These will always be my "grandma's cookies." So many memories with my cute, little (4' 8" at best), Sicilian grandma revolve around some sort of food. These cookies are near the top of the list- they made appearances at most family gatherings and holidays, and I've never seen anything like them anywhere else. We call them Italian Cookies, and they are awesome! My grandma was the master at shapes- see how most of mine are circles? That's because I'm really lazy. Now that I make them, I oftentimes wonder how many hours she must have spent sitting and rolling and shaping these one at a time:) I enlisted Elle's help, but alas, 10 minutes and 10 cups of flour bombs later, she was escorted out of the kitchen:) Maybe bigger kids would make more helpful helpers!?
A few weekends ago we went to a party, and these seemed like the perfect go-to cookie! We brought the above green tray, and although they stayed in the kitchen until after the dinner was served, when they were set down on the table I noticed that at least a third of them were missing:) Within 90 seconds, the remaining 40 cookies vanished.
Told you they were good.
ITALIAN COOKIES
4 Eggs
3/4 C. Oil
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla
3/4 C. Milk
1 C. Sugar
Mix the above ingredients together and add...
5+ C. Flour (I probably add at least 7... I'm not sure why there was such a big difference this time?)
4 Tsp. Baking Powder
The dough should be firm and not sticky. I usually just mix this part by hand. Stick your bowl of dough in the fridge for 30 minutes to cool (which also helps the stickiness). When you take the dough out, add flour to your hands and start shaping. Remember: no sticky dough. Add more flour if necessary:)
Bake at 350 for 10-14 minutes. When finished, they'll be slightly golden brown on the bottom, but white everywhere else. Cool cookies before adding icing.
POWDERED SUGAR FROSTING
This is one of those "simple icings" that takes well to just estimates (you get that a lot from me, huh?).
Powdered Sugar
Add 1 Tsp. Vanilla
Slowly add teensy amounts milk and stir until frosting thickens
The frosting should be runny, but not too thin. You want to be able to dunk the cookies and not have them break apart, but not have all the icing run off the top too quickly. Trial and error, people:)
Add some sprinkles to the top (the bigger the better in my opinion), and you're set! I counted, and this time, my recipe made 85 cookies (then again, I have no idea how much dough was sacrificed in Elle's hands...).
sm.jpg)
