It's that time again

Yes, it's February.

In the Stripey household February is the preferred month for a time of abstinence. Its main virtue is shortness. Shortness and an absence of celebrations. Amongst its virtues are shortness and an absence of celebrations, also pecuniary shortfalls. I'll come in again...

It's a bloody good time to give stuff up. Firstly we're low on money after the spending season, secondly there are no birthdays or anniversaries to break the rule and it's not too long, a nice neat four weeks to mark off on the calendar. So, healthy eating here we come.



But, it's 9 a.m. on the first day, I have nothing to report so here's a recipe from one of our xmas book presents, Vefa's Kitchen. It's for the biscotti like things, the candied peels and orange jellies came from recipes here and here.

This is a naturally vegan recipe so it was bound to be amongst the first I chose to try from the book. It works well although I thought the biscuits were just a little bit dull. However, they perked up considerably with a glass of brandy. Just as well they're all gone now or my month of abstinence might be doomed.

Greek 'biscotti' are known as paximadia.

170g vegetable oil
120g dry white wine
2 tsps ground cinnamon (get fresh, mine wasn't)
the zest of one big orange
pinch of ground cloves (less is more!)
10g baking powder
2g baking soda
150g fine sugar (granulated works, caster would be better)
50g finely chopped nuts. (Vefa calls for hazelnuts, I used brazils and pine nuts would be great)
450g plain flour
sesame seeds for garnish

Makes about 40

Heat the oven to 180C

Sift the flour with the baking powder and soda. Add the sugar and nuts and stir in.

Mix the wet ingredients with the spices and zest. Add to the dry mix and stir until you have a pliable dough. It will look very soft and oily.

Divide the mixture into three parts and shape each part into a flat log about 5 cm across, just under 2cm high. I didn't measure mine but they were probably 20cm long. Use your hands, the oil stops the dough sticking to you. It's easiest to work straight onto your large baking sheet, all three logs can share one sheet as long as they're separated by a couple of cms. They don't spread much.

When the logs are shaped sprinkle sesame seeds along the tops and gently press in with the back of a spoon. Use a sharp knife to mark divisions about 1 cm apart along the length of the logs. Don't go all the way through but this will make it easier to divide the paximadia for the second cooking.

Bake for about 40 minutes then remove from the oven. Reduce the oven heat to 150C. Allow the cooked logs to cool slightly, then finish cutting the slices into individual biscuits.

Arrange them on their sides on baking trays (you'll need two now) and return to the cooler oven for 15 minutes. Take them out and turn the biscuits over before returning them to the oven for a final 15 minutes drying time. I just turned the oven off and left them to cool instead of timing the second drying period.

Store in an airtight tin.