Pumpkin Biscotti
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These homemade Pumpkin Biscotti are easy to make, crunchy, and have a burst of fall spices. They are the perfect treat to enjoy during the fall and winter with a hot cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. They have a nice pumpkin flavor and are then drizzled with creamy white chocolate. So, pumpkin lovers, get ready; these pumpkin spice biscotti are for you; we think you all will love them.
🍁 What is a biscotti?
Biscotti is a type of cookie that is twice-backed. The dough is formed into logs, baked, cooled, cut into slices, and then baked again. These biscotti cookies are perfectly spiced and made with real pumpkins. Premade pumpkin pie spice can be used, or individual ingredients like cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg can be used. If you use individual spices and want a robust and deeper flavor with a little bite, add a pinch of black pepper and cardamom.
🍪 Ingredients
These homemade biscotti are irresistibly crunchy and have bursts of fall flavors. Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make these:
- Melted Butter. You can use unsalted butter or salted butter. The only thing we recommend if using salted butter is to reduce the salt by 1/4 tsp.
- Granulated Sugar. You can use white sugar or cane sugar for these cookies.
- Dark Brown Sugar. We love using dark brown sugar for the robust molasses flavor. However, light brown sugar would work too.
- Room Temperature Egg and Egg Yolk. Adding an egg and egg yolk enriches the biscotti’s flavor and texture.
- Vanilla Extract. To add a rounded flavor to these cookies, I recommend a splash of vanilla extract.
- Strained Pumpkin Puree. You can use canned pumpkin puree or fresh pumpkin. The key is to squeeze out the extra moisture from the pumpkin puree. Canned pumpkin puree will also have less moisture than fresh pumpkins, but you will still need to strain the excess liquid. Doing this makes helps with drying out the biscotti when baked.
- All-Purpose Flour. We have only tested regular unbleached all-purpose flour for these cookies.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice. We are only using a tsp for the pumpkin pie flavor. Or, you can use individual spices: 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp ginger, and 1/2 tsp allspice.
- Baking Powder. We only need a little leavening for these cookies to help make the cookies thick and harder in texture. We don’t want to use Baking Soda.
- Salt. If using salted butter, you will want to reduce salt by 1/4 tsp. Salt brings out all the flavors.
- White Chocolate, Dried Cranberries, and Chopped Pecans. We like to drizzle creamy white chocolate on these cookies and top them with chopped, chewy cranberries and pecans for extra flavor. Again, completely optional, but if you need to do any of these toppings, we highly recommend at least adding a white chocolate drizzle.
🥚 Instructions
These crunchy cookies are easy to make, and the essential tools you need to make them are cookie sheets, parchment paper, a small bowl, an electric mixer, a hand mixer, or a whisk.
- Strain Pumpkin Puree. Add pumpkin puree to the center of a cheesecloth or a thin dark dish towel and gently squeeze the towel to remove the excess liquid. Measure out strained pumpkin puree for the cookie recipe, which is 1/2 cup.
- Mix Wet Ingredients. Melt butter, and add strained pumpkin puree, granulated and brown sugars, and vanilla extract to a medium or large bowl. Blend with a mixer until fluffy. Then, mix in the room-temperature egg and egg yolk.
- Mix in Dry Ingredients. Add all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice (or individual spices) to the same bowl. Mix until a dough forms.
- Shape Dough. Using damp hands, form the dough into a long semi-skinny log on a prepared baking sheet with parchment paper. You could also divide the dough and make 2 long semi-skinny logs.
- First Bake. Preheat the oven to 350 °F and bake the loaf for 20-25 minutes or until just slightly golden brown on the edges.
- Cool and Slice. Let cool slightly on the baking sheet, then use a serrated knife to slice into thick slices, about 3/4 inches gently.
- Second Bake. Gently turn the sliced biscotti logs on their sides and return to the oven to bake for another 20 minutes, gently flipping once at the halfway point (10 minutes) to ensure even baking.
- Cool and Decorate. Let cool briefly before enjoying. If decorating with chocolate, add chopped chocolate to a medium bowl and microwave in 30-second increments until melted, or melt over a double boiler on the stovetop. Drizzle melted chocolate on one side of the biscotti, and top with dried cranberries and pecans.
FAQs
Store biscotti in an airtight container for up to three days at room temperature.
This could be because the pumpkin puree still had excess moisture in it, or you didn’t bake the cookies long enough. If they are soft after cooling after the second bake, pop them back in the oven for 10 minutes longer. To have dry cookies, you want to strain the pumpkin puree to remove all the excess liquid. The pumpkin should be dry enough that it goes from 1 cup pumpkin puree to 1/2 cup strained. Of course, if you use your own pumpkin puree, you will have more liquid than a can of pumpkin puree.
Yes, you can freeze the dough for up to 2-months.
These Pumpkin Biscotti are easy to make, crunchy, perfectly spiced, and delicious. They are the perfect fall treat to enjoy throughout the holiday season with a cup of hot coffee, tea, and hot cocoa, and we hope you all love them. Enjoy! ♡
Pumpkin Biscotti
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter melted
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup pumpkin puree strained of excess moisture
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1 egg yolk room temperature
- 2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
- ¼ cup cranberries chopped – optional
- ¼ cup pecans chopped – optional
- Strain Pumpkin Puree. Add pumpkin puree to the center of a cheesecloth or a thin dark dish towel and gently squeeze the towel to remove the excess liquid. Measure out strained pumpkin puree for the cookie recipe, which is 1/2 cup.
- Mix Wet Ingredients. Melt butter, and add strained pumpkin puree, granulated and brown sugars, and vanilla extract to a medium or large bowl. Blend with a mixer until fluffy. Then, mix in the room-temperature egg and egg yolk.
- Mix in Dry Ingredients. Add all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice (or individual spices) to the same bowl. Mix until a dough forms.
- Shape Dough. Using damp hands, form the dough into a long semi-skinny log on a prepared baking sheet with parchment paper. You could also divide the dough and make 2 long semi-skinny logs.
- First Bake. Preheat the oven to 350 °F and bake the loaf for 20-25 minutes or until just slightly golden brown on the edges.
- Cool and Slice. Let cool slightly on the baking sheet, then use a serrated knife to slice into thick slices, about 3/4 inches gently.
- Second Bake. Gently turn the sliced biscotti logs on their sides and return to the oven to bake for another 20 minutes, gently flipping once at the halfway point (10 minutes) to ensure even baking.
- Cool and Decorate. Let cool briefly before enjoying. If decorating with chocolate, add chopped chocolate to a medium bowl and microwave in 30-second increments until melted, or melt over a double boiler on the stovetop. Drizzle melted chocolate on one side of the biscotti, and top with dried cranberries and pecans.
Wow. Beautiful photos. ❤️
Love the precise tips you provide when crafting the recipe. This helps me to avoid any mistakes in the baking process. Thank you!!