NewYorkBaker wrote:
> This year I would like to do the Italian-American theme for the Christmas
> cookies. The traditional Italian-American cookies that I could think of right
> now a
>
> - almond paste cookies (with or without) pignoli (pine nuts)
> - chocolate clove (or spice) cookies with white glaze
> - sesame seed cookies
> - fig cookies (with sprinkles)
> - lemon cookies (love knots) with white glaze
> - assorted biscotti
>
> Any others?
>
> If you have a favorite Italian cookie recipe to share, then I would be more
> than blessed to have it in my kitchen.
>
> Buon Natale!

Cantucci di Prato

4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 Tbsp butter
6 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of one lemon, lime or orange

2 cups almonds
1 cup chopped dried apricots
1 cup craisins (dried sweetened cranberries)

preheat oven to 350, grease two baking sheets

Mix first ingredients well, add flour until it no longer sticks to your
hands. Mix in nuts and chopped fruit, roll into 2" logs, lay on baking
sheets and flatten slightly. Bake on top shelf for about 20 minutes or
until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes. Cut logs
into 3/4" wide cookies with a serrated bread knife using a sawing
motion. Place back on baking sheet and bake another 10 minutes.

It takes practice to time the cutting just right. The cookie must have
firmed up enough by cooling so that cutting through the almonds does not
press the nut into the dough, and the almond must be hot enough so that
it is still easy to cut. Not to worry, though. If the cookies crumble,
all the calories leak out through the broken ends, so you can eat the
scraps without guilt.

--
Sir Baldin Pramer, R.P.A.