Gingerbread Biscotti

In preparation for Christmas - I wanted to send my sister some homemade goodies - a "luxury" that she doesn't get very often over in Afghanistan. I can only imagine how difficult it is to be subjected day-after-day to cafeteria or "mess hall" food that is mediocre at best. The trick, however, is coming up with a baked good that will still taste OK after being shipped from California to Afghanistan - about a 7-10 day process. And let's not even think about having a chocolate-based treat - unless it's made with cocoa powder...the potential for a melted mess of sweetness is just too great to risk. Same with frosting or icing - that is certainly a bit too risky.

Then add in the health aspect, the goodies shouldn't be too terrible for you - after all, I don't want to be the cause of holiday guilt, just joy. Oh and it has to taste good on top of all of those limitations.

I have to give all credit to my co-worker for coming up with the final brilliant idea: biscotti. Of course! Why hadn't I thought of that before...for so long I had a couple biscotti recipes hanging around my recipe box (virtual collection - sad to say the old days of recipe note card collections is becoming extinct). Knowing me, though, I opted to continue to neglect the biscotti hopefuls that I had had lined up months ago: Deep Dark Chocolate Biscotti (a healthy recipe with flaxseed and whole wheat flour) and Fig and Walnut Biscotti – they’ll just have to stay in the cue…I’ll get to them one of these days. As I am obsessed with fall and winter baking flavors (pumpkin, gingerbread, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) I thought of the idea for a Gingerbread Biscotti – went on my online search of an established recipe – ended up with a perfect recipe for my first biscotti experience.

Gingerbread Biscotti
original recipe found here

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
2/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
1/4 cup dried currants

1. In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients; In another bowl, combine the egg and egg whites, brown sugar, molasses and vanilla until smooth.

2. Stir the egg mixture into dry ingredients just until moistened; fold in pecans and currants; cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Divide dough in half; shape each half into a ball; on a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray, roll each ball into a 14-inch x 1 1/2-inch rectangle; Bake at 325 degrees for 24 to 28 minutes or until frim to touch; remove from the oven and reduce heat to 300 degrees.

4. Cool for 5 minutes, transfer to cutting board; cut diagonally with a serrated knife into 1/2-inch slices; place cut side down on baking sheets coated with nonstick cooking spray; bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned turning once, remove to wire racks to cool, store in an airtight container.

The dough flavor was fabulous – and there wasn’t even any butter in the mix! Upon further investigation, I learned that true Italian biscotti did not contain any butter at all. The American version is the butter laden cookie – surprise, surprise! Apparently the butter makes the cookie a bit softer so you can choose to eat it on its own and it won’t be too hard – but it would also stand up to coffee or hot chocolate dipping. This is what the sources say at least. The difference between a cookie dough and a biscotti dough is liquidity. A biscotti dough is much harder as it has less liquid – simple as that.

I did what is probably a huge no-no in the baking world in order to come up with a result that I was 100% pleased with. I followed the recipe 100% for my first go-around with biscotti – baking the sliced biscotti (second round of baking) just about 14 minutes – 7 on each side. The ending result was a delicious cookie…still slightly soft but with a definite tough exterior like a biscotti should have. I was pleased with the result…eating all of the small first slices – after all, who wants such a small biscotti anyway! ;) After cooling completely, I placed the biscotti in an air-tight container and left it out on the counter overnight. The next morning I went to grab a biscotti only to find that they had softened up a bit! Still wonderful in flavor – but where did my hard, crunchy biscotti go!? All day at work I thought about these biscotti – wondering what happened! (ok perhaps I wasn’t thinking of this ALL day…but it was on my mind for a bit). I had it set in my mind to fix this problem and decided to pop the biscotti back in the oven one last time. After baking for another 15 minutes or so, I took the biscotti out and was face-to-face with a perfect biscotti. Crunchy but not rock candy…sweet but not overly so…comforting with molasses and cinnamon.

I wouldn’t recommend the re-bake approach for most cookies – however, given that these did not have any butter, I think the third trip in the over was essentially toasting the cookies and not messing with the internal structure.

I dipped one into my chai tea this morning and it was a glorious combination.

And yes, I did send some on their way to Afghanistan…but I certainly had to save some for myself!