- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
Today, we are making biscotti.
If you've never made biscotti before,
you will be amazed at how easy they are to put together.
And this recipe is one of my favorites for the fall.
It's filled with pumpkin pie spice,
dried cranberries, walnuts,
and, my personal favorite, candied ginger.
They're delicious with a cup of coffee or tea
and they also make a great hostess gift.
I'll even show you how to package them up.
All right, so first we're gonna put together
the wet ingredients.
So in a large bowl,
you wanna add three eggs.
And then to that,
we're also gonna add 3/4 cup of plain white sugar.
I also like the white sugar as opposed to brown sugar
because brown sugar
actually puts too much moisture in these cookies
and makes them a little bit too chewy.
Now, a lot of times,
biscotti will have different flavored extracts in the mix.
For these, I like to use vanilla,
just because we're gonna be adding a lot of spice
with the pumpkin pie spice.
So we're gonna do two teaspoons,
so make sure you get the pure,
don't get any imitation.
That's not gonna give you the best flavor.
All right, here we go.
Okay, and then at this stage,
I do like to add my dry cranberries.
So I have a 1/2 cup
just to allow them to kinda get plumped up
in the wet mixture
before we actually add the dry ingredients.
There we go.
And then I'm also gonna be adding the candied ginger.
So if you've never worked with candied ginger before,
you can definitely get it in your local grocery store,
sometimes in the baking aisle,
but sometimes also in the dried fruit aisle.
And I'm gonna do 1/3 of a cup of the candied ginger.
And while we're at it,
we can also add the walnuts though.
They're not gonna be in there that long.
So I just like to get them in while I can.
There we go.
All of my favorite fall flavors in one bowl.
Okay, so I'm gonna take this and put it aside.
Then in this bowl,
I have two and 1/4 cup of all purpose flour.
And to that,
I'm gonna add a teaspoon of baking soda.
And you also wanna add 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt.
And then we're also gonna add some pumpkin pie spice.
So this time of year,
I've really gotten into making my own
pumpkin pie spice blend,
which might sound a little bit extra,
as my teenage daughter would say,
but I find to get the best flavor.
And especially for these cookies
where there isn't a lot going on,
you really want a powerful spice.
And I just find when you make your own,
it is so much more flavorful and delicious.
I just did a YouTube short on it.
I'll leave you the link below.
And I also have a printed recipe as well.
And we're gonna use two teaspoons.
Then we're just going to whisk this up
until everything is combined,
and that's all there is to it.
Now we're gonna add our dry ingredients
to the wet ingredients.
And for that, I've got my trusty Danish dough whisk.
I know a few of you have caught onto the craze,
and here's another recipe you can use them for
because they're really great when whisking up biscotti dough
because it too, like scone dough,
is kind of sticky and you don't wanna overwork it.
So if you're new to the Danish dough whisk craze,
I will leave you a link in the description
where you can get them.
They're really great.
Whisk this up just until it's all combined,
and you'll have kind of a wet, sticky dough on your hand.
Then once it's all mixed up,
you wanna turn it out onto a floured surface
and just kinda roll it around on a ball like that.
Just so that it's easier to handle.
Once you get a nice little ball like this,
you can cut it in 1/2
because essentially we're gonna be making two logs.
And the logs will then be cut after they're baked
to create the actual biscotti cookies.
You're gonna take each ball
and roll it into a little cylinder.
I would say about the size of those goat cheese logs
that you get when you're entertaining.
That's what it sort of reminds me of, there.
And I'm gonna put it on my baking sheet
that's been lined with parchment there just like so.
It's helpful if the logs are roughly the same size,
that way they'll bake at the same rate.
Then I go in
and then I start to get a little bit more particular
with my logs here.
I just wanna make sure that I've shaped it
and kinda press it down a little bit.
Don't worry if there's too much cracking.
What you're really looking for
is just kinda bringing it together
into a nice little rounded square
and making sure that the top is kind of all level
and the same size
so that you don't have one side that sort of riding up
and the other side that's sort of low, see.
So this one's kind of all ready to go.
This one needs a little help.
Okay, so the thing with biscotti
if you've never made it before,
is it actually takes two turns in the oven.
The first is to bake our logs like this.
And for that,
we're gonna do 350 degrees Fahrenheit
for about 40 minutes, 45 minutes.
Okay, then when it comes out of the oven,
it'll look like this.
They almost look like little loaves of bread.
And in fact,
the texture will be similar to bread
when you go to cut into it.
It isn't until you bake it the second time
that it starts to get crisp and crumbly like a cookie.
So I'm just gonna transfer one of these
over to my cutting board here.
Then I also have a bread knife.
You do want something that has serrated edges
because that is gonna help us slice our biscotti
in nice even pieces.
So you wanna turn it a little bit to the side
because you are going to be
actually cutting it on the diagonal,
but you'll notice they'll be kind of moist inside.
And I think that's good to some degree,
but, sorry,
Georgie, we hear your collar.
So the idea here is just a slice them all,
put them back on our cookie sheet
and then we're gonna bake again.
All right, then these are gonna go back in the oven
at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12 to 15 minutes,
just until the golden brown and crisp.
And if you wanted to, midway through,
you can flip them over
just so that they get equally golden brown on both sides.
Then to package them up for gifting,
I like to use these little plastic glassine sleeves
that you can get at your craft store.
And I take about four,
maybe five if they'll fit, of the biscotti
and put them in a little package,
and then you can use some of this really great jute twine,
or you can use grosgrain ribbon.
You can use baker's twine.
I like the jute because I think around the fall,
it's a really pretty texture.
And then once you get your little packet,
you can basically decorate it however you like.
This time of year,
I like to use cinnamon sticks,
maybe a little bit of faux evergreen.
You can also use some pine cones are fun.
Those are even fun around Christmas time.
I think a fun idea if you're giving this to one person
is just to take the biscotti
and put it in a little coffee mug like that
and present this as the gift.
Or if you had a bigger gift to give,
you could do something like this,
like a gift basket.
I might do this
if I'm bringing it to a household for Thanksgiving.
So just go ahead and get yourself a basket.
I got this one just at Michaels.
And then this time of year,
I always like to buy a roll of this burlap
because I use it for so many things.
You can use it for table runners.
You could use it for gift baskets.
I also sometimes wrap presents in it,
which can be fun too.
So I just cut enough to go through here probably twice,
just so that you have kind of a nice filling.
There you go.
And then you can add some of your favorite coffee.
I think people are always wanting to try things
that you like.
So if you bring it to them
and say this is my favorite coffee,
you're gonna love it.
There's something that's really thoughtful
I think about that.
So I really like Stumptown Coffee
so I was gonna use that,
and I did a French roast
just because it's always my favorite.
And then I also like to do something that's seasonal.
So this one has caramel and hazelnut flavor to it,
so thought that could be fun.
And then you can put your two mugs on either side,
sort of nestled in.
Who wouldn't love to get this?
And if you wanted to take it one step further,
you could also type up the recipe and stick that in as well.
So if they wanted to make the biscotti
throughout the holiday,
they would know how.
All right, you guys,
I hope you give this one a try
and let me know what you think.
Leave me a comment.
Let me know how it goes.
And let me know if you made the homemade pumpkin pie spice,
and if you saw a difference,
hope you did.
All right, see you next time, bye.