Saturday, December 18, 2021

Italian Christmas Cookies #Recipe @PegCochran #Christmas


 


The holidays would not be complete without plenty of sweets—cookies, cakes, candy etc.  And certainly no Italian Christmas feast would be complete without pastries, cookies and candies for dessert.  I remember my grandmother and grandfather serving a multi-course meal at their enormous dining room table.  The festivities would begin with my grandfather’s pasta with lobster sauce on Christmas Eve, which was then followed by a table groaning with food on Christmas Day—soup, salad, pasta, meat, fruit and nuts, roasted chestnuts and finally dessert, coffee and liqueurs—usually Galliano in that cool bottle.  My sister and I always looked forward to the Italian nougat candy--torrone--that was delicious but could pull your fillings out.

 

Here is a recipe for Italian Christmas Sprinkle cookies that come from the Pioneer Woman but there are loads of variations out there.  I had some pretty red and green sanding sugar that I used instead of sprinkles but you can use your imagination and make these your own!  These cookies have a sugar cookie-like exterior with a softer cake-like interior.

 

Cookies

 

2/3 cup sugar

1 stick of butter, softened

2 tsps. vanilla extract

¾ tsp. almond extract

3 large eggs

2 ½ cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. salt

 

Glaze

 

2 cups powdered sugar

3 TBS milk

½ tsp. vanilla extract

sprinkles of your choice

 

For the cookies:

 

Cream the butter, vanilla extract and almond extract until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs.  Don’t be alarmed if the mixture looks slightly curdled.

 

Add the flour, baking powder and salt gradually and continue beating until mixed in and dough comes together.

 


 

 

Chill for at least one hour or more wrapped in plastic wrap.

 


 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

 

Break off pieces of dough and roll into one inch balls or shape into logs and coil into mounds.  Dust hands with flour as needed.  Dough is very sticky. I found working with a quarter of the dough at a time and keeping the rest in the fridge worked the best.

 


 

 

Place on parchment lined cookies sheets and bake 10 to 12 minutes or until the cookies are set and the bottoms are very lightly browned.  Your baking time might vary depending on your oven. 

 


 

 

Cool on a rack completely before dipping in the glaze and sprinkling with sprinkles.

 

Glaze:

 

Mix confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla extract until smooth.  Let the cookies stand until the glaze hardens.




 

Wishing you and yours a joyous holiday season!


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2 comments:

  1. Thank you for the great sounding recipe!
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wonderfully pale cookies. An open palate for decorating.

    ReplyDelete