Maddalenas

I was watching the show "Chio Italia" with Mary Ann Esposito the other night( Did you know her show is the longest running cooking series in TV history?) She was baking with a young man who made Maddalenas, an Italian cookie sandwiched with raspberry jam. The cookie sounded good so I thought I'd give it a try today. I even went out and bought a star pastry tip so I could make pretty shapes!
The one thing I was a little surprised about with this cookie was that with all the butter in the recipe, it wasn't all that buttery. And the flavor was a bit bland for my taste so if I make these again, I would definitely add some lemon or almond extract.

I did have fun piping out the shapes. I experimented with a few different shapes..I like the round ones the best! You can't really fill the pastry bag more than half full because the dough was a bit thick and it didn't flow out easily. I did add a little more milk to thin it just a bit.

I filled a few with the raspberry jam but then I tried filling some with just melted chocolate, then chocolate and jam together on the same cookie. You could also fill with Nutella! Whatever you like.

The cookie is pretty much a "blank slate" so any jam or filling would work.

One more thing to remember, this cookie will not get to browned so don't overbake it. I found my first batch was too hard and dry because I kept waiting for it to get a light brown color so I baked it too long.

If you do make these, I'd love to hear back from you to know how yours turned out.

Maddalenas ( from Mary Ann Esposito's show "Chio Italia")

Makes about 24 cookies.

3 3/4 cups AP flour

1 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

Pinch of baking powder

1/2 lb. unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temp.

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup milk

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Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

1. Place the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a mixer bowl and blend with whisk attachment ( if using hand held mixer, whisk ingredients by hand).

2. Add melted butter and mix together.

3. Add the whole eggs and egg yolks and milk and beat a minute or so.

4. Place some of the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a star fluted tip and pipe out the cookies in shapes you like spacing about 1" or 2" apart.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes, the cookies will not brown much at all.

6. When cooled, sandwich with raspberry jam and dust with confectioners' sugar.

Store in tin or airtight container.

Italian Sesame Cookies

Yes, I know I have the wrong holiday! These Italian Sesame Cookies are also known as Biscotti Di Regina and are usually served at Christmas time. But I wanted another quick and easy cookie recipe and I also wanted to use some of the sesame seeds I had and not yet used so...this is it.
I watched the video of this recipe being made and decided it looked like a good choice.

The way in which it's put together is a bit unusual, placing the dry in the mixing bowl first, then adding the butter and vanilla. Seemed a bit backwards, but it did come out fine. Had I not watched the video, I would have had my doubts!
I made the first batch of cookies the way it was shown in the video but then I decided to make another batch forming the cookies in more of a log shape, which to me are more typical of this type of cookie.
I also found I had to bake them longer than the recipe said, although this may have just been my oven.( But I'm convinced I'll always have oven issues!). I took the first batch out too soon and they were a little too soft inside so let them get a nice golden brown on the bottom.
One last thing, I think they could have used a little more flavor so next time I'd put some almond extract in there, although a little more vanilla may have helped.( There already is quite a bit of vanilla for this small batch).
Add the dry ingredients to your mixer bowl and mix just to blend it all together.

Add the vanilla and butter on low speed and mix til nicely combined. The mixture will seem crumbly at this point.

Add the milk and then it will all come together and form a nice dough.

Scoop small pieces of dough and form into balls. Then roll between your palms to form a log shape. ( The photo below is the first batch I made, in case you're wondering why it's still a ball shape!).

Roll in the sesame seeds and place on parchment lined baking sheets.

Still showing the first batch, (below). The original recipe says to shape into a ball, then coat with seeds, then flatten the center with your finger, but I didn't like this shape, once baked.

Bake at 350 for 18 to 20 minutes.

Italian Sesame Cookies ( a.k.a., Biscotti di Regina)

Makes about 18 cookies ( depending on the size you make).

2 1/4 cups AP flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Pinch of salt

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, cut into pieces.

3/4 cup untoasted sesame seeds

2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.-

1. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to mixing bowl and mix to blend.

2. Add vanilla and butter and mix on low til it's all nicely incorporated.

3. Add milk and turn speed to medium and mix til dough comed together.

4. Scoop small balls of dough about 1 1/4" and roll between your palms, then form into a log shape ( if you want this shape.) You could also leave them in the ball shape, too.

5. Roll in sesame seeds and place on baking sheet leaving a few inches apart. They don't increase in size too much.

6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or til golden brown on bottom and a light golden on edges.

7. Cool on wire rack.

Italian Struffoli

Italian Struffoli, sometimes called honey balls, is a Christmas treat I remember my Italian grandmother, Jennie, making at this time of year. It's fried dough balls mixed with honey, sugar and orange zest and piled high into a cone shape.
It's a kind of dessert that gets passed around the table with coffee, as each person can take off as many pieces as they want.
Unfortunately, I never had her recipe for making this.
The very first time I made this , I'm talking years ago,( not this recipe!), I remember the balls came out hard and heavy. This recipe, however, I got from a very sweet Italian woman I worked with back in the 80's and this recipe makes the best Stuffoli!
I do have to admit it's been a while since I made this and after I was all finished with the recipe I remembered I had prepared the balls a different way that I show ( a much easier way!). So I will include this other option in the directions for you..to make it a little easier for you!

