Pumpkin Biscotti

I am obsessed with pumpkin so when fall rolls around, I get pumpkin crazy. Imagine my delight when my cable/phones/internet crashed and I had to go work at Starbucks on the day Pumpkin Spice Latte’s (although I get the Frappuccino version) came back. It was a glorious work-from-Starbucks day! A few years ago I started making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (recipe to come later in the pumpkin-season!) and I was hooked. 2011 will mark my 4^th year of delicious pumpkin cookies so I decided to kick it up a notch with pumpkin chocolate chip biscotti. I’ve never made biscotti before but it seemed easy enough so last night, while Mike was out of town, I decided it was the perfect time to give it a try. Here’s how it’s done with a few of the lessons I learned:

Pumpkin Biscotti

3-1/2 cups flour

1-1/2 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup solid-pack canned pumpkin

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

¾ cups mini chocolate chips (I used 1 cup...that was too many! I always forget that those mini chips go a long way!)

1.      Preheat oven to 350-degrees F and grease 2 large baking sheets.

2.      In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spice.

3.      In a small bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla.

4.      Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until well combined. I used my stand mixer. The dough will look crumbly but will ball up nicely.

5.      Knead in the chocolate chips.

6.      Place dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into 3 equal portions. Shape each portion into a slightly flattened log about 3-inches by 12-inches.

7.      Place logs 3-inches apart on prepared baking sheets. They will not rise and spread like cookies.

8.      Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and place baking sheet in a wire rack to cool 15 minutes.

9.      Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees.

10.  Transfer each log to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch slices. Lesson I learned the hard way: don’t saw the logs like a loaf of French bread! Your little biscotti pieces will only break if you saw at them. It took me an entire log to figure this out…just put the serrated knife where you want it and press down, saw at the very end if need be.

11.  Place the biscotti on their side on the baking sheets and bake 10 minutes, flip and bake another 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Mike Scale: 3.5 out of 5 stars "Excellent, pumpkin makes me want a coffee or some hot cider!"

AEM