5 Christmas Biscotti Recipes to Choose by Flavor and Finish

Christmas biscotti can sit beside an after-dinner coffee or join the cookies in a holiday tin. Start with the flavor you want: plain almond, cocoa throughout, orange under chocolate, cherries and pistachios, or molasses and gingerbread spice.

Then look at the finish and the shopping list. These five recipes all call for two bakes, but their doughs and finishing work differ. The choices below show what sets each cookie apart and take you directly to its maker’s complete recipe.

John Kanell’s biscotti keeps the almond choice clear: sliced almonds, almond extract, and vanilla, with no coating needed. Choose it when you want the cookie itself to carry the flavor and would rather leave chocolate out of this batch.

Check the almonds before shopping: John selects raw, unsalted slices here. His dough also uses melted salted butter, so it needs its own recipe page. The softened butter method in his chocolate biscotti is a different starting point.

Unsweetened cocoa colors John Kanell’s dough, while semi-sweet chips add separate chocolate pockets. This is the choice for a Christmas cookie plate that needs a dark cookie throughout. There is no extra chocolate shell to plan around in the selected recipe.

John uses softened unsalted butter for this dough, with a creaming method unlike his almond version. Decide between the two before setting out ingredients. If the orange-and-chocolate combination below caught your eye, remember that its golden dough gives you a different cookie.

Sally McKenney’s biscotti combines orange zest and fresh orange juice with walnuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Choose it for an orange-and-nut cookie with chocolate on the outside. The walnuts belong to this selected version, so include them when comparing shopping lists.

The chocolate dip is part of the result shown here, which adds finishing work after the baking. Sally’s dough uses cold cubed butter and some oil. Follow her complete recipe for that dough and finish; John’s cocoa method will not produce this cookie.

PJ Hamel’s recipe brings dried cherries and roasted salted pistachios into the same slice. It suits a cookie tin where the fruit and nuts supply the color. Choose dried cherries for this version; the page’s cranberry alternative is a separate maker option.

You can leave these biscotti uncoated and still follow a complete recipe. PJ also explains an optional white-chocolate dip for the bottoms. Decide whether you want that extra finish before buying chocolate, and use her instructions for the baking and any selected coating.

Molly Marzalek-Kelly’s gingerbread biscotti uses molasses, brown sugar, gingerbread spice, and diced crystallized ginger. Choose it when that combination belongs beside your Christmas coffee. It is a different shopping commitment from the almond, cocoa, and fruit-and-nut cookies, rather than a seasoning swap for them.

Check the flour list first: Molly combines King Arthur Golden Wheat Flour with all-purpose flour. Her page also supplies a spice-blend alternative and an optional white-chocolate drizzle. Use those directions as written instead of assuming an all-purpose-only dough or a compulsory chocolate finish.