What about a little cookie?

Ingredients for these easy-to-prepare traditional Italian cookie are very basic.

1/4 pound sugar
1/2 pound butter
2/3 pound flour
1 yolk
icing sugar for decoration (or jam)

Soften the butter into a bowl; add the sugar and mix to obtain a consistent mixture. Add the egg yolk and continue mixing. Transfer this dough onto a flat clean surface and gradually add the flour, kneading. When the mixture is a consistent and solid ball, wrap in clear plastic and leave to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Pull out of the fridge and roll out the ball into a 1/3 inch thick sheet (a little less than a centimeter). Start cut the cookies with a biscuit cutter in the shape of a flower with a hole in the middle (classic shape of canestrelli). Alternatively you can use a non-holed cutter and have handy a small circular cutter to make the hole separately. This will be useful if you want to prepare “sandwich” canestrelli as I did. Remix quickly the dough that has left from the first cut to make another sheet of dough and continue cut.

Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper and place the cookies over it. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 F and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Let cool down. Decorate dusting with icing sugar. These cookies are amazing with a vanilla or zabaione cream, perfect with tea or espresso.

For the sandwich alternative of the picture. Cut thinner canestrelli (say 1/4 in.) using a non-holed flower shape. After you have all the “bases” done, cut out a hole from the half of the canestrelli that you obtained. Spread a teaspoon jam on a non-holed base and place the holed flower on top of it in a way that the “petals” overlap perfectly.

I chosed the recipe found on this blog. This nice guy named the blog “Mr Canestrello” after his preferred and most successful cookie recipe apparently… Indeed cookies were very good,  the recipe is accurate and the procedure very well explained. For those who can read Italian.

Advertisement