Chocolate Ginger Biscotti Recipe

Chocolate Ginger Biscotti

Sometime ago I made chocolate ginger brownies. Chocolate and ginger is not a very common combination but it worked so I decided to try the combination again with biscotti. And guess what, it worked again. 

This was my first attempt at making biscotti. When searching for recipes and reading reviews I noticed that generally speaking there are two contrasting opinions on biscotti. The majority seem to be fans while a minority think it is a teeth breaker. I must say I was a little concerned that I might fall in the teeth breaker category, but thankfully I did not. The texture of the biscotti was perfect and addictive. It was light and crispy. The chocolate ginger flavour combination worked harmoniously, ginger flavor was subtle and added just the right amount of heat to complement the chocolate. 

Biscotti’s can be made with or without butter/oil.  I went for the middle ground, using a small amount of oil. This worked perfectly for me. Since I used medium sized eggs instead of large eggs as recommended in the recipe, I substituted a tablespoon of oil for each egg.

Using polenta in biscotti's is uncommon, as a matter of fact I only found one recipe and that was created by Giada De Laurentiis. I like polenta in baked goods so I decided to go with it. Polenta added graininess or grittiness to the biscotti. I liked it. If you don’t like polenta I guess you can substitute with plain flour.

Chocolate Ginger Biscotti

I made a mistake with the recipe. I added sugar to the flour mixture instead of mixing it with eggs and oil. However the texture of the biscotti was fantastic, and I am not sure if this is because of the mistake. In the recipe below I am suggesting the usual method of creaming egg and sugar but feel free to make the mistake yourself.

Instead of adding ginger and cocoa to one batch, I divided the dough into two parts, one added ginger to one and cocoa to the other. That’s the reason for the contrasting colors. 

Recipe modified from Giada De Laurentiis.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup polenta

1½ teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons butter/oil

3/4 cup sugar

¼ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

3 medium sized eggs

Directions

1.      Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper

2.      In a large bowl, mix flour, polenta, cocoa powder, ground ginger, baking powder, and salt (see last paragraph above).

3.      In another large bowl, beat the sugar, eggs and butter/oil until pale yellow. Add the flour mixture and mix until just blended. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. 

4.      Divide the dough evenly into 2 equal mounds and place on the prepared baking sheet. With moist hands, space the dough evenly apart and form into 2 (9 by-3-inch) logs.

5.      Bake at 325F/160C for 35 minutes until lightly browned.

6.      Cool for 5 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs crosswise into ¼ - ½ inch thick diagonal slices. Arrange the biscotti cut side down on the same baking sheet. Bake until the cookies are pale golden, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely.

Chocolate Ginger Biscotti

December is #cookielove month! Please join in on the #cookielove fun by linking up any cookie recipe from the month of December 2011. Don't forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #cookielove event! The twitter hashtag is #cookielove :). The bloghop is hosted by  Badger Girl Learns to Cook, Baking and Cooking: A Tale of Two Loves, BigFatBaker, Bloc de Recetas, Bon a Croquer, CafeTerraBlog, Cake Duchess, Creative Cooking Corner, Easily Good Eats, Georgie Cakes, Hobby and More, Knitstamatic, Mike's Baking, Mis Pensamientos, No One Likes Crumbley Cookies, Oh Cake, Queen's Notebook, Savoring Every Bite, Simply Reem, Soni's Food for Thought, Teaspoon of Spice, That Skinny Chick Can Bake, The Art of Cooking Real Food, The Spicy RD, The Wimpy Vegetarian, Vegetarian Tastebuds, Vegan Yack Attack

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