Cuccidati are Sicilian Christmas cookies created from a wealthy shortcrust pastry dough flavored with orange zest and a candy fig filling. They’re in style in the course of the vacation season in Italy and likewise in america and are one kind of conventional Italian cookies which can be completely value making an attempt. Cuccidati are much less candy than fashionable mass-produced cookies, however the sweetness lingers on the end of every chew, and the moist fig filling comprises toasted nuts, darkish chocolate, raisins, heat spices, apricot jam, and Marsala wine for a fancy taste.

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Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico has created a recipe for cuccidati that breaks down the unique Italian methodology into a variety of brief, easy-to-follow steps. Historically, these cookies are made in many alternative shapes. This recipe makes each half-moon cookies (half of that are scored) and sliced cookies from a pastry tube, so you find yourself with three totally different seems to be for selection, all with the identical nice style.

We can’t say these cookies are fast to make, but when for a festive event, we expect the hassle is value it. That is why Sicilians make a giant batch to final the entire Christmas season. In reality, our recipe yields 90 cookies. You’ll be able to refrigerate or freeze them to make them last more, or halve the recipe for a smaller batch. Our tip: make the dough and filling the day earlier than for a deeper taste. Get pleasure from them in the course of the vacation season or everytime you desire a scrumptious conventional deal with.

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For this recipe, you may first make a fig filling. You will want almonds, walnuts, dried figs, darkish chocolate, raisins, unsweetened cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, floor cloves, jam, Marsala wine, and salt. Whereas we use almonds and walnuts, you need to use a combination of any of your favourite nuts, together with hazelnuts and pistachios. The jam flavors we suggest are apricot, peach, or orange. You’ll be able to sub honey for Marsala wine if you happen to desire.

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For the pastry dough, you will have baker’s ammonia, 2% milk, 00 flour, salt, unsalted butter, sugar, orange zest, a big egg and a couple of giant egg yolks, and vanilla extract. Authentic Sicilian shortcrust pastry is made with lard. We have substituted butter, however you need to use lard or half lard and half butter for an authentic texture if desired. We suggest utilizing an natural orange to grate the zest as a result of common orange peels are handled with chemical compounds. When you resolve to halve the recipe, weigh the entire overwhelmed egg and take away half the load so you utilize the correct quantity.

The icing is the final a part of the recipe. Be sure you have powdered sugar, salt, an egg white, and lemon juice readily available. Lastly, you may use coloration sprinkles to embellish the cookies.

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Place all of the nuts in a big dry skillet on medium and toast, shaking the pan or stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Take away from the pan and put aside to chill.

Boil a medium pot of water and instantly pour the water right into a heat-safe bowl.

Place the figs within the water and allow them to soak for quarter-hour.

Add the baker’s ammonia to the milk, stir, and let it dissolve. Put aside.

Place the flour and salt in a big mixing bowl and blend rapidly with a fork.

Add the butter and pinch it into the flour along with your fingers till the butter is damaged up into small items and coated in flour and the combination is crumbly.

Add the sugar and orange zest to the bowl and blend with a fork.

Add the egg and egg yolks and blend them into the flour with a fork till the combination kinds giant crumbly items.

Add the milk and vanilla and blend along with your fingers till the dough begins to stay collectively and kind giant, smooth items.

Switch the dough to a evenly floured floor. Press and knead it to kind a clean ball. Be affected person as your fingers’ warmth melts the butter and helps it stick collectively. Add milk a teaspoon at a time if it is nonetheless crumbly after a pair minutes.

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Lower the dough in half. Reshape one piece right into a flattened ball and the opposite right into a flattened rectangle. Wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Drain the figs nicely, take away the stems, and lower the figs into giant items.

Place the figs in a meals processor and course of till they kind a paste. Switch the figs to a big bowl.

Place the nuts within the meals processor and pulse till roughly chopped.

Add the darkish chocolate and pulse till the nuts and chocolate are damaged down into small items. Switch them to the bowl with the figs.

Add the raisins, cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, jam, Marsala, and salt to the bowl and blend till the combination is thick however smooth and moist. Cowl the bowl and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Roll out the spherical piece of dough on a evenly floured floor till it is barely lower than ¼ inch thick.

Lower out discs with a spherical cookie cutter with a diameter of about 2½ inches.

