Iced Italian Cookies
This recipe was found under the C tab for cookies.
Day # 3 of holiday cookies!
This recipe spiked my interest because I come from Italian heritage. It is another newspaper clipping, but I'm not sure how old it is. I'm also not sure what makes these cookies Italian! It's a very similar recipe to the anisette cookies my paternal Grandmother made yet so different. The recipe makes 80 to 100 cookies so I cut it in half again. Let's start baking!
Iced Italian Cookies
½ Pound
butter
6
Eggs
5
Teaspoons baking powder
½ Cup
sugar
1
Teaspoon vanilla
4
Cups Flour
1.
Blend butter and sugar, add eggs, beat well. Add baking powder,
vanilla,
and flour (mix by hand). If too wet add more flour, as stiffness
depends
on eggs. Knead well on lightly floured counter.
2.
Take a piece of dough the size of a walnut, roll into a piece about two
to
three inches long and twist around finger into a bee-hive shaped mound.
Bake
at 375 degrees for about ten minutes on ungreased baking sheet.
3.
Makes 80 to 100 cookies.
Icing:
1
Box confectioner’s sugar
¼ Cup
butter
1
Teaspoon vanilla
½ Cup
milk
Food
coloring of your choice.
1.
Combine all ingredients and drizzle over cooled cookies.
This recipe calls for pretty standard ingredients. The only item you may not have is the food coloring. You can always leave the icing white if you don't have food coloring or want to use it.
Like always you will need to preheat your oven to 375 degrees to start. Then you need to soften the butter so it is easy to work with. Do this by putting it in the microwave for a few seconds. Then place the butter and the sugar in a mixing bowl.
Beat the sugar and butter together until you end up with a light and fluffy mixture.
When the butter and sugar have creamed together well you can add the eggs in.
They can be put in all at once for this step. (I only used 3 since I cut the recipe in half). Beat the eggs into the butter and sugar until they have been completely incorporated. It will be very loose.
The next step is to add the baking powder, vanilla, and flour.
You won't need your electric mixer anymore. Mix the dry ingredients (and vanilla) in with a spoon or spatula until it looks somewhat like dough.
Make sure you have clean counter space and spread some flour out to knead the dough on.
Kneading is easy, just keep folding the dough over until it is no longer sticky and has become a pliable dough. Be careful not to over knead it because then you will end up with tough cookies!
When your dough is ready to be used be sure you have an ungreased cookie sheet readily available. Pull a piece of the dough off that is about the size of a walnut (with its shell on).
Then roll that piece of dough lengthwise until it is about 2 or 3 inches long.
The next part is a little tricky, but you'll get used to it after about 3 or 5 cookies. Take the little dough log that you just made and wrap it around your finger starting at the base and going towards your finger nail. Wrap it in a spiral like so:
Don't worry, no one is judging the appearance of your cookies so if they come out a little weird in the beginning. When the dough is wrapped around your finger you can easily slide it off and keep its form by pulling it from the bottom of your finger upwards. They form a tortellini like shape.
When all of the dough has been shaped and placed on cookie sheets you can them bake them in the oven. The recipe says to cook them for about ten minutes, but mine took around 14. You can tell when they are done when they are slightly brown on the top.
When all of your cookies have been cooled and cooled you can start making the icing.
Start by warming up the butter so it will be easily mixable. Then add all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl. I added everything except the food coloring so I could get the consistency right first.
Keep mixing until you have a liquid icing that you can easily spread. Make sure all of the lumps are out. If it is too dry you can add more milk and if it is too wet you can add more confectioner's sugar.
Yum! You can either leave the icing like this or add food coloring of your choice. I chose red!
Start with just a few drops of color and mix it until all of the icing is the same color. If the color is not dark enough for you keep adding drops of the coloring until it becomes a shade of your liking.
When your icing is ready go ahead and drip it over your cookies. I recommend placing wax paper under your wire rack before icing the cookies or you'll end up with a sticky food coloring mess! Drizzle each cookie with some of the icing until they look good enough to eat!
Your cookies are done and ready to eat when the icing has hardened!
My icing turned out more pink then red!
I gave this recipe a 3 out of 5 on the yummy scale!
The recipe was fairly easy to complete, but nothing about them is Italian! They are pretty flavorless. If you do make these and are looking for something more than vanilla flavored I would definitely recommend using either anisette or almond extract instead of vanilla extract. Better luck tomorrow!
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