Wine Cookies from Tuscany--Otherwise Ciambelle

It is easy to fall in love with Italian food. But even among the dishes I tried I found some that I liked more than others. One of them were ciambelle--the Italian wine cookies.

Italian cookies are different than American. Not only because of different ingredients they are made of but also because they are barely sweet. I could eat many of them enjoying their taste without worrying about their sugar content.

I am not a breakfast person and eat hardly anything with my morning coffee but a cup of espresso and a couple of delicate sandy cookies will always be my sweet breakfast memories from Rome.

My favorite ciambelle came from Tuscany. They are made just with flour, olive oil, wine, and a bit of sugar. Wine, and in that particular recipe red wine, gives them the taste and acts as a rising agent. They are finished on top with whole hazelnuts. The brand I liked most also used whole wheat flour which made them even healthier, especially as a morning snack.

I got many different recipes on how to make ciambelle. The one I tried was exactly the same as the ciambelle I ate in Rome. I made a large batch of them, which I stored in a jar and enjoy every morning.

Ciambelle--Wine Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour plus extra for dusting,
1 cup whole wheat flour,
1 cup olive oil,
1 cup red wine,
1/2 cup sugar plus extra 1/4 cup for the top,
1 cup whole, roasted hazelnuts,
a pinch of salt.

Preparation:
1. Sift both flours into a large bowl. Add sugar and salt and mix well. Pour in wine and olive oil and knee a dough.

2. Preheat oven to 400F.
3. To make cookies take out a pieces of dough and roll out into a long about 1/2 inch thick snake. Cut it into 10-inch long pieces and close to make a circle. Dust with sugar and place on a baking sheet. Put on top 4-6 hazelnuts.

4. Bake the cookies for about 30 minutes.
5. Let them cool down and put them in an airtight container for future consumption.

Pecan Cookies--Winter Classic

As it often does in the most busy and demanding situations, my computer crushed again. And since I have not yet restored all my files, today's post is not about what it was supposed to be but about what is available. To bridge the gap, I will share a simple cookie recipe.

I am not a cookie person and I prefer to bake even the most labor intensive cake rather than cookies. But it is a cookie season and several friends have been asking me for cookie recipes.

These pecan cookies are classic and probably the most easy to do. My mother liked them when she visited us in the US and always enjoyed them with her afternoon tea. They are very sandy and crunchy thanks too the pecans, but not too sweet. Most of the sweetness comes from the small amount of the confectioner's sugar you dust on them. They can be made ahead and, as many cookies, stored in a cookie container for a couple of weeks.

Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:
2 sticks of unsalted butter, soft,
4 tbsp sugar,
1 tbsp vanilla,
1 cup tiny chopped pecans,
2 cups all purpose flour,
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar for dusting.

Preparation:
1. In a bowl of a stand-up mixer or using your hands mix all the ingredients, except the confectioner's sugar, until they turn into a smooth dough.
2. Make a 2-inch diameter log, wrap it in plastic foil and let it chill for about an hour.
3. Preheat oven to 300F.
4. Cut the dough into a 1/4 inch-thick slices

and place them on a slightly buttered cookie sheet.

5. Bake the cookies for 20-30 minutes until gold.
6. Let them cool down, dust them with confectioner's sugar and serve or store in a cookie container.

Cream Cheese Cookies with Apricot Filling

I am not a cookie person, especially when it comes to these soft chocolate chip cookies that my son loves so much. Therefore, today, I will share a recipe for the cookies that I like.

They come from Poland. It is an easy recipe and it always works. Last time I made them was decades ago, when I was making my first steps in the kitchen.

I made them at that time with the slightly sour white farmers' cheese and different home-made sour cherry or plum preserves, or poppy seeds filling. I loved the taste of these cookies as the slightly sour dough nicely complimented the sweet filling from fruits preserves.

Recently, I found a version of the same cookies calling for cream cheese instead of farmers' cheese. I also learned that this recipe originally comes from the Jewish culinary tradition, which I was not aware of since, over the years, it blended strongly into the Polish cuisine.

A couple of weeks ago, when I made bow-tie cookies, I used my favorite apricot preserves. But for Christmas I am planning on using an exquisite and aromatic rose petal preserve which a friend of mine brought me from Poland. Any preserves of your choice can be used in this recipe, and they would not be too sweet, as the dough does not have any sugar and you just dust them them with icing sugar at the end.

Cream Cheese Cookies with Apricot Filling

Ingredients:
8oz cream cheese or farmers' cheese (Polish "twarog"), at room temperature,
2 sticks (about 250 g) butter, room temperature,
2 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour,
1 cup of preserves of your choice,
1 tsp vanilla extract,
icing sugar for dusting,

Preparation:
1. In a stand up mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter until soft and well combined. Add the vanilla extract, flour, and beat slowly until a smooth dough forms.
2. Wrap the dough in a plastic foil and chill for two hours or preferably overnight.
3. Take out the dough from a refrigerator and let it stand in room temperature for 1/2 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 400F.
5. Roll out the dough on a large surface, slightly dusted with flour. Cut 2-inch squares. Place a teaspoon of preserve in a middle of each square and bring the opposite corners together slightly squeezing them. Put them on a buttered cookie sheet.

6. Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes, until puffed and gold.
7. Cool down the cookies and dust them with icing sugar.