Butter Pecan Biscotti
When I was first learning/teaching myself how to bake, biscotti was one of the very first things that I tried, and did relatively well. Nobody was more surprised about this than me, as I had for some reason had this idea that biscotti were a super complicated recipe to make.
Not so.
Biscotti are actually one of the more easier cookie doughs to make, for a few reasons. First, they don’t require any chilling time in the fridge. Second, they also don’t require any rolling out. That saves on time and on labor.
Third, biscotti are pretty much impossible to ‘mess up’ in the sense that you can’t overbake them. Know why that is? Because overbaking is literally the whole entire point of biscotti in the first place. (The Latin root of the word literally means twice baked; look it up.)
A fourth reason biscotti are awesome and easy is because they’re what I like to refer to as a Blank Canvas recipe in the sense that they’re easily customizable to suit a variety of tastes and flavors.
The first biscotti I ever made were plain vanilla, and they were delicious. But once I realized how easy they were to put together, it didn’t take me long to start experimenting with other kinds, like this Chocolate Chip Cookie Biscotti and Ginger Biscotti. And, of course the 12 Days of Christmas has also been a pretty perfect testing ground as well for this Snickerdoodle Biscotti, Gingerbread Biscotti, and last years Peanut Butter and Chocolate Biscotti.
And wouldn’t you know it? There’s still more.
Butter Pecan is one of those flavors that are typically pretty polarizing; people either love it or they hate it. Speaking for myself and my household, we are firmly in the former camp. Butter Pecan ice cream, Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies, Butter Pecan Scones; we’re here for all of it.
So when I had a chance to adapt butter pecan into a flavor of biscotti for this year’s 12 Days of Christmas, there was no question that I was going to take it. Previous recipes I’ve made have mostly depended on using a blend of chopped/toasted pecans, brown sugar and or/browned butter to create the rich and caramel-y flavor of Butter Pecan ice cream. These biscotti also have brown sugar and (of course) chopped/toasted pecans, but instead of browned butter they actually get their rich caramel flavor from an addition of butterscotch baking chips to the dough.
Butterscotch chips are extremely sweet; so sweet that I don’t use them very often, as cookies are often plenty sweet enough all on their own. However, in this instance, they are the PERFECT ingredient to pair with the pecans.
The twice baked process actually makes it so that most of the chips end up melting into the dough and mellowing out their intense sweetness so that what’s left is a warm and buttery richness to the brown sugar cookie dough that is perfectly balanced out with the nuttiness of the toasted pecans. These are some of the best biscotti I’ve ever had/made, hands down.
They were a real winner in our house; so much so that I’ve already made them twice.
Day 1: Browned Butter & Sweet Potato Biscuits
Day 2: Biscoff Dipped Butter Cookies
Day 3: Holiday French Toast
Day 4: Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls
Day 5: Cider-Cinnamon Spritz Cookies
Day 6: Butter Pecan Biscotti
Butter Pecan Biscotti
Recipe Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening (butter flavored if you can get it)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark is fine, but dark will make a richer/more caramel-y flavor)
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup pecans, chopped and toasted
- 1 cup butterscotch chips
- white sugar, for sprinkling
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir together with a fork and set aside.
In a large bowl using a handheld mixer (or a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla extract with the last egg, and mix just until combined.
Add the flour in 1 cup batches, mixing just until combined.
Add the nuts and the butterscotch chips, mixing just until combined.
Divide the dough into three roughly even portions.
Use your lightly floured hands to shape each portion into about a 10 inch log and transfer each log to a baking sheet (I did two logs on one large sheet and one log on a smaller baking sheet.)
Use your fingertips to pat the logs into slightly flattened rectangles. Sprinkle the tops with white sugar.
Bake the logs for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they are beginning to brown around the edges.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 300 Degrees F.
Using a large serrated knife (a bread knife works great for this) carefully cut each long along the diagonal into about 1/2 inch wide slices. (Note: they will probably crack/crumble a little bit; that’s okay, just be gentle and and try not to use too much of a ‘sawing’ motion and they will be fine)
Clear away the break off crumbs and bits from the parchment paper, then transfer the sliced biscotti slices back to the baking sheets, cut sides up and down. It’s okay if you need to crowd them closer together, they won’t spread anymore at this point.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the baking sheets from the oven, and turn them over onto the opposite cut sides and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes to finish drying them out, until they’re golden brown.
Remove biscotti from oven and allow to cool completely. Keep in sealed containers or resealable plastic bags.
Sharing at Fiesta Friday #567.
Cut on the diagonal? Do they come out different lengths. Sorry. Probably a dumb question. I just can’t picture it.
Hi Teresa, yes, with biscotti you do usually cut on the diagonal. It does result in different lengths, but that’s normal. They’ll still taste the same 🙂
So wonderful! I love a biscotti, and these look really special.
Thanks Dorothy, these are my latest favorite way to make them, for sure 🙂