Chocolate Peppermint Biscotti
Packed with crushed candy canes and mini chocolate chips, these crispy Chocolate Peppermint Biscotti are the perfect festive treat to accompany your holiday coffee and tea!
Key ingredients
- Flour: All purpose flour is the base of the biscotti. Measure flour by lightly spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off with a straight edge. This prevents overpacking, which can result in overly dry biscotti.
- Brown sugar: Brown sugar adds sweetness and a bit more of a caramel-y flavor to the biscotti.
- Baking powder: Baking powder provides just enough lift to keep the biscotti from becoming too dense, ensuring a tender yet sturdy texture that holds up well to dipping in coffee!
- Eggs: Eggs are the key binding ingredient, giving biscotti their structure and classic crispness.
- Butter: While traditional biscotti recipes tend to call for only eggs as a binding ingredient, I also add a bit of butter. This creates biscotti with a slightly softer texture — they’re still wonderfully crispy and crunchy, just not hard.
- Chocolate: For the chocolate I used mini chocolate chips. Regular-sized chocolate chips or even chocolate cut up into small pieces would work just as well. And while I used milk chocolate for this version, dark chocolate chunks are also great in these biscotti!
- Peppermint: Crushed up mini candy canes add peppermint flavor to the biscotti. To get the right consistency, I like to place the candies in a plastic ziplock bag and then use the smooth side of a mallet to crush them. The candy doesn’t have to be finely crushed — I actually even prefer to have quite a few larger pieces in there. They melt into the dough creating little pools of peppermint goodness!
Storage
Chocolate peppermint biscotti can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
You can also freeze biscotti for up to 3 months.
FAQs
While biscotti in Italian refers to any type of cookie, in the States we tend to reserve the word specifically for these twice-baked treats! The dough is first baked in log form, then sliced and baked again to give the cookies their characteristic crispiness.
Because the dough can be a bit sticky, I find it easiest to drop the dough onto a baking sheet by the spoonful in a rough log form. Then I use well-floured hands to shape it up a bit.
Any hard peppermint candies will work well in this recipe.
Chocolate Peppermint Biscotti Recipe
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 30
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Global
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250 grams) all purpose flour, spooned and leveled*
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/3 cup (60 grams) candy canes, crushed (or other peppermint candies)
- 1/3 cup (65 grams) mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Using an electric mixer, cream the softened butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.
- Mix in the vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and combine until smooth.
- Fold in the crushed candy canes and mini chocolate chips.
- Form the dough into two logs (approximately 3/4 inch or 2 cm tall) on the prepared baking sheet, making sure to leave a few inches between each log. Because the dough is quite sticky, I find it easiest to drop spoonfuls of the dough into a rough log form and then use well-floured hands to shape it into a log.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until slightly brown. Remove from the oven (but don’t turn off the oven).
- Allow the logs to cool for 10 minutes. Remove to a cutting board and cut into slices at an angle (approximately 3/4 inch or 2 cm thick).
- Return the slices to the baking sheet, cut-side down. Bake an additional 10 minutes, flip over and bake for 7 minutes on the other side.
- Allow the biscotti to sit for 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Best eaten within 3 days.
Notes
Spooned and leveled: Scooping a measuring cup into a flour container can result in much more flour than intended, which can affect the success of your biscotti. To get a more accurate measurement, use a spoon to lightly scoop flour into the measuring cup until it’s completely full. Then run the back of a knife over the cup to gently scrape off any excess.
Storage: Biscotti can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
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