These Pumpkin Biscotti are perfectly crisp! My recipe includes an optional white chocolate drizzle and it can handle your favorite mix-ins like nuts, dried fruit, and chocolate chips.
The Best Pumpkin Biscotti
You can make perfectly spiced, crisp pumpkin biscotti right in your own kitchen! These crunchy Italian cookies are easy to make and have an incredible flavor. I highly recommend pairing them with a cup of coffee on a cool fall day 🍂
Today’s post is a welcome update to one of my older recipes. I’ve made a few changes to improve the pumpkin flavor and encourage the texture to be more authentic to traditional biscotti (it was too moist originally). I’m very happy with how this new version turned out!
One important thing to note: just like with my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and my pumpkin bars, we’ll be blotting our pumpkin today to remove as much of the water as possible. This is a critical step! Pumpkin contains SO much water, while this works fine in my pumpkin cake and pumpkin coffee cake, it can make other baked goods like this biscotti too soft, cakey, and moist. Blotting the pumpkin in today’s recipe results in crunchier pumpkin biscotti, which is exactly what we want. Don’t skip this step!
What You Need
Most of the ingredients we’ll be using today are pretty basic, but there’s a few I’d like to note before we get started:
- Pumpkin puree. Since pumpkin contains so much water, we’ll need to blot it with paper towels before using it. This is a critical step for making crisp and crunchy pumpkin biscotti! Make sure you are using pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling–they are sold right near each other and look very similar.
- Butter. I use unsalted butter (instead of oil) in my biscotti recipes (like my chocolate biscotti) because I think it provides the best flavor and texture.
- Flour. Use all-purpose flour and don’t be afraid to add more to your hands while forming the dough.
- Pumpkin spice. You can either make your own using my homemade pumpkin spice, or you can use store-bought.
- White chocolate. This is optional, but I love adding a white chocolate drizzle to my pumpkin biscotti. You can use either a chopped up white chocolate baking bar or white chocolate chips.
SAM’S TIP: Don’t have brown sugar on hand? You can make your own! Check out my how to make brown sugar tutorial for details–it’s easy.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Pumpkin Biscotti
- Prepare the dough: Cream together the butters and sugars until light and creamy, then stir in the blotted pumpkin, egg, and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until the dough is fully combined.
- First bake: Divide the dough into two halves, then form each into a 10-12″ loaf. Place the loaves 4″ apart on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 30-33 minutes at 350F. Let cool completely before proceeding.
- Slice: Use a serrated knife to slice the loaves on a bias, making the slices no thicker than 1″. Place the slices cut side down on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Second bake: Bake for 10 minutes at 350F, then flip the biscotti and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden. Let cool completely before drizzling with white chocolate.
SAM’S TIP: Your pumpkin biscotti will be fragile when warm, so use a gentle hand when flipping them to the other side for their final bake.
Frequently Asked Questions
Assuming you measured everything correctly and blotted your pumpkin, the most likely cause is not cooking your pumpkin biscotti long enough. Remember, they should be lightly golden and dry when you remove them from the oven that last time.
You can store your biscotti at room temperature in an airtight container. They’ll last this way for up to 2 weeks.
Yes! You can add up to 1⅓-1½ cups of add-ins to this pumpkin biscotti recipe. I recommend white chocolate chips (skip the white chocolate drizzle, or don’t!), pumpkin seeds, or dried cranberries. Fold them in after the dry ingredients.
Special thanks for this recipe goes to my cousin, Leanne, for suggesting I try my hand at pumpkin biscotti….Hi Leanne!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Pumpkin Biscotti
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter softened (1 stick)
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (50 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- ½ cup (124 g) canned pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 ¼ cups (406 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon pumpkin spice
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
White chocolate drizzle (optional)
- 4 oz (113 g) white chocolate bar or ⅔ cup white chocolate chips
- ⅛ teaspoon pumpkin spice
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and creamy.½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, ¼ cup (50 g) light brown sugar
- Blot the pumpkin: Place the pumpkin puree in a separate bowl and use a wad of paper towels to blot the pumpkin 10 times, until you’ve removed some of the excess water (if you are using a scale, my pumpkin typically weighs 85g after I’ve thoroughly blotted it).½ cup (124 g) canned pumpkin puree
- Add the blotted pumpkin puree, egg, and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar and beat until well-combined.1 large egg, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and salt.3 ¼ cups (406 g) all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon pumpkin spice, 1 Tablespoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon salt
- With mixer on low-speed, gradually stir dry ingredients into wet until combined.
