Chai-Chocolate Chip Biscotti

The Christmas season has begun and it is carrying a weight this year that it has not carried before. I am thinking about Babcia Rose's golabki that I will make for Christmas Eve, about the pierogi that Patty and I will make together in the place of the pierogi Babcia Rose always made, about what Christmas Eve looks like at Steve and Patty's with her chair empty and Dziadek Wally sitting next to it.

I am also thinking about what this is for the twins. They are almost two. They will not remember this Christmas in any narrative way. But they will be in it, in the warmth of it, in the smell of golabki and butter and Christmas trees and the specific December cold that comes through the door every time someone arrives. These things will be in them without their knowing. This is how traditions survive: carried in the body before the mind can name them.

Baking started on Saturday. Sugar cookies, the kind with the sprinkles, which Owen watched being decorated with focused attention and then ate three in one sitting, which is within parameters for a twenty-two-month-old. Nora decorated two cookies with approximately forty sprinkles each and then tried to eat the sprinkles directly from the shaker, which required intervention.

I am going to make the beet salad for Christmas Eve. Babcia Rose's recipe from the notebook. And the mushroom soup, from the notebook. And the golabki, from memory and practice and the five batches I have made since July. And the pierogi with Patty. We are going to make it right. We are going to hold it together. This is what you do when someone who held things leaves: you hold the things yourself, as best you can, as close as you can get.

The sugar cookies were for the children — for Owen’s focused attention and Nora’s forty-sprinkle approach to decoration — but I wanted something for the adults, something to have with coffee in the quiet after bedtime, something that felt like the season starting rather than just the chaos of it. Chai-Chocolate Chip Biscotti are exactly that: warm with spice, not too sweet, sturdy enough to dip and patient enough to wait on a plate through a long evening. Babcia Rose would have had something to say about cookies that require two bakes, and I think she would have approved.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min | Servings: 30 biscotti

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, black pepper, and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla extract until fully combined.
Combine and fold. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, stirring until a dough forms. Fold in the chocolate chips. The dough will be slightly sticky.
Shape the logs. Divide the dough in half. On the prepared baking sheet, shape each half into a log roughly 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, leaving several inches between the logs. Dampen your hands lightly if the dough sticks.
First bake. Bake at 350°F for 28–30 minutes, until the logs are set and lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
Slice. Using a serrated knife, cut the cooled logs on a slight diagonal into slices about 3/4 inch thick. Lay the slices cut-side down on the baking sheet in a single layer.
Second bake. Bake at 325°F for 12–14 minutes, flip each biscotti, then bake another 10–12 minutes until dry and lightly crisped on both sides. They will firm up further as they cool.
Cool completely. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before storing. Biscotti keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks — ideal for making ahead during the holiday baking rush.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chai-Chocolate Chip Biscotti — The Cookies That Started the Season