There are those days when you simply need a crunchy sweetly spicy snack and there are times you want it NOW not in a half hour. So, the joy of these lovely spicy aromatic biscotti is that they freeze so well they can be eaten fresh and freeze half a batch for those NOW moments. You know what I mean. 🙂 .

So, in order to allow myself the NOW moment later, if you get me, I whipped up a batch of these crunchy delicious cookies. These have a lot of flavor so don’t skip the spices since that’s the best part of the cookie. These are oil based, not butter/marg. So preheat your oven to 350 F/180 C, and then start with your sugar and eggs.

Beat well till eggs lighten somewhat (not a long time, about 3 minutes) and add oil and beat again. Don’t forget the grated ginger, it makes a walloping difference in the taste. I used frozen since I had no fresh ginger to hand and it was fine- one cube does the trick.

Then add flour and spices.

Beat till smooth, a couple of minutes.

Note my latex gloves ready and waiting for action. This is a critical bit here. It’s a sticky dough that is a bit gloopy for lack of a better word. You will be tempted to add more flour. DON”T!! It will ruin the texture of your biscotti. Just oil your hands or your gloved hands – very important – and form two logs which you place on a parchment lined rimmed baking sheet. A note, if the dough gloops onto the parchment paper and breaks a bit, no worries. Just form with your (gloved/oiled) fingers into a log shape. Even if you have to scoop it with a spoon, pat into the log. Don’t worry since it’ll bake up fine. The stickiness of the dough rises low but light and cuts wonderfully after baking.

As you can see it’s a very flat log and that’s fine too. Bake for 25-30 minutes till light golden brown. But you are not done yet!!

If you can’t cope, you can steal an end piece to nibble on. But cut these slices (still fairly flat-ish, that’s okay) and turn them on their sides to bake for the second time. 8 more minutes should do the trick (know your oven, if it bakes hot, keep an eye on them, it’s a shame to burn them).

They continue to harden and crisp up when removed from the second baking and let cool on a wire rack still in the pan.

Store tightly covered. These last quite a long time (unless you gobble them up) and you can freeze them as well.

Irresistible with tea, coffee, milk or no beverage at all.

Double Ginger Biscotti

1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup (177 ml) oil
3 1/2 cups (437.50 grams) flour
1 teaspoon grated ginger, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C.

Beat together in a mixer the sugar and the eggs for about 3 minutes. Add the oil and beat. Then add the flour and spices (don’t forget the grated ginger!!) and beat till smooth, briefly. The dough will be a bit sticky and gloopy. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and oil your hands or your gloved hands to prevent the dough from sticking. Do not add additional flour or you’ll ruin the texture of your biscotti. If dough is too gloopy then just use a spoon to scoop onto parchment paper and then pat into a flat log shape (see pic above) this is correct since the dough sort of flattens out somewhat.

Bake in hot oven for 25-30 minutes or till golden brown. Remove promptly from the oven and right away, using a sharp knife, cut the logs into slices (see pic above) – it should cut nicely and when all are cut, lie on their side and put back into oven for second toasting for about 8 minutes till lightly browned. Remove and let cool in pan on wire rack. Freezes really well.