Place a spoonful of filling (about 1½ teaspoons) within the middle of every disc.

Fold the discs in half and pinch the sides firmly to seal them. Roll the scraps right into a flattened ball and refrigerate till agency sufficient to roll out and make further cookies.

Go away half of the sealed discs as is and rating the curved edges of the opposite half with scissors. Set the cookies apart on two parchment paper-lined baking sheets.

Bake for 16-19 minutes till golden. Take away from the oven and let cool utterly.

In the meantime, lower the oblong piece of dough in half. Roll one half into an extended, skinny rectangle.

Spoon filling alongside the middle of the dough lengthwise. 

Trim the two brief edges even with the filling and trim one lengthy edge right into a straight line

Beginning with the untrimmed edge, fold up the two lengthy sides of the dough to cowl the filling, overlapping and urgent the sides to seal them. Flip the piece the wrong way up and evenly roll it underneath your fingers to additional seal the seam.

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Slice the stuffed dough into 1-1¼-inch items and place the items on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Put together the second rectangular piece in the identical manner.

Bake for 18-20 minutes till golden. Take away from the oven and let cool utterly.

Place the powdered sugar, salt, and egg white in a medium bowl and blend with a fork.

Add the lemon juice and stir with a fork till a dense icing kinds. Add a really small quantity of water (a few teaspoon) if wanted.

Dip one cookie at a time the wrong way up into the icing to coat the highest. Allow them to drip earlier than putting them again on the baking sheet proper facet up.

Bake for about 5 minutes till the icing dries. Take away from the oven and let cool.

Brush the highest of every cookie with a small quantity of water and prime with coloured sprinkles.

Serve and luxuriate in instantly or retailer in an hermetic container at room temperature for a few week.

Cuccidati are in style Christmas cookies from Sicily which have an extended custom within the area. Their official identify is buccellati, however they’re referred to as cuccidati in Sicilian dialect (and spelled cucciddati in Italy). The form, dimension, and closing ornament of the cookies can differ relying whose making them. Yow will discover small doughnuts, half moons, brief slices from lengthy tubes, and longer slices from tubes which can be both flattened or raised excessive in peaks. The dough may be left plain or scored to create slits that enable the darkish fig filling to point out although. The cookies may be left plain, sprinkled with powdered sugar, or lined with icing, sprinkles, crumbled pistachios, or candied fruit. Irrespective of the shape, the scrumptious fundamental recipe is comparable in all places.

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The method begins with Sicilian shortcrust pastry dough. The filling is predicated on dried figs, and Sicilian households typically begin the method by drying their very own figs within the summertime. The figs are blended with assorted nuts like almonds, pistachios, walnuts, and hazelnuts in addition to raisins, chocolate, jam, spices, and Marsala wine, however some folks make various fillings, for instance with almond paste, jam, and chocolate chips. Households make giant batches over the course of two days and luxuriate in them for the complete Italian Christmas interval from the Immaculate Conception on December 8 to the Epiphany on January 6.

This cuccidati recipe makes use of baker’s ammonia as a leavening agent. Trendy baked items are likely to name for baking powder or baking soda, so if you happen to’ve by no means seen this secret ingredient for classic or heritage cookies earlier than, you are not alone. Nevertheless, baker’s ammonia, which is technically ammonium carbonate, has been used because the Center Ages. It was first created from the residue of burned animal horns, antlers, and hooves. You should still discover it underneath its authentic German identify, hartshorn. The substance is now made synthetically however baking powder and baking soda largely changed it as soon as they turned grocery store staples.

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When you’ve made German springerle cookies or Scandinavian treats like Swedish drömmar, you’ve got most likely used baker’s ammonia. It is what provides vintage-style cookies a particular texture, making them each gentle and fluffy and crispy and crunchy on the similar time.

Resist the urge to open the bottle and take a whiff. Ammonium carbonate has a really robust, pungent odor that is noticeable even when working with it at arm’s size. Open a window and ventilate your kitchen whilst you work. Do not attempt to use baker’s ammonia in cake recipes or moist batters. It could solely be utilized in skinny, drier doughs which permit the ammonia to evaporate. That is why there is no odor or aftertaste as soon as the cookies are baked and cooled. Don’t style uncooked dough made with this ingredient, and hold the container tightly closed to forestall evaporation.

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