CUCCIDATI

Sicilian Filled Christmas Cookies 

Cuccidati

When I was a very little boy, I remember living under the kitchen table while my mother, my grandmother, all my aunts, and countless cousins as well as other Sicilian women known only to me as zia this or zia that, would spend a month of Sundays baking Christmas cookies.  My father and uncles would invariably filter in, one by one, to taste a morsel of this, a crumb of that in between quarters of the various football teams, but first and foremost, the Green Bay Packers. Because my grandmother’s birthday fell on Christmas Day, this holiday in particular required planning on a grand scale and sweets played a large part in the unfolding culinary drama. The recipe that follows represents the very epicenter of the vast repertoire and relentless dedication to baking that was cultivated and handed down generation to generation. It is where I found my roots as a cook and baker.

Makes at least 400-500 cookies.

Cookie dough:

6   sticks chilled unsalted butter

3   cups sugar

4   tsp. baking powder

18 eggs

1   tsp. salt

2   tsp. vanilla

1   tsp. almond extract

16 cups flour

In a very large stand mixer with a paddle attachment (Kitchenaid is best if you have one), cream the butter and the sugar until creamy; add all other ingredients except the flour and mix until completely blended. It should be a pale yellow color.

Change the blade to a dough hook. Add the flour a little at a time. I'd start out with a half a cup to ensure you don't get flour all over the place and then start adding more and more until it takes on the consistency of dough. You'll need a lot of flour!

Regarding flour: all it takes until the consistency is right for rolling and filling the dough. My Mother's recipe asserts with great confidence: "about 18 cups!!!"

Filling:

4     boxes pitted Dates

4     pkgs. Figs

1     lb. Raisins

1     lb. Walnuts

1/2  lb. Pecans

The zest of two oranges (you can use the juice as well - no seeds)

The zest of two lemons (no juice)....you can use a grater to get the zest if you don't mind scraping your hands up....see below

4     jars mincemeat

Optional: 

1     jar apricot jelly or orange marmalade

Rum, cognac, grand marnier, cointreau (whichever you prefer) to taste. The last time I made them (Christmas 2010) I used about a cup of Rum and Grand Marnier mixed together. 

The recipe calls for a food grinder which is very labor intensive. Even with a Cuisinart, it's a lot of work as you will find out! A Kitchenaid or other large mixmaster is also preferred for making the dough. 

Place the dates in a food processor with the standard metal blade. Process until completely ground up. Remove dates and put into a very large bowl. Process each of the fruit and nut ingredients separately until ground up and put into the large bowl with each of the items. You can peel the lemon and the oranges and process them together in the food processor if you prefer; it's a lot less work. Mix well with your hands. It will be very, very sticky. Start adding the rum or whatever you want to flavor it with but i would stick to rum, brandy or Grand Marnier. You don't want it to be runny, though, so go slowly with the booze, letting each amount you add be totally absorbed into the mixture before adding more, but you should aim for a round taste; sweet, succulent with just the subtlest hint of alcohol. You want a dense mass of dark paste. 

Preheat oven to 400º F

Roll out dough on floured board and cut with the rim of a small glass or round cookie cutter. Fill each circle of dough with a small amount of filling and fold over to make a crescent (half moon). Press down with finger tips to seal (a beaten egg or an egg with some milk is optional to brush the rim of the dough for a better seal), then take a fork and press the prongs into the dough to make a slight impression for decorative purposes. This also helps the dough bake with more color and texture thus making a better tasting cookie. Continue doing this until all the dough is used or you've given up, whichever comes first! Fortitude, determination and endurance are key here because this is the worst part of the job, filling the cookies. 

You will need as many floured cookie sheets as possible (you can bake several sheets at a time but you should monitor the progress and turn the sheets if necessary to prevent over/under baking or burning. You want an even golden toasted color. I would start out timing at 8 minutes and then check the cookies for brownness, evenness, etc. And then bake for 2-4 more minutes. Some ovens are hotter than others which means the timing may have to be adjusted. Rule of thumb here: less cooked is better than over cooked as the filling will dry out. Place cookies on a floured cookie sheet and bake for 10 -15 minutes. Let cool completely.

At this point, your entire kitchen will be a sea of cookies and there probably won't be an available surface for anything else. Make sure you reserve a lot of space for the cookies to cool (preferably overnight). The kitchen table or the dining room table with all the leaves in place covered with a good oilskin tablecloth works very well for this. 

Make the glaze immediately before you are about to decorate the cookies. 

Glaze:

2 lbs. Powdered Sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla

Milk (mix in enough to get the right consistency. You won't need a lot but you should definitely use a sieve to filter in the sugar with the milk. Do this slowly to make sure the sugar dissolves otherwise you're going to have lumpy glaze. I'd do it with a fork in a large metal bowl

Several packages or containers of colored confectioner's sprinkles or non pareils: red, pink, green, blue, silver, gold (preferable in "dust" form) plus little silver and gold "seed pearls" (expensive but worth it). You can find these at baking specialty stores or on line. They are expensive but the cookies look so fantastic - and beautiful - with them I wouldn't do them without. It's totally optional though.

When cookies are cooled and laid out on large flat surface, take a pastry brush or several if more than one person will be doing this (you can use a very small paint brush that you can get at a hardware store. Paint brushes must be new and never have been in contact with paint of any kind.) Dip into glaze and brush a light coat of glaze on each cookie, a person should be right behind you with the sprinkles, sprinkling each cookie so that it all adheres to the glaze before it dries and hardens. 

The finished, glazed and decorated confections must dry for at least four hours, preferably overnight before you start putting them in air tight containers. Best to keep a window ajar as cold air helps them to dry. These cookies freeze extremely well. 500 cookies can last a long time if you're not entertaining on a large scale. They make wonderful little house gifts to friends and family over the holidays.

You will have leftover filling. Freeze it for next year!

Have fun!