Christmas Cookie Recipes (wine cookies, pizzelles)

Fellow writer and blogger, Charmian Christie over at Christie’s Corner (a food blog) recently posted a great ginger cookie recipe. She wondered aloud about holiday cookies we cannot live without. My answer? Wine cookies and pizzelles. It’s snowy and very cold (below zero) here today. It’s a perfect chance to make cookies. So, here’s a little lesson on how to make a couple traditional Italian cookies. Full credit to my great grandmother, my grandmother, my mother and my aunties who taught me to cook.

I learned how to bake first. The rest came later. When people seem surprised at my skill in the kitchen, I usually reply … “I didn’t grow up in a big Italian family for nothing.”

But, here’s the thing. My gram never wrote down recipes, so the ones I use came from a cookbook my Auntie Mary Ann assembled as a gift when I got married. Some of the quantities were guesses, that I’ve honed over the years through trial and error. Having watched them make these cookies as a kid (and helping), I probably assume too much in my directions below. BUT, I did my best to explain the process.

Wine Cookies
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 egg yolk
4 cups flour
Vegetable oil for frying
Honey for dipping (1 honey bear’s worth)
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons sugar

** makes 6 dozen  cookies **

Be super careful making these since hot oil and hot honey are involved.

Add flour and mix until fully incorporated.

Turn out on a lightly floured work surface and knead until a stuff dough forms (about 5 minutes).

Break off baseball sized chunks and roll with your fingers and palms (both hands) into ropes (about an inch in diameter).

Cut into cookie-sized pieces. (These cookies are very rich, so keep somewhat small.)

Deep fry batches (6-12 cookies at a time) in oil until light brown. (It takes less time at first when oil is super hot, then longer as the batches proceed. So, maybe 30 seconds first batch, 1 minute second batch, etc.).

Cool and drain on paper towels.

Sometimes cookies fall apart in the oil. It’s likely a failure of kneading and/or oil temp. I lost a half dozen cookies to production errors.

Warm up honey, water, and suger in a pan, then roll cooled cookies (a few at a time) around in the honey mixture until coated.

Transfer to waxed paper or to a rack with waxed paper under it to cool again.

Here’s the finished product:

*******

Pizzelles
6 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour (sifted)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter (melted and cooled)
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons anise extract (basically one 1-ounce bottle)

** You need a pizzelle iron (kind of like a waffle iron) to make these. This recipe makes 4 dozen cookies. **

Add cooled butter and anise, mixing again.

Sift flour and baking powder together, then add to egg/butter mixture a little bit at a time. Mixing until fully incorporated. A sticky dough results.

Preheat pizzelle iron, then drop dollops a bit behind center onto the iron.

Close the iron pressing down on the handle pretty firmly, then bake for about a minute. Again, that’s an estimate. I cook them until they “sound” done. (I’ve never perfected the shape. Some end up too small or off center. Some are too big with flat edges.)

The goal is cookies that are not quite brown. Usually, you’ll get a few too dark at first, until the iron settles into the right temp.

Use a big, flat spatula to remover cookies from the iron and onto wire racks to cool.

Here’s the finished product: