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MOM’S ITALIAN CHRISTMAS COOKIES Makes about 4 dozen By Dennis W. Viau; modified from my mother’s recipe. My mother’s Italian Christmas cookies were like rocks after a few days. We weren’t allowed to throw them in the house. I never wanted to learn how to make them until it dawned on me one day that my Italian grandmother, from whom my mother learned to make her cookies, lived through the Great Depression. She was notorious for cutting corners. Butter is expensive, water is cheap. Substitute. With that in mind, I set about to correct my mother’s Italian Christmas cookie recipe. Ingredients: For the Cookies: 4½ cups (22 ounces/624g) all-purpose flour; sifted ¾ cup (6 oz./170g) butter; room temperature ½ cup (3.5 oz./99g) sugar ½ teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder 4 large eggs ½ cup (120ml) heavy cream 2 teaspoons anise extract (or almond flavoring) For the Icing: 11/3 cup (170g) confectioners’ sugar 1 tablespoon light corn syrup 1 tablespoon water (or juice, such as lemon juice), more if needed Nonpareils or other decorative sprinkles Directions: In a large bowl combine the flour and the butter, cutting it together with a wire pastry blender or fork (known as “cutting in” the fat). Then combine the mixture, using your hands to push together the two ingredients until completely blended. Be careful not to melt the butter with your warm hands, which would make the dough oily. Add the sugar, salt, and baking powder and mix well using the pastry blender. In a smaller bowl combine the eggs and heavy cream. Mix well. Add the extract and combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and combine until mixed together. Let stand about 5 minutes and then knead lightly until smooth (about a minute). Using small amounts of dough, roll little ropes and twist to create different shapes. Place on greased baking sheets (or lined with parchment paper). See the following pages for some shapes we created as children, as well as some new ones I thought of while preparing this recipe. Be creative. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Bake 15 minutes, only until cooked through but not browned. Arrange on a wire rack to cool. Combine the icing ingredients, but not the nonpareils, and mix until smooth. Decorate with frosting and colored nonpareils (or other colored sprinkles). Store in sealed containers. The Step By Step guide begins on the following page. 70. Copyright 2011 The Mobile Home Gourmet, MobileHomeGourmet.com, all rights reserved.

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STEP-BY-STEP 1

Although lemon juice is optional for the icing, I am using it here. Water has no flavor; so I prefer to use something that will add flavor in a recipe like this. I heard from someone whose mother used to make these cookies. Her mother used food coloring to color the frosting. The cookies were very popular in their home.

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Cut the flour and butter together using a wire pastry blender, fork, or even a pair of butter knives. The butter should be at room temperature or a little cooler. Don’t use melted butter. 70. Copyright 2011 The Mobile Home Gourmet, MobileHomeGourmet.com, all rights reserved.

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You can also use your hands and fingers to work the butter and flour together. This requires a little practice so that you know when to stop. It you work it too much your warm fingers could melt the butter, which would make the dough oily. Add the sugar, salt, and baking powder and blend well. I return to using the wire pastry blender because it will break up any lumps I might have created with my fingers.

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Combine the wet ingredients (eggs, cream, and extract), mixing well with a wire whisk. You could do this and the above steps with an electric mixer.

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Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and combine until dry enough to knead. Let rest about 5 minutes. This will allow the flour to absorb moisture.

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Knead the dough lightly, only until smooth, about a minute. Unlike making bread, there is no need to build up the gluten chains in this dough. In fact, it will be easier to work with if it isn’t too elastic.

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Working with a small amount, maybe the size of a golf ball or a little smaller, start shaping the dough.

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Start by rolling the dough into a little strand or rope and then twist and bend into different shapes. The following are some of the shapes we did when I was a child, along with more that I created for this recipe.

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This is similar to the little bow above, but it is turned upside down to bake.

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This one is a little more complicated. Start by making a large oval ring, then twist both ends, covering the seam where the two strand ends were joined.

This one is similar to the small ring above, but a little ball is shaped and placed in the middle of the ring.

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Shaping these cookies is like playing with modeling clay. There are no sharp objects that might cut, nor anything hot that might burn. This would be a fun task in which to include children. Mom always let us participate in her Christmas cookie making.

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You can use greased baking sheets or parchment paper, as I am doing here. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes in a 375°F (190°C) oven. They will cook through, but they will barely brown. The cookies should look nearly white when they come out of the oven. I turned one cookie over so that you can see how lightly they brown. Move the cookies to a cooling rack to cool thoroughly before decorating with the icing.

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Combine the confectioners’ sugar, corn syrup, and water (or lemon juice). This makes a glaze rather than the frosting you see on cakes. If you’d prefer a cake frosting instead, feel free to substitute. My mother and her mother (who was from Napes, Italy) used this glaze; so I consider it traditional.

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Coat the top of each cookie with the icing and then sprinkle with nonpareils. If you work over one of the baking sheets, the walls of the sheet will catch the nonpareils rather than letting them roll all over the counter (and onto the floor). The icing is also a little runny; so I return them to the cooling racks and let them drip before moving to a serving platter. The icing will dry in a few minutes.

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Plenty of Italian Christmas cookies to eat and/or give away. I really enjoy these with a cup of coffee or tea. 70. Copyright 2011 The Mobile Home Gourmet, MobileHomeGourmet.com, all rights reserved.

Conclusion

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Now that I fixed my mother’s recipe, I proudly make these and give them away. By way of a test, I stored some of these cookies for more than a week, resisting the temptation to eat them, and they were still soft. My mother’s cookies would be like rocks in only a few days. Her mistake? She didn’t use butter. One of my relatives suggested I document my mother’s recipes. She died in 1989 and unless her recipes are recorded, they would be lost. The problem with this request is that my mother wasn’t a great cook. So I felt the need to correct this recipe before putting it down in writing. I think Mom would have been pleased.

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