Beat your eggs with the vanilla and salt.

Stir in enough flour to make a soft manageable dough, stirring in a little flour at a time.

Lose the whisk and using a large spoon, keep stirring in more flour...

And more flour, til it becomes fairly managable. I say fairly because you don't want to add too too much flour or the dough may become heavy. The dough will still be sticky, especially in the center but just flour the large ball of dough enough to be able to pick it up out of the bowl.

Place onto the floured counter and knead the dough a few minutes til smooth.

Place the ball of dough onto your floured counter and cut in half. Cover the dough and let it rest about 30 minutes in a cool place.

Ok..this is where things change!!

I rolled out the dough and cut the dough, with a pizza cutter, to get long strips which I then cut into very small pieces.

Ok, this is the hard way to do this !!

Here's what I want you to do:

Simply take small pieces of the dough and roll out with your floured hands, on the floured counter, long rope like pieces and just cut these pieces into very tiny pieces.

The dough will almost triple in size when you fry them so make sure your pieces are very tiny...fry a sample piece the see what I mean!

Here's more of the hard way to do this!

And the tiny pieces you'll have when finished! Now, let these tiny pieces rest again about 30 minutes on the counter...I know, another rest! Yes!

Now get your oil hot enough ( sample one piece to be sure the oil is hot enough) and place a small batch into the hot oil and fry til just slightly brown.

Keep an eye on them as they turn brown very quickly! Don't answer the phone..or anything!! Keep watching them!

As you have your batches finished, drain each on paper towels.

See mine look like little styrofoam balls!! ( Your's will looks more like just balls!).

In a medium saucepan, blend honey, sugar and zest and heat til the sugar is just dissolved.

Add the balls and stir to be sure they're all coated with the honey mixture.

Pile them in a cone shape onto your preittiest Christmas plate!

Sprinkle the cone shaped pile of delicious honey balls with the multi colored sprinkles. Enjoy!

Italian Struffoli

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups AP flour

1 pint oil

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

zest of half orange

Colored sprinkles

1. Beat eggs with vanilla and salt.

2. Stir in enough flour to make a soft managable dough. Mix well.

3. Toss onto floured board or countertop and knead 5 minutes til smooth.

4. Cut in half and wrap in waxed paper ( flour the balls so you can get them off the paper!).

5. Set aside and place in a cool place for 30 minutes to rest.

6. Take pieces of dough and on floured countertop, roll into rope like shapes.

Cut each into very tiny pieces.( 1/4" pieces).

7. Spread on lightly floured surface and let them rest again for another 30 minutes.

8. Heat oil in heavy medium size saucepan and place balls into pan in batches.keeping an eye on them as they brown very quickly.

9. Drain each batch on paper towels.

10. Pour sugar, honey and zest into medium pan and heat to dissolve sugar.

11. Place all the balls into the pan and stir to coat all.

12. Pile them onto a pretty plate into a cone shape. Sprinkle with colored sprinkles.

Cornmeal Cookies, Crumiri

I was only about 10 years old when my Italian grandmother, Jennie, died. I do have lots of special memories of her and I remember most vividly her Italian cookies she would make in the shape of an "S" which I always thought was for my name !! And I guess it was !!
Lidia Bastianich is one of my favorite cooks and I really think it's because she reminds me of my grandma Jennie. I just love watching her show on PBS. As she cooks her delicious recipes, she has wonderful stories and it makes you just want to jump into the TV and sit down with her and eat!!
So when I was searching for a certain Italian cookie recipe the other day I came across one of Lidia's cookbooks in the library. I grabbed her book along with about 4 others and made copies of several cookie recipes. This Cornmeal Cookie recipe is from one of her cookbooks but I did see the recipe online which brings me to my dilemma.
The recipe I followed in her book has a typo!! They left out a very important line in the directions where you're supposed to add the butter !! I had the dough all made when I looked over and noticed the butter still sitting on the counter!! Yikes...so I just dumped the dough back into the mixing bowl and mixed the butter in. It came out fine.
I baked a very small batch first and refridgerated the rest of the dough for about an hour. The first batch of cookies came out a little flat and too dark on the bottom because the oven temp. called for in the recipe was 400. The next batch was well chilled and I formed them into little logs and lowered the oven temp. to 350. They came out much better. I do think they could have used a little more flavor, perhaps some lemon or orange zest? But they do have a nice crunch from the cornmeal.
So I guess the moral of this story is to be sure to read over the entire recipe before starting...and, yes, she's still my favorite cook, baker whatever !!