Gingerbread Biscotti

If you have candied ginger in your pantry, it's probably been there for a while. It's a hard product to find a use for! I didn't want that to happen to me, so I found a recipe that uses a whole cup of chopped candied ginger. Luckily, I can always nibble on a biscotti with my morning coffee and be a happy girl. This recipe comes from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion, my favorite cookie cookbook.

Gingerbread Biscotti

6 tbsp (3/4 stick) butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup (6.5 oz) finely diced crystallized ginger

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium sized bowl, beat together butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and baking powder until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the eggs; the batter may look slightly curdled.

Add the flour, spices, and chopped ginger and mix until smooth. The dough will be soft and sticky but should hold its shape when you drop it from a spoon.

Transfer the dough to the baking sheet and shape it into a rough log, 14 inches long, 2.5 inches wide, and .75 inches thick.

Bake the dough for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on the pan anywhere from 5 minutes to 25, depending on what else you're doing in the kitchen. Meanwhile, lower the oven temp to 325.

Wet your hands and lightly dampen the cookie log (alternately, spritz it with a spray bottle). This will make the biscotti easier to cut. Cut into 3/4 inch slices, making sure your knife is verticle so the cookies aren't off balance.

Set the biscotti upright on the baking sheet and bake for another 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Biscotti will last about a week at room temperature; longer if you freeze them.