Pumpkin Pie Biscotti

I bookmarked this recipe about a month ago when I saw it here on My Baking Addiction. The cookie for The Cookie Carnival in October was my first time making biscotti, and I have to say it's been a good experience! My husband really likes them as he likes a crunch to his cookie, so they may be making repeat appearances in different forms :-)

Having not made too many biscotti recipes, I was a little worried about this one. The dough was quite bipolar - too dry at first and then seemingly too moist after baking. Even with the pumpkin puree, the dough was definately dry! I probably kneaded it for 5 minutes before everything looked like it was incorporated. This worried me for 2 reasons. 1) Why was it so dry? Did I add too much flour? 2) Are the cookies going to be really tough from all this manipulation of the dough.

See how dry it looks. I wasn't quite sure that I hadn't done something wrong because I had just finished a major exam that afternoon. Regardless, I proceeded. As mentioned above, I did finally get all the flour incorporated, made my dough logs, and baked for the first 24 minutes. After letting the dough cool for 15 mintues, I discovered my next problem. This biscotti was not completely crunchy already like the last ones I had made. In fact, the middle of the log was quite doughy. This made it a little harder to cut nice strips, but it worked okay overall. The orginal recipe only bakes the biscotti for 15 minutes in the second bake. After 15 minutes, my cookies still seemed a little soft, so I flipped them and put them back in for another 8 minutes. That seemed to do the trick; they set up pretty nice after cooling. They are still a little softer than the other recipe that I made (likely due to the pumpkin and brown sugar), but I had thought the others were too crunchy anyway.

Despite the troubles, this recipe was AMAZING! If you like fall flavors like pumpkin, I promise you will love these. Bring them along to Thanksgiving as a more portable form of pumpkin pie. They'll work better in that form to watch football anyway! Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Pumpkin Pie Biscotti - Adapted from My Baking Addiction

3-1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1-1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/8 tsp. cloves

1/2 c. pumpkin puree

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. butter

1/2 pkg. vanilla almond bark

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl; stir well. In another bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla, stirring well with a wire whisk. Slowly add pumpkin mixutre to flour mixtrue, stirring until the dry ingredients are moistened. The mixture will be crumbly. It will gradually come together if you keep stirring.

Melt butter in a small bowl in the microwave. Add butter to dough mixture and knead until the dough looks uniform. Place dough on a floured surface and divided into two portions. Lightly moisten hands and shape each portion into a 2x10" log. Place logs 3 inches apart on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 24 minutes. Reduce oven to 300 degrees and cool logs for 15 minutes on the pan.

Move the loafs to a cutting board and cut diagonally into 1/2" slices using a large serrated knife. The interior of each biscotti will still be a little moist so cut carefully. Place the biscotti cut side up on the baking pan and bake for 8 minutes. Flip the biscotti over and bake for another 8 minutes. Repeat once more for a total of 24 minutes for the second bake. Set all the pieces on a wire rack to cool making sure none of the pieces are touching.

While biscotti are cooling, melt white chocolate on the stove or in the microwave. When cool, dip one end of each piece of biscotti in the melted white chocolate. Place on waxed paper until the chocolate is set.