Giada holiday biscotti are twice baked cookies studded with pistachios and dried cranberries, half dipped in white chocolate and scattered with red and green sugar. That makes them the best keeper on a Christmas plate and a strong gift tin choice. One log gives about two dozen cookies.
Let the baked log cool thirty minutes before you slice it. Hot biscotti crumble under the knife and cold ones shatter, so thirty is the window. A serrated knife used in a slow sawing motion does the rest.
You only reach two dozen if you slice at the thin end. A thirteen inch log cut at half an inch on a shallow diagonal gives around eighteen. A three quarter inch diagonal cut gives closer to a dozen.
Giada Holiday Biscotti
Course: DessertCuisine: Italian, AmericanDifficulty: Medium4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalA lemon scented butter dough packed with pistachios and cranberries, baked as one log, cooled, sliced on the diagonal and baked again until dry. Each cookie is dipped in white chocolate and dusted with colored sugar.
Ingredients
- For the Biscotti:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup dried cranberries
- To Finish:
12 ounces good-quality white chocolate, chopped
Red and green sugar crystals, for garnish
Directions
- Make the dough: Heat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a heavy baking sheet with parchment. Whisk the flour and baking powder together. Beat the sugar, butter, lemon zest and salt until blended, add the eggs one at a time, then mix in the flour just until combined. Stir through the pistachios and cranberries.
- Bake the log: Shape the dough into a log 13 inches long and 3 inches wide on the lined sheet. Bake about 40 minutes, until light golden.
- Cool, then slice: Let the log cool 30 minutes, no less and no more. Move it to a board and cut it on a diagonal into slices 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick with a sharp serrated knife, sawing rather than pressing. Thin slices on a shallow angle are what get you close to two dozen.
- Bake again: Stand the slices cut side down on the sheet and bake about 15 minutes, until pale golden and dry. Move them to a rack and cool completely before they go near the chocolate.
- Dip and set: Melt the white chocolate in a bowl set over barely simmering water, stirring, and take it off the heat before it is fully melted. Dip each biscotto halfway along its length, shake off the excess and set it on the sheet. Scatter the sugar crystals over and refrigerate about 35 minutes, until firm.
Notes
- A 13 inch log sliced on a diagonal gives roughly 18 cookies at half an inch and about 12 at three quarters, so slice thin for two dozen. The 216 calories a cookie checks out, and the 2 hour 30 total is accurate.
FAQs
Does dip half the biscotti mean half of each one?
Yes, you dip each cookie halfway along its length, not twelve out of the twenty four. The photograph on the original shows it clearly even though the wording does not. Hold it at the plain end and lower it in on an angle.
Why does white chocolate need such gentle heat?
It has no cocoa solids, only cocoa butter and milk solids, so it scorches and goes grainy at a temperature dark chocolate shrugs off. A bowl over barely simmering water is as hot as it should get. Stir it off the heat once most of it has melted.
What do I do with the leftover chocolate?
Twelve ounces is the volume you need to dip into rather than the amount you use, so expect several ounces left. Pour it onto parchment, scatter the rest of the sugar crystals over and let it set as bark. Do not reheat it twice.
Can I swap the pistachios and cranberries?
Almonds, hazelnuts and pecans all work, and dried cherries or chopped apricots stand in for the cranberries. Keep the total around a cup and a half or the log will not hold together. White chocolate pairs with most of them, as in these white chocolate confetti cookies.
How long do they keep?
Four days in an airtight container, or three weeks wrapped in foil and frozen, which the recipe states. Twice baked cookies are dry by design, so they outlast almost everything else on the plate. The same goes for these gingerbread biscotti.
