Guest Author @Maria DiRico/Ellen Byron #guest #recipe #Giveaway

I'm super excited to welcome Lefty and Agatha Award winning author Maria DiRico/Ellen Byron to Mystery Lovers' Kitchen.

MARIA DiIRICO, AKA/ ELLEN BYRON: ITALIAN WEDDING COOKIES

In Four Parties and a Funeral, my 4th Catering Hall Mystery, there’s a wedding. But it’s not a big, fat Italian wedding like the ones I grew up attending. It’s a sedate WASP-y affair that forces the Queens crew featured in my series out of their natural element into the strange new world of Connecticut. (There’s also a reality show pilot called The Dons of Ditmars shooting in Astoria, ill-fated destination bachelor and bachelorette parties in New Orleans, and a couple of murders complicating everything. But for now, we’ll stick to the wedding theme.)

These cookies are sort of the Italian version of shortbread. I can’t tell you why they’re considered “wedding cookies.” (Much like I can’t tell you why the meatball soup I grew up eating is called “wedding soup.”) They’re a delicious way to celebrate any occasion – or just enjoy with an espresso. Abbondanza!

ITALIAN WEDDING COOKIES

Ingredients

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter (12 tablespoons)

¾ to 1 cup powdered sugar*

¾ t. salt

1 ½ cup blanched almond flour or finely ground nuts (I use slivered unsalted almonds and grind them with a Magic Bullet. But you can use a food processor or blender.)

1 ½ t. vanilla extract**

3 t. almond extract***

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/3+ cup powdered sugar for rolling the cookies

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream the butter in a large bowl. Slowly cream in the powdered sugar and salt until well combined. Cream in the ground almonds, then the vanilla and almond extract. Add the flour slowly – ½ cup at a time. The dough will be extremely crumbly. I sometimes use my hands – very clean hands! - to combine it.

Using your hands, take about a tablespoon of dough and form it into a ball or crescent or honestly, whatever shape will hold together. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and cook 15-20 minutes. You don’t want the cookies to get too brown.

Place the 1/3 cup powdered sugar in a small bowl. Let the cookies cool a little – you want to harden so that they don’t fall apart, but to retain a little heat so the sugar will stick to them - and roll them in the sugar.

Servings: approx. 30 cookies. For more cookies, you can make the balls or crescents smaller. But adjust the cooking time so you don’t burn them.

*I use 1 cup powdered sugar because I like the cookies a little sweeter. But ¾ cup is fine to use and may make the dough a little bit less dry.

**If you’re like me and can’t get enough almond flavor, substitute additional almond extract for the vanilla, so you’re adding 4 ½ teaspoons of almond extract to the dough. If you don’t want almond flavor, only use 4 ½ teaspoons of vanilla.

***You can also substitute anise or do a mix of anise and vanilla for another traditional Italian flavor.

ABOUT FOUR PARTIES AND A FUNERAL

SYNOPSIS: FOUR PARTIES AND A FUNERAL, Catering Hall Mystery #4 (as Maria DiRico)

Agatha Award-winning author Maria DiRico returns with the fourth book in the Catering Hall Mystery Series, starring Mia Carina who is coming to grips with being back in Astoria, Queens, and running her Italian-American family’s catering hall, Belle View Banquet Manor but a TV casting call is about to put murder in the spotlight . . . The June events schedule at Belle View is busting out all over—proms, graduations, and of course, weddings. There are unexpected bookings too, including a casting call for the pilot of Dons of Ditmars Boulevard. But soon, Mia’s fears about the cheesy reality show are confirmed . . . Belle View quickly becomes the site of a sea of wanna-be goombahs and phony girlfriends, and some of Mia’s friends insist on getting in on the action. The production company owner and his executive producer ex-wife—who’s also very minor British royalty—have assembled a motley crew that does as much infighting and backstabbing as the on-screen “talent.” Even so, it’s a shock when a dead body is found in the pool house of a local mansion rented by the show . . . Murder might boost the ratings. But Mia intends to make sure the killer gets jail time, not airtime. . .

What is your favorite cookie?

I'll give away a copy of HERE COMES THE BODY, the first book in the Catering Hall Mystery series. to one person (U.S. address only). To be entered into the drawing, please comment by Monday, March 13th and include your e-mail address. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/GIVEAWAY

Ellen’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won multiple Agatha and Lefty awards. Bayou Book Thief, her first Vintage Cookbook, has been nominated for both Agatha and Lefty awards. She also writes the Catering Hall Mystery series under the name Maria DiRico. Ellen is an award-winning playwright and non-award-winning writer of TV hits like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly OddParents, plus many shows that quickly and justifiably disappeared. Ellen was the 2023 Left Coast Crime Toastmaster but considers her most impressive achievement working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. Sign up for her newsletter at http://www.ellenbyron.com/.