White Chocolate Gingerbread Biscotti

Gingerbread is, without a doubt, my favorite holiday flavor. I love the combination of spices and rich, sweet molasses, which seems to become more intense a day or two after baking (if, in fact, whatever I have baked lasts that long.)

It's fun to come up with new uses for gingerbread, other than the standard cut-out cookies and, well, gingerbread itself. Over the years, I have turned it into cupcakes, macarons, doughnuts, pocket pies......even creme brulee. So, in the spirit of holiday cookie-swap season, it seemed only natural to bake ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves into afternoon coffee's favorite sidekick: biscotti.

But wait! There's more. I'm not very good at leaving well enough alone when it comes to my baked creations, and I felt like these cookies needed a little somethin' somethin' to gussy them up for Christmas. That's where the white chocolate drizzle comes in. White chocolate, in all of its rich and buttery goodness, is an excellent match to the strong flavors of gingerbread. Plus, the snow-white zigzags make a beautiful contrast to the golden brown biscotti. I just love a pretty cookie, don't you?

Confession: I actually first made these cookies for our Thanksgiving dessert table, with plans to post the recipe a few days before the holiday. Here's the thing about having a new baby--it takes about ten times as long for you to get something done as it did before your little bundle arrived. Now, I had heard this little rumor for years from other moms. You know what? Turns out that IT"S TRUE.

So, the original batch of biscotti gradually disappeared (even in my new time-compromised state, I managed to have plenty of time to eat them.....go figure.), and a new one was baked a few days ago. This time, however, I added a mixture of dried cranberries and raisins along with a hint of orange zest.......because we all know that everything is better with a hint of orange zest. The process of making the biscotti from start to finish took me the better part of a day, simply because I was running back and forth, upstairs and downstairs, changing diapers, feeding, and attending to Gigi's every need.

On the plus side, I burned enough calories in the process so that I could taste test my creations, multiple times.

Yep. Still good.

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