These chocolate peppermint biscotti are perfect for gift-giving. Just wrap up a few in a pretty clear cellophane bag and a ribbon! Your neighbors will be wowed, I promise!
Just imagine dunking these in your hot cocoa or coffee this holiday season.
There’s nothing as frustrating as a recipe that doesn’t work out because it has bad instructions. That was the story with baking instructions on the printed version of this recipe that I was using. But I believed in this recipe and I kept working at it. It turned out that all I needed was a little help from the interwebs. This video from Allrecipes demonstrates exactly how to bake these wonderful peppermint biscottis. Watch it from the 1:40 mark forward and follow these instructions exactly!
Here are what my pretty loaves looked like headed into the oven, following the instructions in the video.
The original instructions called for putting both loaves on one cookie sheet. Do not, I repeat, do not do this. This dough is VERY spready, and you will end up with one giant undefined biscotti if you try it. Two cookie sheets it he only way to go. And look how beautiful they turned out!
Chocolate Peppermint Biscotti
Ingredients
- ¾ cup butter lightly salted and softened
- ¾ cup granulated white sugar
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 2 tsp peppermint extract
- 3¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup crushed peppermint candy
Frosting
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp shortening
- ½ cup crushed peppermint candy
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Cream together butter and sugar.
- Add peppermint extract and then eggs, one at a time, and mix until blended.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add dry mixture gradually to creamed mixture.
- When you have only about a cup of dry mixture remaining to add, add the peppermint candies. I do this because the dough is very thick, and it's easier to stir in the peppermints before you've added all the flour.
- Add the remaining flour.
- Line two cookie sheets with parchment. This is important! The peppermint WILL melt out and stick to a pan, so you must use the parchment.
- Separate dough into two equal portions. Place one portion on each cookie sheet.
- Using floured hands, pat the dough on each sheet into a log about 1/2" tall and 4" wide, and going almost the entire length of the cookie sheet.
- Bake for 30 minutes, until lightly browned. I baked both pans at the same time, switching their positions halfway through baking.
- Remove from oven and cool on wire racks about 15 minutes, or until you can touch the pan without being burned.
- Using a pizza cutter or a bench scraper, cut your log into about 1/2" slices.
- Turn slices on their sides on the pan (you should be able to fit all of them on one sheet, now. They won't spread any more.
- Bake slices for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, using tongs, flip slices over so the other side can toast.
- Bake another 10 minutes.
- Remove and cool completely.
Frosting
- Melt chocolate and shortening together (or take a shortcut and simply use melting chocolate).
- Dip the end of each cookie in the chocolate and then sprinkle with crushed peppermint.
- Let dry completely. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
