Cucidati - Sicilian Christmas Cookies
Sicilian Christmas fig cookies with a spiced dried-fruit and nut filling rolled in tender dough, glazed and topped with sugar pearls.
Ingredients
| 250 g | soft butter | |
| 200 g | sugar | |
| 2 | large eggs, at room temperature | |
| 60 ml | fresh milk, at room temperature | |
| 2 tsp | 10 ml | vanilla extract |
| 1 tsp | 5 ml | grated orange zest |
| 1 tsp | 5 ml | salt |
| 1 tbsp (15 g) | baking powder | |
| 600 g | flour, plus extra for rolling | |
| 200 g | dried figs, stems removed | |
| 100 g | raisins | |
| 200 g | pitted dates | |
| 150 g | almonds | |
| 150 g | walnuts | |
| 2 tbsp | 30 ml | honey |
| 60 ml | brandy | |
| 1 tsp | 5 ml | grated orange zest |
| 1 tsp | 5 ml | grated lemon zest |
| 2 tsp | 10 ml | cinnamon |
| 1/4 tsp | 1.3 ml | ground cloves |
| 1/8 tsp | 0.6 ml | grated nutmeg |
| 150 g | sifted icing sugar | |
| 25-30 ml | freshly squeezed orange juice, strained through a fine sieve | |
| — | sugar pearls for decoration |
Instructions
The recipe was created from ideas at epicurious.com and tasteofhome.com. This recipe is convenient in that the two main components - the dough and the filling - can be prepared in advance and in stages. What you need to pay attention to is that the filling needs at least one full day in the refrigerator so that all the aromas can blend and the filling itself firms up, making it easy to shape. The filling is quite durable and can be made up to a week before shaping the cookies, if necessary. The dough needs at least one hour of chilling, but it too can be prepared the day before along with the filling, or even 2-3 days earlier, kept well wrapped in the refrigerator. Shaping and baking the cookies of course happens in one go, but the decoration can be left for the next day. Read the recipe thoroughly and make a plan so that it is easy and as stress-free as possible for you. Makes 56-60 cookies.
Preparing the dough: In a bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat with a mixer until the mixture becomes creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Add the fresh milk, the vanilla extract and the orange zest and beat the mixture again. Separately, mix the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add them to the butter mixture and stir on low speed with the mixer or by hand with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms that does not stick. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Shape each part into a ball, then give it a square shape and wrap it in cling film. Leave in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. The dough can be prepared 2-3 days in advance and kept in the refrigerator. If it firms up too much, take it out of the fridge 15-20 minutes before working with it.
Preparing the filling: In a food processor, combine all the dried fruits, cutting the larger ones into smaller pieces, and the nuts. Grind until a crumbly mixture begins to form that, when pressed with the fingers, sticks together. For this purpose you must use a powerful food processor and I warn you that choppers will not do a good job and may even break. When the dried fruits and nuts are ground, add all the remaining ingredients and process in the machine until everything is well combined. Transfer the resulting paste to a bowl, cover it well with cling film and leave it overnight in the refrigerator so that all the aromas blend and it firms up, so that it is easy to shape. On this day you can also prepare the dough and leave it in the refrigerator until the next day, when the cookies will be assembled. The mixture can also be made 2-3 days earlier, kept in a tightly closed container in the refrigerator.
Assembling: Work with the four parts of the dough one after another, taking one part first and shaping it with 1/4 of the filling. During this time the remaining parts of the dough stay in the refrigerator so they do not warm up. Here is how the shaping itself is done: Take one part of the dough and roll it out on a floured surface into a rectangle 30×14 cm. If the dough is colder, the edges may split during rolling, but this is not a problem. Simply shape it with your hands so that a proper shape is obtained. Take 1/4 of the filling and shape it into a rope 30 cm long. Place the rope along one long edge of the rolled-out dough and roll it up into a log. Seal the edges of the dough with your fingers and roll the resulting log with the filling inside a few times over the work surface to smooth and shape it well. Cut the log into pieces 3 cm thick, keeping a slight angle while cutting. Arrange the cookies in a tray on baking paper, spaced apart from one another. Shape the remaining dough and filling in the same way. Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 180ºC for 16-18 minutes. They should turn slightly pink at the edges but remain light on the surface. Once removed from the oven, transfer them to a rack and leave to cool completely.
Decorating: For the decoration, pour the icing sugar into a bowl and add orange juice a little at a time until a slightly runny glaze forms. For more convenience when applying the glaze, it can be placed in a piping bag with a narrow round tip. Drizzle the cooled cookies with the glaze and immediately afterwards sprinkle them with sugar pearls. Instead of sprinkling, especially if the glaze sets faster, you can dip them glaze-side-down into a bowl filled with the sugar pearls. Shake the cookies free of excess pearls. Leave them until the glaze sets. Store in a container for about 2 weeks.