Recipe: Strawberry and Raspberry jelly

Ingredients
500g fresh picked raspberries
500g Home grown Strawberries
180g sugar
1 lemon, zest
2 star anise
4 sprigs mint
2 vanilla pods
250g water

Method
Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and cover with cling film
Place the bowl over a hot water bath and allow the juices to extract from the berries
Pass the mix through a cloth, all you require is the liquid
Measure out the liquid, you will require 500ml, add 3 leaves of softened gelatine
Pour the liquid into service glasses and set in the fridge over night.

I like to serve the jelly with lemon Thyme custard, fresh cut berries and pistachio crumble.

Recipe: Pistachio Biscotti

Ingredients

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pistachio nuts

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon shortening

Method

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs with spoon. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nuts.

Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead 15 times until smooth. On ungreased cookie sheet, shape half of dough at a time into 10x3-inch rectangle.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center  comes out clean. Cool on cookie sheet 15 minutes. Cut rectangle crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Place slices, cut sides down, on cookie sheet.

Bake about 15 minutes longer, turning once, until crisp and light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and shortening uncovered on High 30 to 60 seconds or until melted; stir until smooth. Drizzle chocolate over biscotti. Place on waxed paper until chocolate is set.