Gingerbread Biscotti

Ack, I'm posting so late today!! Forgive me, its taking me a little while to get back into the swing of things. The Geologist is back at work, but I still have both of my boysenberries at home, so we sleep in, watch movies, and are basically lazy vacation people. Glimmers of productive motivation are wafting their way back into my brain though, I should be on top of things in no time... a week at most. :)

So Christmas is over. Now what?? Are egg nog, gingerbread, cranberries and sugarplums (whatever those are) off limits now? If so, what treats are reserved for January and February? Poor months, so cold and dark, no holidays (Lets be honest, no one anticipates Valentines Day for weeks and weeks). Surely they're allowed festive goodies too? I sure think so. We like to keep our winter celebrated with our window snowflakes!

They're usually up long before Christmas, but this year they barely made it up on Christmas Eve! I even let the boys help this year. (Well, one boy. The smaller one was banished to bed at the time.) And hung them! He did a darn good job, too! See if you can pick out his four...

So as you see, we're still pretty happy about winter around here. Come February, I'm sure that will have worn off, but until then, we're eagerly anticipating the next big snowstorm, and staying cozy with yummy treats, Christmas or no!

Gingerbread Biscotti
Printable Recipe

6 Tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tb molasses
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cloves
a pinch of salt

For the Glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2-3 Tb milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add eggs, vanilla, and molasses and mix till smooth.  Add flour, baking powder, salt, and spices, and mix till incorporated.

Shape dough into 12in x 6in rectangle on the parchment paper. (Square the corners using fingertips, smoothing the top of the dough too!and smooth the top. This dough is a bit stickier, so you may want to grease your fingers with butter or cooking spray)

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-28 minutes. Remove. Allow to cool about 10 minutes. Slice biscotti into 12-14 slices (about an inch wide). Turn them on their cut sides and put back in the oven. Bake 15-17 minutes. Remove and cool completely before adding glaze.

Whisk all ingredients for glaze together till smooth. Drizzle over tops of biscotti, and allow about half an hour to set. It will never set quite rock hard, so be careful when stacking! Store  in airtight container.

This recipe overcooks really quickly, so keep an eye on it! They get pretty hard if they do. I had to trim just the very edges of mine. Oh, and my glaze looks funny because I didn't have cream cheese... but the first two batches I made (without taking pictures, curse it!!) did have cream cheese, and it is a must. Trust me. SO yummy.

Crunchy and classic-gingerbread-spicy, lightly sweet, these are like gingerbread men for grownups! Or kids, if yours are like mine, and have picked up my love of biscotti! 

Next time I'm going to experiment with add-ins of a chunkier nature. Chocolate and candied orange? Cranberry and almond?? What do YOU think?? Biscotti's are around here to stay!

Shared at Foodie Friday