I told you I wouldn’t forget about these guys! I was supposed to make these as part of my Christmas Cookie Line-Up, but they ended up getting neglected and I never got to them. I had already bought all the ingredients to make them though so I promised I would get to them and that’s exactly what I did! I will admit I did skip out on one part. They are supposed to have crushed candy canes on top of them but I chose to not do that.

Now I said in my Christmas Cookie post that my hope was that these cookies would taste like a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks and although it’s not an identical match, they’re pretty stinking good. I give them an A for effort!

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 c all purpose flour
• 1/2 c cocoa powder
• 1 c granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter, cold
• 4 lg eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 1 c mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 tbsp milk
• 4oz bar of semi-sweet chocolate (I prefer Baker’s Chocolate)
• Optional: 1/2 c crushed candy canes

Directions

1. Before starting, take the eggs out and allow them to get to room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, granulated sugar, baking soda and salt.
4. Cube butter and mix in with dry ingredients using a pastry blender or hands. Mix until crumbly.
5. In a small bowl, whisk 3 eggs, vanilla and peppermint.
6. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix with a rubber spatula until everything is barely moist. Fold in chocolate chips.
7. On a lightly floured counter, knead dough until soft and slightly sticky. Add 1 to 2 more tablespoons of flour if super sticky. Split dough into two equal portions.
8. On one prepared baking sheet, shape dough into a log about 8 inches long and 1/2 inch thick. Repeat on the other prepared baking sheet with the remaining dough.
9. In a small bowl, whisk together the last egg with the milk. Lightly brush the top and sides of the dough slabs with the egg wash.
10. Bake for 20 minutes, rotating halfway through. Remove from oven, but do not shut the oven off.
11. Allow them to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes. Once cooled, cut into 1 inch thick slices.
12. Set the slices with one side facing up and bake for 8 minutes. Remove and flip so the other side is facing up and bake for 6 more minutes.
13. When completely done baking, all to cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet.
14. While the biscottis are cooling, melt the 4oz chocolate bar using a double boiler or in 30-second increments in the microwave.
15. Drizzle the cooled biscottis with the chocolate and, if using candy canes, sprinkle that onto the wet chocolate.
    • To avoid some mess, I put a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet and then places the cookies on there and drizzled the chocolate over them so then excess would drip onto the pan.

Test Kitchen: Opinions and Changes

As with most of the cookies from my Christmas line up, these delicious biscottis are from Sally’s Cookie Addiction. I told you guys when I bought this book that I was excited about it, and I wasn’t lying! I have made a significant number of recipes from there since receiving it and I plan on making more. Also, the recipes that are in this cookbook aren’t found on her online blog so it’s like you guys are getting the book for free! The only change I made to the recipe was leaving off the crushed candy canes, but that was a topping, it wasn’t mixed into the dough, so it didn’t make a significant change to the biscotti overall.

Happy Baking!