Recipe Talk

Helpdesk email from Mary:

i am looking for an italian cookie recipe called poppateles (not sure of the spelling) i think it has orange rinds in it please help

thanks
mary

never heard of them but do love Italian cookies. Will ask my Italian friend if she knows how to fix them. Will let you know if I find out the recipe,ok? in the meantime, have you done a web search for them?

Could they be in the shape of little balls?

Here are a couple Italian cookie recipes with orange zest (grated rind), I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, I'm sure there are a lot of recipes out there that contain orange zest, but give these a whirl.

Cigar Cookies
yields 4 dozen

4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
2/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Adjust rack in center of oven and heat to 425 degrees. Lightly grease non-stick baking sheets. Whip egg whites until stiff. Gradually beat in sugar. Fold in vanilla and zest. Thoroughly fold in flour, then fold in butter.

Drop batter by teaspoonful in 3 places on baking sheet. Spread with spatula into thin squares (approximately 4 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches). Bake until slightly puffed and light brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from oven, turn cookie over with spatula and quickly roll around a 1/2-inch diameter dowel or wooden handle while pliable. If cookies harden before being removed from pan, return to oven just until softened. Remove from wooden form and continue cooling on rack. Repeat with remaining batter. Store cookies in an airtight container.

----
Pizzelles

1/2 c. Crisco
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 c. flour, sifted
1/2 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla (or anise)
1 tsp. orange flavoring (or lemon)
Rind of 2 lg. oranges grated (or lemon)
Pizzelle cookie baker (can be found in kitchen gourmet stores and resembles a waffle baker)

Beat eggs; add sugar and cooled melted Crisco. Add flavorings and grated rinds. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and blend thoroughly.
To make cookies, about 1 1/2 teaspoon of cookie dough is needed for each cookie. Follow directions for baking according to those included in the cookie baker. It helps when handling the dough if it has been refrigerated for awhile to make the consistency more like pie dough.

The easy way to handle this is to put your mixed cookie dough in refrigerator (or freezer) until it has the consistency of pie dough (about 1/2 hour). Flour sheet of waxed paper (about 10-inches long), put cookie dough down center like a sausage and roll in waxed paper. Will probably need 2 or 3 sheets of floured waxed paper.

Put these rolls in freezer (about 1 hour) and when hard, unwrap the dough from the waxed paper and slice. Make slices equal to about 1 1/2 teaspoons and lay on floured waxed paper. Use these slices to make cookies in the baker according to baker directions.

ITALIAN PANFORTE

a recipe from ``Il Talismano Della Felicita,'' by Ada Boni.

INGREDIENTS:
-- 1 cup hazelnuts
-- 1 cup blanched almonds
-- 1 cup candied orange peel
-- 1 cup candied citron
-- 3 tablespoons cocoa
-- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
-- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
-- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
-- 1/2 cup cake flour
-- 3/4 cup sugar
-- 3/4 cup honey
-- 2 tablespoons butter

-- Powdered sugar

INSTRUCTIONS: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with lightly greased bakers' parchment.

Place the hazelnuts in 1 baking pan and the almonds in another. Bake about 10 minutes. Remove nuts from oven; reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.

Rub the hazelnuts in a clean kitchen towel to remove most of the skins. Coarsely chop the hazelnuts and almonds. Cut the orange peel and citron into thin strips. Combine the nuts, fruit, cocoa, spices and flour in a large bowl; toss to coat.

Heat the sugar, honey and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Cook until the syrup registers 242 degrees to 248 degrees on a candy thermometer. To test without a candy thermometer, drop a small amount of the syrup into a glass of cold water. It should form a ball.

Mix syrup into dry ingredients, working quickly -- this becomes very sticky very fast. Using a heavy dampened spatula, scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes (panforte will not be firm). Place pan on a rack to cool.

Remove the panforte from pan and cut into wedges or squares. Dust with powdered sugar.

Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Yields 16 cookies.

PER COOKIE: 285 calories, 4 g protein, 45 g carbohydrate, 12 g fat (2 g saturated), 4 mg cholesterol, 56 mg sodium, 2 g fiber.
=======================
ITALIAN SESAME COOKIES

Ingredients :
4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. sugar
1 c. shortening
4 eggs
1/4 c. orange juice or grated skin of
1 orange
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Sesame seeds

Preparation :
Sift dry ingredients together. Add shortening and mix well. Add
juice, eggs and vanilla and mix together. Turn on floured board.
Knead a few minutes. Slice pieces of dough and roll into strips, cut
each strip about 2 inches in size. Roll each piece in sesame seeds
that have been dampened with a little water. Place on lightly
greased cookie sheet. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 18
minutes or until lightly browned.
----------------------------------
ITALIAN BREAD SEED COOKIES

Ingredients :
3 eggs
3/4 c. Crisco
3/4 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
5 c. flour
3 drops anise oil; optional
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
Sesame seeds

Preparation :
Mix all ingredients and roll into a long roll. Chill. Cut into
slices about 2-3 inches thick. Roll slightly and put water on
cookie and roll in sesame seeds. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly
brown.
----------------------------------
ITALIAN SEED COOKIES

Ingredients :
12 c. flour
12 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 lbs. butter
4 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk
6 tsp. vanilla
12 eggs
5 cans of sesame seeds

Preparation :
Mix flour and baking powder together. Melt butter in pan;
gradually add the sugar. Beat eggs well; add vanilla to the eggs.
In a large bowl, put butter and egg and sugar mixture. Start adding
your flour mixture to butter and eggs. Mix until all is blended.
Cover and set aside for half an hour. Then take out parts of dough
and roll out cigar shape, only smaller. Place sesame seeds on wax
paper and roll dough over seeds. Cut into 3 1/2 inch pieces. Bake
at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Makes about 500 cookies.
----------------------------------
ITALIAN COOKIES WITH SESAME SEEDS

Ingredients :
1 box confectioners' sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 lb. can Crisco
1 dash of salt
1 tsp. vanilla
5 eggs
2 lb. flour
1 box sesame seeds

Preparation :
Mix Crisco, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, baking powder and flour.
Roll into little balls and dip into beaten eggs and sesame seeds.
Bake at 350 degrees until brown, about 10 minutes.

