Cuccidati – the Colorful Italian Christmas Cookies You’ve Been Missing.

I believe there will be room for all the cookies on the table come December. Sure, we have our favorite baked goods—I have gingerbread cookies and these unnamed cherry-infused butter cookies—but you should leave room for new names. This year I’m recommending a classic Italian cookie called cuccidati. Perhaps your grandparents made them a long time ago, or perhaps they are brand new; However, these fruit cookies deserve a place in your annual lineup.

I can confidently say that Italians are great when it comes to cookies. Biscotti, amaretti, pignoli and rainbow cookies are the superstars, to name a few. Cuccidati , or bucellati, are a classic Sicilian Christmas cookie. Even if you’ve never had one, I think you might find it very familiar. Fig Newtons are similar to, although not necessarily based on, these homemade treats. The soft, buttery cookie dough is wrapped around a fruity fig center and the cookies are topped with sweet icing and colorful sprinkles.

Almost anything to do with rainbow gypsy catches my interest , and I’m glad that’s the case. While they’re not as simple as chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies, the dough and filling can be made quickly in a food processor. These fruit-filled cookies make a great addition to any form of Christmas cookies you’re delivering to friends and are much more enjoyable to eat than regular sugar cookies.

How to cook cuccidati

1. Load a food processor with a regular blade. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Pulse the mixture two or three times to combine. Add the butter in tablespoon-sized pieces and pulse the mixture about 10 times or until the butter pieces are the size of peas. Add the extract and one cold egg. I used almond extract, but vanilla extract would work too. Run food processor until dough comes together, about 20 seconds. The dough should be soft and easy to remove from the food processor. Place it in a bowl, cover and refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

2. Insert the blade back into the food processor. The dough should contain almost all the ingredients, so there is no need to rinse anything off. Add the figs, nuts and raisins to the food processor and pulse until everything is roughly the same size. This takes from 30 seconds to a minute. Check it every 15 seconds or so to see how things are going. Add the marmalade, brandy and orange zest and stir again until the mixture forms a paste. If you don’t have brandy, you can use Marsala wine, another sweet wine, or skip the alcohol and use juice. Scoop the filling into a small bowl.

3. To shape the cookies, dust your work surface with flour. Be generous with flour because the dough is a little sticky. You can divide the dough into two halves first, this may be easier than rolling it all out at once like I did. Either way, gather some of the floured dough into a rectangular shape, then roll it out to a quarter-inch thickness. I rolled out the dough six inches wide and 20 inches long. I ended up having some extra dough on the side that I used later, so no big deal, but if you work in two batches of dough, you’ll avoid any excess. Just roll it out to about four inches wide and 10 inches long.

4. I then spooned the filling down the left side and along the entire length of the dough. Wet your fingertips and pat the fig filling to flatten it a little. You may have additional toppings. Fold the left edge of the dough up over the side of the filling, then continue folding both of them up and over to enclose the filling in the dough. I had about an inch and a half extra around the edges, so I trimmed it off and used the rest of the filling to bake more cookies.

5. Using a sharp knife, trim the edges off the ends and then cut the cookies about an inch wide. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them about an inch apart, and bake them in the oven at 375°F for 12 to 15 minutes or until the bottoms begin to brown. Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack.

6. Make a simple royal icing using powdered sugar and a little egg white. The egg white dries out a lot, so you end up with a thin, crispy filling that doesn’t spread or squish when it dries. I love this thing if I’m delivering cookies. You can use raw egg whites, but if you are concerned about any foodborne illness, use carton egg whites, which are just as healthy and pasteurized. Mix both together until you get a thick glaze. It should be spreadable, but not liquid.

I used a pastry brush to apply the frosting to each cookie, but you can use a spoon or try dipping the cookies into the frosting. Sprinkle rainbow nonpareils after frosting each cookie. Royal icing starts to form a crust right away, so you can’t frost all the cookies first and then frost them again; you must do each of them at once.

These Christmas favorites are soft and buttery with an earthy caramel flavor at the fig center. Store them at room temperature in a covered container for up to a week.

Cuccidati recipe

Ingredients:

For the test:

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 stick butter, cold

• 1 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla extract substitute)

• 1 egg, cold

For filling:

• 7 ounces dried figs (about 1 heaping cup)

• ¼ cup walnuts or almonds

• ¼ cup raisins

• ¼ cup orange marmalade or other jam

• 2 tablespoons fortified wine or brandy (or apple cider substitute, orange juice)

• Zest of 1 small orange

For the royal icing:

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 1-2 tablespoons egg white

• Sprinkles for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Baking line with parchment paper.

2. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times. Add the butter in tablespoon-sized pieces and mix until the butter is the size of peas. Add the egg, extract and mix until a homogeneous dough forms. Place the dough in a bowl, cover and refrigerate.

3. No need to clean the food processor; simply insert the blade back in and load it with figs, nuts and raisins. Mix until the ingredients are very small and about the same size. Add marmalade, alcohol or orange juice and zest. Blend until the mixture turns into a paste.

4. Dust your work surface generously with flour. Divide the dough in half and shape it into a rectangle. Roll out the dough into a quarter-inch thick rectangle, four inches wide and 10 inches long. Place tablespoons of fruit filling over the entire length of the dough. Roll out the filling with wet fingers.

5. Roll out the filling over the dough and make sure the dough comes together at the seam. Trim the edges, then cut the log into one-inch thick segments. Place cookies on baking sheet about an inch apart. Repeat with the second half of the dough and filling.

6. Bake at 375°F for 12 to 15 minutes or until the bottom begins to brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.

7. To make the glaze, mix the powdered sugar and egg white until a thick glaze forms. Dip the cookies or use a pastry brush to apply some to the top of each cookie. Working one at a time, add frosting and sprinkles. Let the cookies dry for a few hours before packing them into cookie cutters.

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