Spiced Biscotti

These biscotti lean hard into warm baking spices: cinnamon, cloves, and ginger give them a flavor that’s almost gingerbread-like, but the surprise ingredient is white pepper. Just a touch of it adds a slow heat that sneaks up on you after the sweetness fades. It’s subtle, but once you know it’s there, you can’t stop reaching for another.

The dough is egg-rich with two whole eggs plus two extra yolks, which gives these cookies a finer, slightly more tender crumb than leaner biscotti recipes. Whisking the sugar and eggs to a light lemon color is key. That’s not just about mixing; it’s aerating the batter so the finished biscotti have structure without being rock-hard.

Fold the dry ingredients in gently and stop as soon as the dough comes together. Overworking develops gluten, and gluten makes biscotti tough instead of crisp.

Pro Tips

• Sift the dry ingredients together thoroughly. With five different spices in small amounts, uneven distribution means some cookies taste bland and others hit you with a wall of cloves.
• The dough will be sticky. Wet your hands or dust them with flour when shaping the logs.
• Let the first bake cool for about 10 minutes before slicing. Too hot and the logs crumble; too cool and they crack.
• Slice on a slight diagonal for longer, more elegant cookies that give you more surface area for dunking.

Variations

• Add dried cranberries or golden raisins to the dough for chewy pockets of fruit between the crunchy bites.
• Dip cooled biscotti halfway in melted dark chocolate for a holiday-worthy finish.
• Replace white pepper with a pinch of cayenne for a bolder, more noticeable heat.