Christmas Cookies - Italian Sesame Seeded

Last year was the first year I found a recipe for a sesame cookie that had the consistency, taste, and aroma of an Italian Brooklyn bakery's cookie. It must have the right weight and aftertaste to be able to dunk in a cup of coffee. Besides a bagel, or a crumb bun, or a pastry, or a chunk of buttered Italian bread, a sesame seeded cookie is one of my favorite Brooklyn breakfast's.

The secret to the success is the anise extract. I opened the bottle and held it under my son's nose and asked him what he smelled. He thought medicine, or cough syrup. Huh? If anything it smells more like black licorice to me. He replied he hated black licorice and it smells "mediciney" to him. One person's delectable odor is another's gross one. Funny thing is after they were baked he couldn't stay away from the cookies. This recipe gets two big thumbs up!

INGREDIENTS

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup Crisco shortening
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp anise extract
milk
raw sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375
In a large bowl add eggs, sugar, Crisco, baking powder and anise extract. Mix everything well.
Add the flour and mix well.
Take a piece of dough, roll it to about 1/2" thick and cut it every 2".
Take each piece, wet it in milk and then roll it in the sesame seed.
Place all the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Christmas Cookies - Robert Weinstein's Night Before the Diet Bars

Today's Christmas Cookie recipe isn't so much a cookie as it is a "bar." This is the first time I baked them and this recipe comes from The New York Cookbook. Honestly, even though they did taste better the next day with this afternoon's spot of tea, I'm not such a fan of them. I feel like something's lacking, however, the boys really liked them, and that's all right with me.

As I was just typing the ingredients I realized I did not use milk chocolate chips, but semi-sweet ones, and I wonder if that was the "thing" lacking. By the way, I have no idea who Robert Weinstein is...

INGREDIENTS

12 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup milk chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325.
Butter a 9-inch square cake pan
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time. Add the flour and vanilla. Pour one-third of the mixture into a small bowl and set aside.

Add the melted chocolate to the large bowl and mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Pour the contents of the small bowl on top of the chocolate layer and top with walnuts and chocolate chips.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour.

Makes 18 bars.

Christmas Cookies - Venetians

The second Italian cookie recipe I'd like to share is for the ever popular Venetians, or 7-layers, or Rainbow cookies...whichever you want to call them. Up in Brooklyn in the Italian bakeries you can find these delicacies for a pretty steep price per pound. They are so worth it! Locally, here in Roanoke I've tasted three different place's version and although they looked nice they didn't taste too nice, actually not nice, seriously shitty. Yours might not come out looking professional, but if you follow the recipe below I guarantee you they will be better than anything you'll find locally, unless you live in New York City, but that's a given.

I'm not making them today, but hope to within the week...that is if I could find the Solo Almond Pastry filling in a can at the local supermarkets. For some reason the shelves at my local Kroger and Food Lion do not have a single can, and I can only pray that this product did not fall under the Elena Curse...you know about the curse...anything I like here in the south, disappears, leaves, goes out of business, etc. It's important to note that the recipe yesterday called for almond paste. This recipe calls for almond pastry filling. It's a different consistency from the paste and I find it makes a much better tasting and textured cookie. Let me know if you see any in your travels and also if you see any reasonably priced pine nuts. I'm itching to make pignoli cookies.

I'm posting this recipe now, before I make another batch and have a much better picture to show because I don't know if I'm going to find the Solo pastry filling and these take two days total to be ready.  You'll need a space in your fridge for the layers to set overnight under a weighted wooden cutting board or similar so I wanted to make sure you would be ready to undertake them in time for whenever you wanted to serve them. As usual, make sure to use butter, not margarine. Life is too short to substitute margarine for butter...

VENETIANS

Preheat oven to 350.

1 can (8 oz. almond pastry filling)
1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) butter softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
10 drops green food color
8 drops red food color
1 jar (12 ounces) apricot preserves
2 1/2 squares semisweet chocolate

DIRECITONS

Coat three 13 x 9 x 2 inch pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line with wax paper, allowing paper to come up at the short ends. Spray paper.

Break up almost pastry filling in a large bowl. Add butter, sugar, egg yolks and almond extract. Beat with electric mixer until light about fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Beat in flour and sat.

Beat egg whites in a different bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold into almond mixture until well blended.

Divid mixture into 3 equal portions. Add green food coloring to one, red to another, leave last yellow. Sparely spread each potion into prepared pans.

Bake in oven 350 for about 15:00 or until edges are golden brown. Immediately remove the cakes from the pans using the waxed paper overhand.

