchy toast crumbs.

Even in the past when I’ve had to get up at 3 or 4am to get to work, I’d attempt to keep the breakfast dream alive by legging it to the station with a stash of warm toast in hand, to sleepily nibble at on the train platform.

So it’s no surprise that the idea of a breakfast themed biscotti really appealed to me. Alice Medrich’s version is chock full of oats, very light on added sugar and perfect to have on the go. I recently cracked open my copy of Alice Medrich’s latest book to bake from and have been truly loving the results. You’ll definitely be seeing more Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy inspired posts in the near future!

Breakfast Biscotti :
(from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich)

85g plain flour
85g whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
generous 1/4 teaspoon salt
100 – 130g brown sugar
130g rolled oats
78g milk
60g melted unsalted butter (or safflower or canola oil)
2 large eggs, lightly whisked
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
100g walnut pieces
70g dried currants [For the walnuts and currants, I used a combination of sunflower seeds and dried cranberries]
1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar

Preheat the oven to 160’C. Position a rack in the center of the oven.

Combine the flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk or fork.

In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar and oats. Heat the milk and butter in a small pot or microwave-safe bowl until the milk is hot and the butter is melted. Combine the hot milk with the oat mixture. Let stand for 10 minutes. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture. Stir in the nuts and currants. The batter will be very thick and sticky.

Scrape the batter onto the prepared pan. Spread it to form a 5 x 12 inch rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until firm and starting to colour around the bottom edges. Rotate the pan from front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. Set the pan on a rack to cool for at least 15 minutes. Leave the oven on, turning it down to 150’C.

Transfer the loaf carefully to a cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife and a sawing motion, cut the loaf crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Transfer the slices to an unlined baking sheet, standing them at least 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes to toast without overbrowning, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through the baking time. Set the pan on a rack. Cool the biscotti completely before wrapping or storing.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t make biscotti often. Something about that double baking requirement, often leaves me a bit too impatient. If I crave chocolate, I want it now, not two bakes later.

There are several exceptions to the rule, and Claudia Fleming’s recipe for chocolate biscotti is one of them. The pictures probably don’t do the recipe much justice. So perhaps I could offer a few words of advice instead.

1. I’ve actually made this recipe repeatedly, but I don’t think many (or any) of my friends are aware of it. It’s so good, it’s like a reclusive celebrity that rarely leaves the house.
2. It’s like a crispy brownie.
3. It’s the only version of hard tack that I’d ever want to take into a battle field. A baking battle field, that is.
4. If you can’t be bothered to bake it the second time, it actually tastes pretty darn awesome already, after the first bake.

And with that, cue recipe.

Chocolate and cranberry biscotti :
(based on a recipe from The Last Course by Claudia Fleming)

130g dried cranberries
290g whole unblanched almonds
325g plain flour
360g dark brown sugar
100g caster sugar
100g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 large eggs
60g unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 tablespoons coffee extract
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
210g 70% chocolate chips

Place the cranberries in a bowl. Pour enough boiling water over to cover. Allow to cool then drain.

Preheat oven to 160’C.

Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and set on low speed, mix together the flour, sugars, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the butter and extracts, mixing to combine. Stir in the almonds, chocolate and cranberries. Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes.

With wet hands, divide the dough into 2 logs, each 2 inches in diameter. Place them on lined baking trays and bake until firm. 30-35 minutes. Cool completely on rack. At this point, I prefer to chill the logs in the fridge for a few hours to make it easier to slice.

Using a serrated knife, slice each log on the diagonal into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange on lined baking sheets and dry in a 95’C oven for 1 to 1/2 hours until firm and crisp. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Summer is such a bitch. In exchange for the chance to dive into a big bowl of stone fruit and berries, you have to endure not only juice but copious amount of sweat dribbling down your chin. For the perfect weather in which to prove bread dough, you have the less-than-desirable climate to be turning on any oven. For the joy of ice-cream, the pain of it melting too quickly.

Over the past week, it has been a great pleasure to step into the kitchen each morning because of the lingering scent of yellow peaches ripening on the counter top. I deliberately bought too many peaches so that I would force myself to do a bit more than just eat them. But first, I ate one. Then I tried pickling the less ripe ones in rice wine vinegar and chilli, to slip into cheese and ham sandwiches. This was not deemed a complete success by the boy, so I ate a few more peaches. Then I saw David Lebovitz’s recipe for a nectarine and raspberry upside-down gingerbread, and that sealed the fate of a third of my stash.

This recipe has so many things going for it. It is exactly how I like my gingerbread – soft, moist and spicy, with the added bonus of having a caramel-slicked layer of peach slices on top. Less sunburn, more golden-hued cakes please.

Oh and if you want to argue the ridiculousness of baking in the Summer, well, all I can say is that it’s a bitch isn’t it, and I now have gingerbread, while you don’t.

(The recipe for this delicious gingerbread is from this book.)