Gingerbread Biscotti

'Tis the season to be jolly. The decorations in town have been up and my university has put up the blue and white Christmas tree to represent our school colors. Still, I cannot believe it is almost Christmas. Maybe more snow would help me. I saw some snow on Thanksgiving and more over last weekend, but it's not enough! A snowstorm is totally not necessary, but just mild snow would be a nice reminder that Christmas is here.

Well, with or without the presence of snow, I still needed to get my act together and make Christmas presents. Though the date is still a while away, the last day of classes is tomorrow (yay!) and our Winter Break starts on the 18th. The eight days in between is when we take our final exams and most people are lucky enough to finish early and head out before the 18th. So that I don't miss people, I need to prepare the gifts to give out by tomorrow.

This year, I decided to bake everyone's present. I had originally wanted to make three different types of cookies, but there were just so many to choose from. Biscotti was one of my three choices so to make it easier, I decided to make three different types of biscotti instead. Here's one of the flavors, Gingerbread Biscotti. The other two I made are Cinnamon Sugar and Brownie, which will appear in later entries. I wanted to share the Gingerbread first as it is more of a Christmas season flavor.




Biscotti has always been on my to-bake list and I am so happy I finally got to make them. A tip for cutting the logs into slices: let them cool for just 7 to 10 minutes. I let my first batch cool for too long after the first bake so my slices weren't cleanly cut. But for the second batch, I let it cool until still slightly warm and the slices were clean! Biscotti is not at all difficult to make and so delicious! I have to stop myself so much from nom-ing on other people's presents... And flour your hands often! The dough is quite sticky.

Gingerbread Biscotti
From A Cozy Kitchen

- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
- 3/4 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tbsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a cookie sheet.
2. In a large bowl, mix together oil, sugar, eggs, and molasses. In another bowl, combine flours, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg; mix into egg mixture to form a stiff dough.
3. Divide dough in half, and shape each half into a roll the length of the cookie. Place rolls on cookie sheet, and pat down to flatten the dough to 1/2 inch thickness.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool.
5. When cool enough to touch, cut into 1/2 inch thick diagonal slices. Place sliced biscotti on cookie sheet, and bake an additional 5 to 7 minutes on each side, or until toasted and crispy.