Heat preserves in a small saucepan, strain through sieve. Place green cake layer on a jelly roll pan (or cookie sheet). Spread half of warm preserves over layer to edges. Slide yellow layer on top, spread with remaining apricot preserves. Slide pink layer, on top of yellow layer.

Cover with plastic wrap, weigh down with large wooden cutting board. Place in refrigerator overnight.

Melt chocolate in double boiler over water. (I do it in the microwave and it comes out fine, at 20 second intervals stir.) Trim edges off cake. Spread melted chocolate to edges of cake. Let dry about ten minutes until chocolate is hardened. Cut into 1 inch squares.

You know which ones they are

It's Strouffler Time!

You know what time it is...it's strouffler time! Strouffler Eve has come a day early this year, so I'm posting the recipe today instead of Christmas Eve Eve when I usually do.



6 eggs
4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbs Crisco

Mix flour, baking powder and sugar. Add Crisco. Make a well in the middle and put eggs into it. Mix together until smooth. Make long snakes, cut into pieces, then roll by hand into balls. Make them small -- they expand!

Fry them in tall pot in Crisco. Place cooked balls on a brown paper bag.

In a large pot heat a jar of honey, I use 12 ounces, with a 1/4 cup sugar. Stir until thin. Throw balls into them, mix with wooden spoon to cover all of the balls. Then plate and sprinkle with nonpareils.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Strouffler Eve

If it's Christmas Eve Eve, it must be strouffler time! Even though I am totally
backed up due to the major plumbing catastrophe, if I didn't make stroufflers Christmas would be ruined! No, not really. Anyway, here's the recipe for anyone that wants it:



6 eggs
4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbs Crisco

Mix flour, baking powder and sugar. Add Crisco. Make a well in the middle and put eggs into it. Mix together until smooth. Make long snakes, cut into pieces, then roll by hand into balls. Make them small -- they expand!

Fry them in tall pot in Crisco. Place cooked balls on a brown paper bag.

In a large pot heat a jar of honey with a 1/4 cup sugar. Stir until thin. Throw balls into them, mix with wooden spoon to cover all of the balls. Then plate and sprinkle with nonpareils.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Strouffler Time

It's that time of the year to bring out the Strouffler recipe...got everything except the brown paper bags...heading out again!



6 eggs
4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbs Crisco

Mix flour, baking powder and sugar. Add Crisco. Make a well in the middle and put eggs into it. Mix together until smooth. Make long snakes, cut into pieces, then roll by hand into balls. Make them small -- they expand!

Fry them in tall pot in Crisco. Place cooked balls on a brown paper bag.

In a large pot heat a jar of honey with a 1/4 cup sugar. Stir until thin. Throw balls into them, mix with wooden spoon to cover all of the balls. Then plate and sprinkle with nonpareils.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Zucchini

You ever see a zucchini that size? Me neither. No, it didn't come from my garden. The teeny tiny tomato did. Luckily my customers are kind enough to bring us veggies and fruits from theirs, such as the mega zucchini. I swear that thing must have weighed ten pounds. I could barely hold it while shredding it.

For those of you fortunate enough to have more zucchini than you know what to do with here are 3 quick recipes I picked up in Family Circle. I've tried all of them and they were easy and delicioso...

1. For an easy side -- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over high heat; add 1 pound shredded zucchini and saute 1 minute. Toss with 1/4 cup sliced almonds. Add shaved Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste.

2. Make chips by dipping thinly sliced zucchini in milk and dredging in Italian seasoned panko. Place directly on wire rack set on baking sheet and bake for 30:00 until golden.

3. Zucchini cakes -- Mix together 1 pound shredded zucchini, 1 egg, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Heat 1/4 cup Canola oil in nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Form mixture into pancakes and saute 2:00 per side. Serve with sour cream.

Enjoy...and keep those fresh fruits and veggies coming!

Stroufflers

Some folks have asked for the Strouffler recipe, so here it is...

6 eggs
4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbs Crisco

Mix flour, baking powder and sugar. Add Crisco. Make a well in the middle and put eggs into it. Mix together until smooth. Make long snakes, cut into pieces, then roll by hand into balls. Make them small -- they expand!

Fry them in tall pot in Crisco. Place cooked balls on a brown paper bag.

In a large pot heat a jar of honey with a 1/4 cup sugar. Stir until thin. Throw balls into them, mix with wooden spoon to cover all of the balls. Then plate and sprinkle with nonpareils.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!