Ginger and Ghirardelli Chunk Biscotti

I think ginger in its raw state is something I can never love the taste of and I've said also that much about parsley and lemongrass. But crytallized ginger is a completely different story and taste. The strong haunting taste of raw ginger is nothing but a warm embrace of spice in candied gingers. I love them in spiced cookies, biscottis and occasionally in chocolate mousses, where its warm spiciness is so much a delight to the cold mixture. These biscottis/mandelbrot are spur of the moment treats, but I've been meaning to make them eversince I've learned how to candy my own ginger. Anyway, the process was simple, much like making a shortbread or sweet dough pastry. The cutting of butter into the dry ingredients is what creates the delicate crunch of the biscotti, as opposse to the teeth shattering bite of whipped egg biscottis.

I love the colliding flavors of the spicy chewy ginger and the intense bitterness of Ghirardelli Espresso chocolate; I chopped the candied ginger and the chocolate into small bits but their flavors were so pure and concentrated that it was enough to elevate this biscotti into an extraordinary one. My sister A, who shuns away from anything gingery, was quick to point out that the level of the chocolate and butter compensated for the piercing taste of the ginger, rounding of its taste into something intriguing but gingery after all. It was what I was after, to make the ginger not so much as take the center stage as to happily pair with the other elements.