Gingerbread Biscotti

Tis the season for all of the Gingerbread things!  Look at this hottie Gingerbread Biscotti.

Confession time:  I checked out the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion Cookbook from the Wake County Public Library 6 weeks ago.  The book is sitting with my other cookbooks on my bookshelf.  It’s pages have  post-it notes attached bookmarking the cookies I want to make next.  And notes. Lots of notes.  This is not my cookbook.

Anytime I think I might return it, I try something new and then extend my reservation for an additional two weeks.  I hope Santa Claus is paying attention, because clearly I need this baking book in my life.

While I drink coffee like it’s going out of style, biscotti is never my first choice. Why would you want a cookie that’s been baked within an inch of it’s life? I like my teeth, where the are currently located, thank you very much.

So you may be asking yourself: why in the world did she make these?  Why, I never thought you’d ask.

I’ve never made biscotti before and I like a challenge.  But also because I am the office baking lady. Every office should have one.  My co-workers and I have  system.  I experiment at home on the weekends and then bring stuff into the office for them to try out. There is an unofficial ranking system which ranges from: leftovers (worst) to my department refusing to share with other departments (best).

Usually I bring in cookies or scones or mini muffins because hand-held is key.   Biscotti is coffee appropriate and breaks up the monotony of bringing in the ever popular Chocolate Chip Cookies. The gingerbread flavor gets me bonus points for seasonal appropriateness.

Alright let’s talk about the baking.  I chose to follow King Arthur’s Italian Biscotti recipe which does not have fat, which makes for a classic crunchy biscotti that can withstand being dunked in coffee or tea.  It was weird making a cookie without butter, but I survived.

The dough comes together pretty quickly. You will spend a few minutes trying to shape the dough into the perfect 14×2.5 inch rectangle.  I ended up with a 12×3.5 inch rectangle because I had a toddler underfoot. A dough scraper is critical for shaping the log and then smoothing it out.

“Biscotti” in english means twice baked.  But in order to bake them twice, you have to cut the dough right. This is the hardest part, but it’s not really that hard once you get the hang of it.  Take care to cut evenly so that the tops and the bottoms of the cookies are equal– meaning the cookies have  an even base to stand up on their own during the second bake.  I cut these at a diagonal and had a few that didn’t make it to the second bake because the bottoms were too thin.

I hope you try these. They were fun to make and ranked highly on the office baking scale!

Gingerbread Biscotti

• Author: adapted from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 50 minutes
• Total Time: 65 minutes
• Yield: 25 biscotti 1x
• Category: Breakfast, Snack
• Cuisine: Italian

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Kitchen Gadgets

• bowl scraper
• spray water bottle
• parchment paper

For the Biscotti

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp molasses

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside. 
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment stir together the eggs, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and molasses on medium for 2-3 minutes.  The mixture is ready for the next step when the batters ribbons off the paddle and resembles the consistency of pancake batter
4. Add in the flour mixture and stir until a dough forms and all of the flour is incorporated. 
5. Using a bowl scraper or flexible spatula, turn the dough out onto the lined cookie sheet.  Form a 14X2.5 inch rectangle and take care to smooth the top so that log has an even thickness. 
6. Bake for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool on the pan for 5-10 minutes.  Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees. 
7. Spray the biscotti with room temperature tap water to slightly soften and then let it rest for another 5 minutes.  Cut the biscotti into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces at the diagonal, taking care to cut in an even downward motion to ensure that each piece has enough of a base to stand on it’s own. 
8. Return the cut biscotti to the cookie sheet, standing up with enough space between cookies to allow air to circulate.  
9. Bake for 25 minutes.  Let cool on the pan for 10-15 minutes before removing to a wire rack. 
10. Serve with coffee, hot tea or hot chocolate. 

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