COOKIES
Date Walnut
This luscious date and walnut confection has been a friend and family favorite in demand at our house for years. We will soon be offering limited amounts for sale to our customers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
A layer of soft pastry surrounds a toasted walnut stuffed Medjool date. The browned butter frosting is creamy, buttery and adds the perfect finish to a scrumptious treat.
Folks cut them in half to begin, because they are rich. And, then, the second half disappears quickly! LOL!
Five Spice Shortbread
If you are fan of Five Spice and Shortbread, here is a lovely combination in a soft buttery shortbread with a little of your favorite spice to tingle the taste buds.
Lovely ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and star anise to add exotic flavor to a traditional cookie.
Italian Fig Cookies
Here’s a nice figgy treat to pack for a picnic, a buffet lunch, or just for the office!
A light, flaky pastry top and bottom encases a simple and smooth fig filling with a hint of orange and cinnamon.
This is a new one that is becoming one of our most popular.
Pignoli
Here is a no-flour and no-added-fat recipe that comes from a long line of Italian recipes.
Sweetened Almond paste and pine nuts form the basis of this chewy sweet.
Apricot Almond and Spice
A soft moist cookie with dried apricots, roasted almonds, a hint of five spice and a lovely almond flavored icing.
This is one of our newest cookies and is getting rave reviews so far!
Cuccidati
My Nonna’s Recipe. Yes, I followed her around her ranch kitchen back in the 1950’s. She had no measuring spoons or cups and my Nonno and Uncles would shell the walnuts and almonds from the orchard, dry the figs and prunes.
They also were the ones who attached hand grinders to the large kitchen table and ground all the ingredients for my Nonna and aunts to make the filling. Today, we have more convenient devices, but, according to my family’s critique, I have “nailed Nonna’s Cuccidati!”
Soft and sweet; made with a filling of figs, dates, prunes, raisins, roasted walnuts, almonds, all ground with a little honey, imported Italian orange marmalade, brandy, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
Cantucci
These crunchy twice-baked almond cookies look a little like what you may call “Biscotti.” They are not so dry or hard, but still crunchy. They are loaded with sliced roasted almonds (skin on!) lots of butter and a hint of organic fennel pollen. Everyone finds them quite addicting, even non-Italians!
Italian Wedding Cookies
Soft, melt-in-your mouth, almond and butter cookies, they are similar, in some ways, to Mexican Wedding Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, and Snowball Cookies.
These have equal amounts of butter and ground almonds, along with the flour and sugar and a hint of vanilla. Very popular with everyone.