=============
Tarralucci or

Lady Fingers (Italian cookies)
1993)

1 dozen extra large eggs
2 1/4 cups melted shortening (butter, margarine, and Crisco mixed together)
2 cups sugar
5 tbs pure vanilla
3 tsp orange extract
2 tsp lemon extract
4 tbsp grated orange rind
3 tbsp grated lemon rind
(the purchased variety is okay for both the rinds)
14-17 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder per cup of flour used

Whip the eggs until foamy. Add the sugar and cream well. Add the melted shortening--cool it first. Then mix in the extracts and rinds. Mix well.

Place the mixture in a very large bowl (at the very least 8 quart size). Add about half the flour and baking powder and mix well with a heavy spoon.

At this point you will probably have to begin using your hands for the mixing. Start adding the flour and baking powder 2 cups at a time and mixing well after each addition. Oil your hands to help keep the dough from sticking as you mix.

This is the tricky part, knowing when the dough has had enough flour. It should be very smooth and slightly tacky but come clean from your hand. Continue kneading the dough for about 2-3 minutes. I usually turn it out on a well floured board, oil my hands and continue kneading. It will have a slight sheen to it and be smooth--although not as smooth as bread dough and definitely not as elastic. Cover with a towel and let the dough rest for about 1/2 hour.

My grandmother taught me how to do this and I don't know if it comes across right when it is written.

To form the cookies, you can do several things. They can be made into the shape of a doughnut or a lady finger and I sometimes get tired of these and form "s". For doughnut shape - pinch off a good handful of dough and roll it into a short log in the palms of your hands. Then roll the log into a piece approximately 8 inches long and about 1/2" thick--like a rope. Do this on a board or on your table. Bring the two ends together and pinch together well so that there is not seam. You should be able to place two fingertips inside the hole of the doughnut. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until just golden on the bottom. They will really raise. For a large (the old kind--that's all I've got) cookie sheet - you should be able to get two dozen cookies per sheet.

For lady finger shape - you don't need quite as much dough - form into a log about 3" long and 1/2" in diameter. You can get about 30 per cookie sheet.

For the "s" shape - roll out the log only slightly thinner and then wind it in from each end to the middle making sure that it sticks together at the middle.

Keep oiling your hands to prevent the dough from sticking either on the board or your hands.

ICING:
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup milk
small tsp of vanilla
small tsp of lemon extract
coloring if desired - use the paste kind rather than liquid.

Mix well. The icing should be thick runny - that is - if you lift out a handful of the icing it should form a thick ribbon from your hand. To ice the cookies usually requires two people. One person works quite quickly and ices each cookie all over. The second person either dips the cookies in shredded coconut, chopped walnuts or sprinkles non-periels (spelling) over them.

This recipe makes about 33 dozen lady fingers and slightly less tarralucci's.

------------------
Neapolitan Christmas Cookies

Straight from the the Aunt Rose, Naples files,

in Italian they are called Paste Reali..

They may take a bit of work to find all of the ingredients,

but they are truly worth it.. great cookies!

For the frosting:

* 2 1/3 cups sugar

* 4/5 cup water

* A pinch sodium bicarbonate

For the pastries:

* 3/4 pound shelled almonds

* 1 pinch powdered cinnamon

* 1 2/3 cups sugar

* 2 fingers (of a glass) water

* Edible rice paper or wafers, about 3 inches in diameter.

* Silvered or colored candied almonds (you should be able to find these in a wedding supply store).

Bring some water to a boil, remove it from the fire, and soak the almonds for 5 minutes. Pat them dry and rub the skins away, then grind them by running them through a meat grinder three times, then a food mill once, sprinkling them with a little water to keep them from giving off their oil (you can also use a blender, using short bursts.

Combine the 2 fingers of water and the sugar in a pot (if it's round-bottomed, so much the better) and heat, stirring gently, until a drop of syrup poured from the spoon onto a plate does not spread out, and when crushed between thumb and forefinger forms fine threads when you separate your fingers. Add the almonds and cinnamon, and cook over a very low flame, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes. Remove the mixture from the fire and let it cool, stirring frequently. When it is almost cold, spread the it in a half-inch thick layer over the wafers, smoothing the top and sides with the blade of a knife. Depending upon the shape of your wafers you will end up with either diamond or round shaped cookies; they should be about 2 inches across at the most.

Let the cookies set for 24 hours, then trim away the excess wafer.

Prepare the icing by boiling the syrup to the stage described above. Test frequently because if you cook too long the syrup will be too hard. Once it reaches the proper degree of doneness pour the syrup into a bowl and whip it until it is white and fluffy (this takes patience). Spread the frosting over the cookies, dot each with a candied almond, and let dry.

These will keep for several days, though you can expect them to vanish first.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1528837/posts