Spiced Chocolate Biscotti
While not a typical Christmas cookie, these spiced chocolate biscotti are still perfect for this year’s cookie box. Studded with mini chocolate chips and infused with plenty of warm spice, they definitely won’t stick around long!
This is a new favorite of mine this year! While they took a few tries to get right, these biscotti were well worth the extra effort. They’re perfectly balanced with the chocolate and spice, getting an extra dip in some dark chocolate at the end.
I went for a “dirty chai” kind of flavor profile, and all that means is chocolate + chai spices. It might be tempting to try and get rid of one or more of them instead of following the recipe, but don’t! They each contribute something special.
Forming the dough
These spiced chocolate biscotti come together like many other cookies, making them simple to make! They start with a butter and sugar base, adding eggs, vanilla and dry ingredients at the end.
The big difference comes in when you actually bake the dough. Rather than shaping it into individual pieces, you divide the entire batch of dough into 2 logs and go from there.
The dough can be a bit sticky, so don’t be afraid to use a little flour to keep things manageable as you work with it.
Baking Times
Biscotti is Italian for “twice baked.” It might sound intimidating, but it’s not difficult. When the dough bakes the first time, it’s shaped into 2 longer logs that spread out a bit during the bake time. After a little time to cool, slice the logs into 1 inch slices and arrange them on the baking sheet, cut side up.
The cut slices go back into the oven for the second bake, which is shorter. All that the second bake does is crisp up the biscotti to make sure they’re perfectly crunchy when they cool down.
Garnish
After the spiced chocolate biscotti are completely cool, I like to give them a dip in a little more dark chocolate. You could sprinkle them with some sanding sugar or crunchy sprinkles, too! I’ll use candied ginger pieces, just to stay in line with the spice. Use whatever you like π
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Spiced Chocolate Biscotti
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 25–30 biscotti 1x
- Category: Dessert, Cookies & Brownies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American/Italian
Description
Infused with warm spice and studded with rich chocolate, these crisp biscotti are perfect for dunking and devouring.
Ingredients
To make the biscotti:
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp espresso powder
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 TB vanilla extract
- 1 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips
To garnish:
- 12 oz dark chocolate, chopped
- 1/4 cup candied ginger, minced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, espresso powder, cardamom, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and cloves together into a medium mixing bowl and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream the butter and granulated sugar together on high speed for 2 minutes. After 1 minute, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides. Beat for the remaining minute.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix well. The mixture will look slightly curdled, that’s okay.
- Add the flour mixture and mini chocolate chips all at once, and mix on low speed until the dough has come together. It should somewhat clean the sides of the bowl.
- Lightly flour the countertop and turn out the dough. Sprinkle a little more flour on top of the dough, and form it into a ball. Divide the ball in half and shape each half into a 7-8 inch long log. Place each log onto the prepared baking sheet and flatten slightly until the logs are an inch thick. They should look like long, thin ovals.
- Bake the dough in the preheated oven for 35 minutes. The logs should have expanded by a few inches on each side and will have cracks on the top and sides. This is normal! Remove the baking sheet from the oven, but do not turn the oven off.
- Allow the logs to cool for 10 minutes, then use a sharp knife to slice each log diagonally into 1 inch slices. Arrange these slices back on the baking sheet with the cut sides facing up, and bake the biscotti for an additional 10 minutes to fully dry out and crisp the rest of the way.
- Allow the finished biscotti to cool completely on the baking sheet.
- After the biscotti have cooled, melt the dark chocolate in a large, heatproof measuring cup or bowl. Dunk each cookie in the chocolate as desired, and garnish with minced candied ginger. Allow the dipped cookies to set up on the same parchment lined baking sheet. You can refrigerate them to speed up the process a bit.
- After the chocolate has hardened, serve the biscotti or store in an airtight container at room temperature. Like many Christmas cookies, these will keep for several days, up to a few weeks. You may refrigerate or freeze for even longer storage.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 chocolate dipped biscotti
- Calories: 186
- Sugar: 13.5 g
- Sodium: 126.3 mg
- Fat: 10.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 6 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 22.5 g
- Fiber: 2.2 g
- Protein: 2.7 g
- Cholesterol: 21.2 mg
