Monday, December 20, 2010

Gingerbread Biscotti

It is that time of the year when gifts are given to many people. As I said before that I prefer to give something useful and meaningful as a gift. And that combined with a tight budget leads to one thing - baked goodies. If you want to give some meaningful gift, it will cost more than a few dollars and that times the number of teachers times the number of kids, it does add up.
For some reason I went and bought nice things this year to give to my kids' teachers. I packed them, tied the festive ribbon and thought this is it. At the nth moment, I decided to make something along with the gift. Yes, I never said I am a sane person. So, go ahead and call me crazy.
I made the Cake Mix Blondies but used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips, then I made brown sugar cookies which, I haven't blogged yet. Then I made these gingerbread biscottis. I have to give cookie platters to some more people for which, I am planning on baking more stuff, but for the teachers' gift, these three were made. This one is a nice recipe. Not difficult at all. I did not make any big changes in the recipe except cutting down on spices. I didn't want the spices to be so strong that people won't be able to enjoy them.
Adapted from allrecipes.
It is suppose to make 48 biscotti but I made them so long, I only got about 40.
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 3 1/4 cups
Sugar - 1 cup
Molasses - 1/4 cup
Egg - 3 large
Oil - 1/3 cup
Baking Powder - 1 TBSP
Dry Ginger powder - 1 TBSP
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 TBSP
Cloves powder - 1 tsp
Nutmeg powder - 1/4 tsp

Method:
In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. Flour, sugar, baking powder, spices. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients. Whisk together till eggs are incorporated with oil and molasses. Pour the wet mixture to dry and mix. Dough will be very crumbly. You will have to mix the dough with your hands. Don't try to add more liquid. It will come together when you bake it.
Divide the dough into two parts. Make a log and flatten it to 1/2" thickness.
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes rotating the pan half way. Take it out and let it cool. Turn down the oven to 325 F. When the biscotti loaves are cool enough, take a strong knife (not serrated) and slice them diagonally leaving your weight on the knife to slice without crumbling the biscotti. If it is crumbling, give it a few more minutes of cooling time and try again. Place the biscottis cut side down on a baking sheet (You will need two baking sheets now) and bake for 8 - 10 minutes on each side or till they are dry. Make sure you don't dry them too much since they harden quite a bit after cooling. Remember to rotate the pans halfway. Cool completely on the wire rack.
Serve with a cup of spiced tea and you are in heaven. These are crisp but not very hard. You could make them harder if you like them. Bake for longer after slicing them.
Enjoy. Pin It

14 comments:

  1. Quite a beautiful and scrumptious biscotti..

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  2. lucky people to get these baked goodies in gift..

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  3. Yummy biscotti and beautiful shots :)

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  4. Wow yummy biscotti..lovely presentation.

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  5. wow, what a beautiful presentation :)

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  6. festive n gorgeous biscottis...wonderful presentation

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  7. Mmmm I adore gingerbread spices, so I'm sure I would love these biscotti!

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  8. thansk for your reply Champa. that was really helpful..will check with Suma for the Vital gluten.between have sent you one mail yesterday. dint you get it? i sent it to the address given in your Bake off announcement page.
    these biscottis look great...only made stuffed biscottis will try these. perfect for winter.

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