Pumpkin Biscotti

I hope all of my American readers enjoyed Thanksgiving yesterday! I made a chocolate hazelnut tart and I will post that sometime soon. We had a great quantity of food at the dinner and my in-laws were great hosts. I had originally planned to bake these cookies and take them to have at dinner on Thanksgiving, but I ran out of time and ended up making them once I got home from Thanksgiving dinner. We had plenty of food, so I’m kind of glad that I didn’t end up bringing them.

I don’t like pumpkin pie very much, but I don’t mind using pumpkin in other types of baked goods. I found this recipe for pumpkin biscotti and I thought it sounded really good. The original recipe called for pumpkin pie spice, which I didn’t have on hand. I substituted cinnamon, ginger, and a little bit of cloves. The recipe also called for you to toast macadamia nuts in the 2 tablespoons of butter and add those to the dough. I just added the melted butter to the dough and substituted chocolate chips for the macadamia nuts.

These aren’t very pumpkin-y, but I’m ok with that. The chocolate chips really dominate the flavor, and I guess I would be interested in trying these with the macadamia nuts, since those wouldn’t be so strong in their flavor. I think these would be a good choice if you wanted to make something with pumpkin, but wanted something a little more interesting than pumpkin pie.

3-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixer bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice; stir well. In another bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla, stirring well with a wire whisk. Slowly add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened.) Add the melt the butter; stir to combine. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Lightly flour hands and shape the dough into two logs, about 3” x 13" long log. Place logs 3" apart on a cookie sheet lined with a silicone baking mat. Bake for 25 minutes; cool logs 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300. Cut each log diagonally into 1" slices using a serrated knife. Place slices on the cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

Recipe from Christmas Cookies.com