315: Ginger-Pecan Sourdough Biscotti

I was intrigued by the recipe for Ginger-Pecan Sourdough Biscotti the first time I saw it. Sourdough in biscotti? That didn’t sound right.

I wanted to make it because it was unusual. When I went to try the recipe, though, I was stymied because it called for 50% hydration starter, rather than the 100% hydration starter that I use. As I’ve gotten more familiar with sourdough and my starter, however, I realized that it wasn’t going to be too difficult to transform my 100% starter into a starter where I only added half as much water. After I was done using my regular starter over the weekend, I took a separate piece of it and started feeding it an equal amount of water, and twice as much flour. After a couple of days (4 feedings), it was still acting like starter, just not spreading out so much in the bowl that I keep it in to feed it. It was time to make biscotti.

I weighed out most of the ingredients, so I can’t attest to volumetric measurements here. I used a full teaspoon cinnamon (still didn’t register as 2 grams on my scale), and the appropriate measurements elsewhere in the dry ingredients. I didn’t have enough brown sugar, so I used ⅔ brown sugar and ⅓ white. The butter equaled half a stick (¼ cup). I think that the pecans equaled about a cup, and I’d guess that the ginger did too. I used my candied ginger in this.

I mixed together all ingredients above the sugar until I could windowpane it, and then I added the sugar in 4 stages. My butter wasn’t perfectly soft, so the biscotti dough may have gotten a lengthier workout than it should have. The dough was pretty tacky after I was done mixing it. The ginger and pecans were incorporated quickly, and then I spooned it onto the parchment paper to form a log. It was pretty sticky so it didn’t spread out too much after the log was formed.

I baked the dough for 35 minutes, sliced it, and placed it back on the baking sheet to bake at 250F for 50 minutes, until they were dry. I let them sit out overnight as well without being covered because I took them out of the oven right before bed.

These were really good. I liked them a lot more than I expected, since I’m not always a huge fan of spiced cookies. The ginger and pecans gave the biscotti a great texture and delicious flavor. These were hard, but not so hard that I couldn’t bite them. I think they would stand up to dunking, but they could also be eaten on their own. They were sweet, but not overwhelmingly sweet. Spicy, but not overwhelmingly spicy. I think these would be fantastic biscotti to include in gift baskets. I’d definitely make them again.