- Using lightly floured hands, divide the dough into two equal pieces and form each into a loaf that’s approximately 10-12” (27cm) long by 2-3” (6cm) wide. Space loaves at least 4” (10cm) apart (biscotti will spread! If you don’t have enough space on your cookie sheet, use two sheets). If the dough is sticky and difficult to manage, dust your hands with additional flour.
- Transfer to 350F (175C) preheated oven and bake for 30-33 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow pumpkin biscotti to cool completely before proceeding. Don’t turn off the oven as you’ll need to cook the biscotti a second time.
- Once biscotti is cooled completely, use a sharp serrated bread knife to slice loaves on a bias into slices approximately 1” (2.5cm) thick. Return biscotti slices to parchment paper lined baking sheet, placing cut-side down, and return to 350F (175C) oven.
- Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and use tongs to carefully flip biscotti, and then bake for another 10-15 minutes. Biscotti should be slightly golden when finished baking and the centers should not appear moist.
- Allow to cool completely before enjoying or drizzling with white chocolate.
White chocolate drizzle
- Place white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 20-second increments until smooth and melted. Add pumpkin spice and stir until combined.4 oz (113 g) white chocolate bar, ⅛ teaspoon pumpkin spice
- Drizzle over cooled biscotti or dip biscotti slices in white chocolate.
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
I originally published this recipe in 2015. I updated the recipe in March of 2023 to improve the recipe a bit, I wanted a more flavorful and crisp biscotti so a few adjustments were made.
Ari
UPDATE #3: I’m sorry. I did originally try the 20- second increment microwave method, but it didn’t work for me. I also recommend stirring the white chocolate in between microwave 20 second intervals. Otherwise, the chocolate burns.
Sam
Hi Ari! Stirring the chocolate in between cooking times is important here. 🙂
Ari
Delicious! Pretty easy to make. This was my 2nd time making and baking biscotti. My 1st time was a recipe using a cake or pre-made cookie mix. Thank you. I’d only suggest to be a little more specific which way to flip them on the last 2 rounds of baking. I wasn’t sure to put the bottoms facing the top or just put them on their side. Based on the image diagram, I put them on their side.
Sam
Hi Ari! Sorry for the confusion here! You typically want to flip the biscotti completely over, meaning but the side that was on the bottom on top. 🙂
Deb
Hi I’ve been making biscotti for years but the last few batches of these puzzle me
They bake up so so very crunchy so delightful to dunk .. stored in air tight tight containers as a
Ways… after a day or so they become soft and chewy ???????? So puzzling. Any help please m’am .. i appreciate it…
Sam
Hi Deb! I’m so sorry this is happening! My best advice here is to make sure the biscotti is completely cooled before storing. If that doesn’t solve the issue, you can always put it back in the oven for a few minutes to crisp it again. 🙂
Ari
I appreciate that you have listed the quantity of how much white chocolate (bars / chips) to use, but I wish you had given some directions on how to melt the chocolate. I had a horrible time trying, both in the microwave and the stove. Even tried the microwave again, after the stove method didn’t work out. Very sad. I tried using Ghirardelli white chocolate chips (I don’t recommend for melting, as this was such a disappointment for me).
I enjoyed a few nibbles of the raw dough, but after the cookies had cooled, I felt it didn’t taste as good as when raw. The flavor was very bland/light. Not a strong enough pumpkin-y flavor. The texture of the cooked cookie was good, but crumbly.
Sam
Hi Ari! I’m sorry the chocolate gave you difficulties! I use Ghirardelli white chocolate. You will want to microwave for a few seconds, stir and repeat until completely melted. 🙂