Gingerbread Biscotti

For the second year in a row I participated in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. After participating last year I couldn't wait for this year. It's a great opportunity to discover new blogs and learn great new cookie recipes. But most importantly the event supports Cookies for Kid's Cancer, an organization that funds therapies that treat pediatric cancer.

As I searched for a recipe, I finally selected one of my go-to recipes, Gingerbread Biscotti

I've been making these cookies for more than 20 years. I can't remember where I found the original recipe although I suspect it was from a magazine. I've always loved browsing through holiday issues and have collected recipes from these magazines over the years.

This recipe uses a lot of fresh minced ginger, ground spices, and dark molasses for flavor. The house smells like the holidays - warm, spicy, delicious.

Just a few of the simple ingredients

Lots of minced fresh ginger

And toasted, blanched almonds

This is a straight-forward biscotti recipe but the dough itself is incredibly sticky and a little tricky to work with when forming the logs the key is to have well-floured hands and to work with the dough as little as possible. The nice thing is biscotti should look a little rustic.

After the first baking, the log is sliced

Then the slices are baked again

Normally I serve the biscotti as is but because it's the holidays I also drizzled some white chocolate over half the batch.

Then I packed them up and sent them off.

For my part I received:

• Coconut Almond Crispies with Chocolate Chunks and Dried Cranberries from Lisa at Garlic + Zest
• Chinese Almond Cookies from Stephanie at CopyKat Recipes
• Kourabiedes (traditional Greek butter cookies) from Natalia at The Greek Glutton

The cookies are delicious and almost all gone. Check out these delicious blogs and watch for the recipes.

Happy Holidays!