Pumpkin Gingerbread Biscotti

I can't believe Thanksgiving Break is already next week! No students for a week and no work for half the week. We still have professional development and such on Monday and Tuesday, but again, no students, so it's not too terrible. I'm also excited about my family visiting. I haven't seen my dad since the end of summer and I haven't seen my mom and my sister since their visit in October. They're even bringing our two dogs, so I can't wait to see them! I've already got the menu for our dinner planned out and I'll be sharing those recipes soon enough.

Even though Thanksgiving hasn't gone by yet, there are already gingerbread house kits and Christmas decorations for sale at Walmart. It always bothers me when this happens because I'm not ready to think about one holiday when the first one hasn't happened yet. So tonight, I went to another cooking group gathering for a Thanksgiving cookie/candy exchange. We each had to make enough to sample them tonight and take some home to share with whomever.



I went for biscotti. I like biscotti and I haven't made it in a couple years. I still had some homemade pumpkin puree left from when I went pumpkin picking and it's an appropriate ingredient for Thanksgiving. Maybe because it's been a couple years since I've made biscotti, I can't remember how the dough is supposed to be, but I really don't remember it being as sticky as this recipe's dough was. Quite a bit stuck to my hands and I had a difficult time shaping it to look nice. At least the logs got cut into slices so you can't see the bumps on the top of the logs. Still, the biscotti is delicious. A light pumpkin flavor with spices. The white chocolate adds a bit of sweetness and the walnuts add even more crunch to these twice-baked cookies. It was a hit with the ladies in the cooking group!



Some of the cookies that others brought tonight were macarons, cream cheese cherry cookies, molasses cookies, oreo truffles, potato chip toffee bark, chocolate bourbon balls, gingerbread snowflake cookies (so pretty!), and so much more! The organizer of the event provided treat bags so I filled mine up to the top. There were so many leftovers that it was totally acceptable and encouraged.



Pumpkin Gingerbread Biscotti
From The Comfort of Cooking

1 large egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp freshly grated ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
4 oz real white chocolate, chopped, or white candy melts
3 tbsp chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg, sugar and baking powder. Whisk vigorously until the mixture turns pale yellow and falls back in ribbons on itself when you lift out the whisk.

Next, add the pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, salt and vanilla. Continue whisking, aerating the mixture.

Finally, sift in the flour and fold it in with a spatula.

Shape the dough into a flat log about 3″ wide by 8″ long using wet fingertips. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, turn the oven down to 300 and let rest for 15 minutes. Slice into 1/2″ slices, place them back on the baking sheet and bake another 30 minutes, flipping them half-way through. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

When ready to serve, prepare chopped walnuts and melt the white chocolate or candy melts. Dip half of each biscotti into the white chocolate, sprinkle with a pinch of walnuts, and let set before serving.

Enjoy!