Best 6 Cooking With Nonna Cuccidati Recipes

SICILIAN FIG COOKIES (BUCCELLATI)

Steps:

• Dough: In a food processor, pulse together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add butter and pulse until the largest pieces are the size of peas. Add eggs, 1 tablespoon milk, vanilla, and orange zest; pulse until a dough forms. If dough seems dry, add remaining 1 tablespoon milk.
• Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a rectangle, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.
• Filling: In a food processor, pulse together figs, raisins, honey, brandy, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, orange zest, vanilla, and salt until a thick paste forms. Transfer paste to a bowl and stir in pecans. Measure a heaping 1/4 cup of filling, place on a piece of plastic wrap, and roll into a log about 10 inches long. Freeze until firm. Repeat process with remaining filling (you should have 10 logs).
• Working with one rectangle of dough at a time, place dough on a lightly floured sheet of parchment. Roll out dough to a 15-by-10-inch rectangle, a scant 1/4 inch thick. Transfer parchment to a baking sheet; refrigerate 30 minutes. Repeat process with remaining dough.
• Cut each rectangle of dough crosswise into five 3-inch-wide strips. Position one strip of dough on work surface with long sides parallel to edge of work surface. Place one log of filling along the upper edge of the long side of each strip. Fold remaining dough over filling to enclose. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, seam-side down. Refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes. Repeat process with remaining dough and filling.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut logs into 2-inch pieces. Using a paring knife, make 2 cuts on one side of each piece, being careful not to cut all the way through. Shape each piece into a crescent, with the cuts on the outside of the crescent. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake, rotating halfway through, until bottoms are brown and tops are light golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
• Glaze: Whisk together egg whites and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a very small round tip. Pipe glaze over cookies; let stand until set. Glazed cookies can be stored in an airtight container, between sheets of parchment, at room temperature up to 2 days.

FIG CUCCIDDATI COOKIES FOR CHRISTMAS

Steps:

• Filling: Put the figs in a bowl and cover them with Vanilla Rum. Let them soak for two days. After two days, put the figs, the walnuts and the raisins in a blender and chop finely. Put the mix in a pan, add the 1/4 cup of sugar and cook until the liquids dry up. Set aside to cool off. Dough: In a bowl, mix all the dough ingredients and add as much milk as necessary to make the dough soft and elastic. Cover it and let it rest for 30 mins. Spread the dough into a thin long flat strip about 3" wide. Spread the filling at the center of the dough and close it into a long roll. Cut the roll every 2" and then make an indentation on one side of the cut piece. Bake all your cookies at 375F for about 15 Min. Garnish with powdered sugar. Glaze: In a bowl, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until the sugar is melted but rather thick. With a brush spread the sugar over each cookie and immediately sprinkle the cookies with colored Christmas sprinkles. Let dry.

CUCIDATI (ITALIAN FIG COOKIES)

Steps:

• Put the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly to mix. Add the butter, in small cubes, the vanilla and egg and pulse to form crumbs. Add the milk and pulse a couple times to bring the mixture together.
• Remove the blade from the food processor and take out the dough. Knead it briefly (just once or twice) and bring the dough together in a ball. Wrap it in cling wrap/film and chill for at least an hour or two until firm or leave overnight. If you leave overnight, you may need to take it out 20min or so before rolling so it is not too cold.
• Remove the tough stem from the fibs then chop them into roughly quarters. Roughly chop the dates, if not already chopped.
• Place the figs, dates, raisins, almonds, chocolate, honey, marmalade/jam, brandy/whisky and cinnamon in the food processor and blend until a relatively smooth paste forms, scraping down and pulsing slightly more as needed.
• Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. Line a baking sheet/tray with parchment or a silicone mat.
• Unwrap the cookie dough and roll it on a floured surface into a rectangle roughly 10in x 8in (25cm x 20cm). Neaten off the edges so they are relatively straight.
• Cut the piece of dough in half the long way (ie so you have two pieces around 10 x 4in). Separate the pieces of dough slightly to make them easier to work with and to make sure they are not stuck to the work surface.
• Divide the filling in two and use half to make a log the length of one of the pieces of dough, in the middle. Make sure it goes right to the end.
• Roll over one side of the dough and keep rolling so it goes all the way rough and the join is on the bottom. It is fine if it overlaps slightly. Cut the log into slices roughly 1 -1 1/2in (3-4cm ) in length. Transfer them to the lined baking sheet and then repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.
• Bake the cookies for approximately 15 minutes until the dough looks slightly dry and they are just starting to brown at the edges and underneath. They may feel slightly soft on top but they should feel dry. Allow to cool a couple minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• Once the cookies have completely cooled, Place the cooling rack with the cookies over a baking sheet (to collect any dropped sprinkles).
• Sift the confectioner's sugar into a small bowl. Add the lemon juice and mix until smooth. Drizzle/spoon a little of the glaze on top of around 3-4 cookies at a time then sprinkle on some sprinkles on top. Repeat with the rest. (Alternatively, you can turn the cookie over and dip them in the frosting, but it will likely run slightly and be a bit thicker. You will also need more glaze - I'd suggest making around double to have enough to dip in.)
• Allow the glaze to dry before transferring to a container. The cookies will keep well for a good few days or more, the sprinkles may just bleed a little color.

CUCCIDATI-SICILIAN FIG COOKIES

Steps:

• In a stand mixer, beat butter until smooth (1 minute). Beat in the sugars and soda until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla. Lower speed of mixer and beat in the flour. Divide dough in half in plastic wrap. Chill until firm. While dough chills, prepare the fig filling (see directions below).

CUCCIDATI

Steps:

• Place the first 7 ingredients in a food processor; cover and process until finely chopped. Set aside., In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Beat in the eggs, milk and vanilla. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Divide dough into 4 portions; cover and refrigerate for 1 hour., Roll out each portion between 2 sheets of waxed paper into a 16-in. x 6-in. rectangle. Spread 1 cup filling lengthwise down the center of each. Starting at a long side, fold dough over filling; fold the other side over the top. Pinch seams and edges to seal. Cut each rectangle diagonally into 1-in. strips. Place seam side down on parchment-lined baking sheets. , Bake at 400° for 10-14 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Combine confectioners' sugar and enough milk to achieve desired consistency; drizzle over cookies. Store in an airtight container.

NONNA'S AMARETTI COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat mat.
• In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, sugar and salt until evenly incorporated.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites until they hold soft peaks, then dust in cream of tartar and the extract.
• Add the egg whites to dry ingredients and stir until mixture forms a soft, sticky dough (the egg whites will deflate...that's okay!)
• Lightly dust your hands with powdered sugar and, using a small cookie scoop, form the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the ball btween your hands and then roll in icing sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 1 inch of space between cookies.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until tops are cracked and bottoms are just golden. If you like a crunchy amaretti, you can bake them for an extra 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
• Cookies will keep at room temperature in an airtight bag or container, for up to 5 days.