Chai Spice Biscotti

Chai Spice Biscotti- exotic, spicy biscotti drizzled with a simple sugar glaze and some pretty holiday sparkles makes for a perfectly festive cookie. GUEST POST by Cake Duchess

Hi everyone, I’m Lora from Cake Duchess. I share mostly baking recipes (and an occasional savory recipe) and I love to show my readers that making your own cakes and cookies (or focaccia!) can be simple, delicious and a lot of fun! I love to bake with my kids and we really look forward to this time of year. Baking Christmas cookies together as a family and with our friends has become an annual tradition in my house. Katrina was one of the first friends I made when I first started to write Cake Duchess.   It’s a thrill to be a part of Katrina’s annual “I’ll Bring the Cookies” event this year!

Chai tea is not something that was on my list of “must-try” drinks until recently. I’m a coffee and an espresso drinker. I love a great cappuccino and sometimes I enjoy a soothing hot cup of tea. I’m not sure why I never felt inclined to try a chai tea. Now a mom to a pre-teenager, it seems it is pretty cool to enjoy a chai tea latte (decaf for her). And it seems I’m a pretty cool mom when I bake these chai spice biscotti!

Chai tea is full of a wonderful combination of fragrant and addictive spices. It’s like no other tea I’ve ever tried. It is unique and it may be something you don’t typically think of as a biscotti idea. These biscotti are quite a lovely way to start or even end your day. What are biscotti exactly? Biscotti in Italian means twice baked. If you can make cookies, there should be nothing stopping you from baking your own biscotti. After you bake them the first time, you let them cool. You slice them and bake again: biscotti (twice baked!). The incredible chai spice scent that will be coming out of your oven will have anyone waiting in your house lined up for the first taste (my kids, my neighbor’s kids and even my pups were lined up)! So wonderful dunked in a hot cup of coffee. If you are a huge chai tea fan, you must enjoy them with your hot cup of chai tea! I used dried apricots in my biscotti. You could use dried cranberries or even chocolate chips. Biscotti are so much fun to experiment with. Make sure there is a little flour on your clean surface. It will help you roll out your logs. The biscotti taste even better on the 2^nd or 3^rd day (if your baking fans don’t eat them all!). Exotic and spicy biscotti drizzled with a simple sugar glaze and some pretty holiday sparkles makes for a perfectly festive cookie.

Thank you, Katrina, for having me be a part of your incredible month of cookie recipes!

Chai Spice Biscotti Recipe

Exotic, spicy biscotti drizzled with a simple sugar glaze and some pretty holiday sparkles makes for a perfectly festive cookie.

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Ingredients

• For the cookies:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• pinch of cloves
• 1 tsp chai tea leaves
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup chopped dry apricots, or cranberries
• For the glaze:
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 Tablespoons milk

Instructions

 

• Grind the contents of a chai tea leaf bag in a coffee grinder.
• Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger,  nutmeg.  Whisk in the 1 tsp of ground chai tea leaves. Stir into dry ingredients as well.
• In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar.
• Add eggs and vanilla. Continue to beat in mixer for 3-4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
• Beat in all the dry ingredients. Stop the mixer and stir in the apricots.  The dough was slightly stiff, but still slightly sticky. Cover and chill dough for about an hour. While dough chills, preheat oven to 350° F.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead 7 or 8 times. Divide dough in half. Roll each loaf into a log and then flatten into a mounded shape on the baking sheet. The logs should be roughly 1 1/2 inches wide and 10 inches long, and spaced a few inches apart on the baking sheet.
• Bake for 20 minutes, until lightly browned
• Remove from oven and let cool 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 F degrees.
• With a sharp serrated knife, slice diagonally into ½ inch thick slices. Place cut side down on parchment paper and bake again for 8-10 minutes. Turn slices over and bake another 8-10 more minutes or until the slices are crisp around the edges and golden brown.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and milk until it forms a thick but pourable glaze (if too thick add a little more milk a teaspoon at a time. If too thin, whisk in more confectioner's sugar a tablespoon at a time). Drizzle on the cookies and toss on the sprinkles. Enjoy!

Original recipes and images © In Katrina's Kitchen

Did you make this recipe?Tag @katrinaskitchen on Instagram with the hashtag #katrinaskitchenrecipes

This post is part of our Third Annual I’ll Bring the COOKIES Virtual Blogger Cookie Swap. Be sure to check back here every day in December leading up to Christmas where some of the best bloggers will be sharing their favorite cookie recipe! You can also follow along Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+ with the hashtag #BringtheCOOKIES. Thank you to OXO for being our exclusive #BringtheCOOKIES sponsor.  Be sure to visit Lora’s blog, the decorated cookie to enter a sweet OXO Baking Prize Pack. 

 More delicious cookie recipes from Lora:

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

Glazed Lemon Cookies

Italian Jam Cookies