Gingerbread Biscotti

And a round-up of the best holiday cookies on the web.

Gingerbread Biscotti with a white chocolate drizzle.

Happy December! This month, I’m diving right in with my new favorite recipe for Gingerbread Biscotti. Per the request of my twin who diligently makes each newsletter recipe, she asked for something gingerbread. As I began planning what cookies to make this season, I also wanted to make a biscotti and this compromise was born. While gingerbread flavored recipes range from cookies to cakes, I find there’s often extra and/or fussy ingredients when simply trying to achieve a spicy, warm flavor. My hope is that the ingredients in this recipe are already in your pantry.

N.B. I skipped on gram measurements for these biscotti. Linked is an article I wrote about converting recipes to grams with some measurements if you do want to bake this using a kitchen scale.

Gingerbread Biscotti

Yield: About 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients  

(Adapted from Land O’Lakes) 

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

½ teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon ginger, ground

1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground

½ teaspoon nutmeg, ground

¼ teaspoon cloves, ground

½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

½ cup sugar

½ cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons molasses (I used Grandma’s Molasses brand)

1 egg white, for an egg wash

Raw or coarse sugar, for topping

4 ounces white chocolate, for garnish

½ teaspoon neutral oil (like coconut, vegetable, or canola), for garnish

One of the biscotti logs, sliced into pieces.

Instructions 

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.

Step 2

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in large bowl with a hand mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until well mixed, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the molasses and continue to beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients. Stop when the dough comes together and no more streaks of flour remain.

Step 3

On a baking sheet lined with parchment, separate the dough and create two logs, each about 10 inches long and 2 inches high. Make sure these logs are at least 3-4 inches apart because they will spread out. Brush the logs with egg white and top with the raw or coarse sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the tops start to crack and a cake tester comes out clean.

Step 4

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 325°F. Once the cookies cooled, cut on a diagonal into slices about ½ inch thick. Move the cookies back onto a baking sheet lined with parchment facing up. Bake for 7 minutes. Flip the cookies onto the other side and bake for another 5-7 minutes until firm and crisp.

Step 5

Once the biscotti have cooled, melt the white chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between. Once melted, mix in the oil. Using a piping bag or the corner of a sandwich bag, cut a tip and drizzle chocolate on the biscotti. Let set. The biscotti can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. Enjoy!

Peanut butter blossoms, red velvet crinkle cookies, marbled shortbread, spiced marshmallows, M&M cookies, gingerbread biscotti (left to right).

Holiday Cookie Round-up

Every year at this time, I’m overwhelmed by the many cookie recipes that circulate on the web and Instagram. After a lot of testing, here are some of my favorites.

Cookies of Christmas Past - some old favorites

Betty Crocker’s Peanut Butter Blossoms

NYT Cooking’s Eggnog Snickerdoodles

NYT Cooking’s Sugar Cookie Bars

The Candid Appetite’s Babka Cookies

NYT Cooking’s Shortbread Brownies

Cookies of Christmas Present - what’s in my kitchen right now

Food 52’s M&M Cookies

Joy the Baker’s Spiced Marshmallows

Broma Bakery’s Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

The Washington Post and Elana Berusch’s Marbled Shortbread

Cookies of Christmas Future - what I’m baking for Christmas

If you follow me on instagram, I have shamelessly shared that my Bourbon Caramel Pecan Bars won third place in Go Bold with Butter’s Holiday Cookie Contest. I am very proud of this accomplishment and think the recipe is pretty delicious too!

Food & Wine and Jake Cohen’s Coconut Macaroon Brownies

Cheryl Day’s Jam Thumbprints

NYT Cooking’s Sugar Cookie Bars.

I can’t stop talking about… best gifts for bakers! I’ll keep this short but a few ideas for those who love to bake.

Great Jones has the best sheet trays. The raspberry sheet is on my wish list!

Caroline Schiff is an incredible NYC pastry chef and her book, The Sweet Side of Sourdough, is fantastic for someone who is serious about baking.

Some odds and ends tools that professionals use endlessly: cookie scoops, small offset spatula, the best spatulas, bowl scraper, bench scraper, tweezers.

Candid Appetite’s Babka Cookies. I first tried this recipe for a “cookie party” I hosted during the 2019 holiday season. I baked like 8 different types of cookies and these were easily my favorite.

Finally, wishing you a merry holiday season! Happy baking!