Description
Delicious Christmas cookies that are great with dark coffee and chocolate. Enjoy them as you savor the festive season.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup golden brown sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons powdered ginger
- 3 cups gluten-free flour blend
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup toasted walnuts, or other nuts, divided
- 1 cups chocolate chips or melting wafers (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F. If you have a convection oven use the convection bake mode and preheat the oven to 325F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly butter the parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar and the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice with the butter and sugar mixture until the dough is light and airy.
- In a medium bowl, add gluten-free flour blend, the baking powder, and salt. Stir with a whisk until the flour mixture is uniform. Set aside.
- Toast the nuts in a dry frying pan until they are lightly colored and fragrant. Do not burn. Let the nuts cool to room temperature.
- Stir the dry ingredients and 1/2 cup of the nuts into the bowl with the creamed butter mixture. Mix well to fully combine. The dough will be stiff. Avoid adding additional flour or the dough will be too stiff and the cookies will not rise in the oven. The gluten-free batter should have a little more moisture, to allow it to rise adequately. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill the dough.
- Divide the dough into two equal portions. Place one portion on the prepared baking sheet and the second portion 3 inches away from the first portion, leaving room for the biscotti logs to rise and expand. Wet your hands and taking one portion of the dough, form it into a biscotti log that is 3 inches wide by 12 inches long. The rectangle will be about 3/4 inches high. Smooth the top of your biscotti log with wet hands. Repeat with the second portion of the dough.
- Bake the biscotti logs in the oven for 30 minutes, being careful not to over brown them. The biscotti will rise as they bake the first time. Once they are firm and cooked through, remove them from the oven and transfer the baked biscotti to a cooling rack. Allow the biscotti to cool completely, about 1 hour.
- Carefully transfer a biscotti log to a wooden cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut the biscotti into 1/2 inch thick slices, using a sawing motion. Transfer each slice to a parchment lined baking sheet, and placing it cut side down. Repeat with the second biscotti log. You should get 12 biscotti slices from each biscotti log.
- Place the baking sheets back into the oven at 300F for 20 minutes, until each piece of biscotti is set and firm. Be careful not to let it over brown. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack. The biscotti will crisp up as it cools.
- Once the biscotti is cool and hard, melt chocolate chips or melting wafers. To do this place the chocolate in a heat proof glass measuring cup. Place it in a microwave and heat for 30 seconds. Stir the chocolate chips. Repeat the heating 2 more times until the chocolate begins to melt. Stir the chocolate chips until the chocolate is warm and liquid. Add 10 more cold chocolate chips to the mixture and stir until these melt. This will temper your chocolate. Drizzle the chocolate over the cooled biscotti cookies. Sprinkle with the additional prepared nuts, if desired. Allow to cool completely before storing, so that the chocolate sets firmly.
Notes
Any nuts like pistachios, almonds, butternuts, pecans, or macadamia nuts, can be substituted for the walnuts in this recipe.
Orange zest and juice can be substituted for the lemon zest and juice called for in this recipe.
