Make these holiday sweets with an Italian touch
Caterina Scarano grew up in Mottola, Puglia, in southeastern Italy. She remembers her mother and her aunt getting together starting weeks before Christmas to make traditional sweets. “Every weekend, they would get together and make so many sweets. We’d be together all day, some of us baking, some playing cards or bingo. As children, we would gather around the adults and ‘steal’ some of the dough to play with or eat raw. The smell of citrus, honey and sugar is still in my memories,” she said.
She remembers the Christmas season as two weeks of family reunion. “Christmas is a very important holiday for us. We get together, make food, share food and listen to the adults tell stories about their childhood.”
The family would gather at her house or that of her aunt and prepare focacce con cipolla e olive, the traditional Puglian onion and olive pie. “On Christmas Eve, we would get together and eat focacce, play bingo, then go to church at midnight. When we got back home, we’d eat a little more, then everyone goes to sleep and we get up on Christmas Day to make fresh pasta for Christmas lunch.”
Scarano came to the United States in 2014 when her husband's job offered the opportunity for the couple to travel abroad. They started out in San Diego, then moved to Atlanta in 2015. That year, she took a job with Storico Fresco, where she learned she was good at working with doughs and making pasta. She also gained experience as a pastry chef there. The pull of nostalgia made her want to share the recipes of her childhood, and she opened Caterí Authentic Italian Food in April 2019.
For her company, she prepares focacce, grissini and crostate filled with homemade chocolate-hazelnut paste or strawberry jam, all traditional dishes from Puglia, as well as other baked treats, filled pastas and lasagna.
And as she works, she remembers back to her childhood kitchen. “I was always there helping. My auntie would show me how to knead the dough and shape the purcidduzzi. She would even let me help some. The purcidduzzi are a favorite, the one sweet that was a staple of our Christmas.”
For our readers, Scarano reproduced some of these recipes from her home and that of her husband. The Cuscini di Gesú Bambino are a traditional dish of Puglia. “We would buy them from bakeries or make them at home. They are basically a simple sweet turnover with a chocolate stuffing. Usually the stuffing is made with nuts, but I like these made with chickpeas.” Like many Italian desserts, the cuscini are sweet, but not overly so.
Hazelnuts are a popular nut from the Piedmont region of Italy, and Scarano and her Brutti Ma Buoni take full advantage of their rich flavor. These cookies are the sweetest of Scarano’s recipes she shared with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but the roasted nuts and toasted sugar make a cookie that’s richly flavored but not cloying. Scarano learned to make these when she met her husband and moved to northern Italy.
And her panettone truffles pay homage to thrifty cooks everywhere. “Panettone (a brioche-type yeast bread) is a staple of our Christmas. It’s never homemade. The recipe takes days to make and over 50 hours to rise. It’s a long process, so you buy from a bakery. But when you go to someone’s home, they will always serve panettone. After the holidays, everyone has leftover panettone. The truffles were born as a way to use up those leftovers.”
RECIPES
It’s not too late to vary your Christmas cookie tray with some treats from Italy. Because they’re not overly sweet, they’re a great change from chocolate crinkles and icing-covered sugar cookies.
Cuscini di Gesú Bambino (Baby Jesus Pillows)
The charming name for these cookies refers to their pillowlike shape. If you don’t tell your guests the filling contains chickpeas, they will never guess.
This dough goes together quickly. You want it to have the consistency of pie dough so it will roll out easily. If you find one egg isn’t enough to get the consistency you want, whisk a second egg and then add it a bit at a time until you get a dough you can work with.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Pinch salt
- 1/2 cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks
- 1 tablespoon rum
- Powdered sugar, for garnish
- Make dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour and butter until smooth. Then add sugar, egg, lemon zest and salt. Remove from bowl, form into a flattened rectangle, wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
- Make filling: In the jar of a blender or bowl of a food processor, puree chickpeas.
- In a small saucepan over low heat, combine pureed chickpeas with chocolate and rum and heat until chocolate melts and mixture makes a smooth cream. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out to 1/8-inch-thick rectangle. Cut into 22 (6-by-2-inch) rectangles. Divide the filling between the rectangles. Fold so the short edges meet and seal the three open edges by pressing firmly. Arrange each cookie on a baking sheet. Continue until all cookies are shaped. Bake 25 minutes or until dough is light golden brown. Remove cookies to a wire rack and dust with powdered sugar. Cool before serving. Makes 22 cookies.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per cookie: 104 calories (percent of calories from fat, 37), 2 grams protein, 15 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 4 grams fat (2 grams saturated), 18 milligrams cholesterol, 27 milligrams sodium.— Adapted from a recipe provided by Caterina Scarano.
Brutti Ma Buoni (Ugly but Good)
This unusual treatment for the meringue feels like a variation on the classic Italian meringue in which a hot sugar syrup is drizzled into softly whipped egg whites. The result here is a finished cookie that is light brown and crisp all the way through. If you like hazelnuts (Nutella, anyone?), you will love these.
We tested the recipe not with whole raw hazelnuts but with roasted, chopped hazelnuts we found in the baking aisle of our local Kroger. At the busy holiday season, this saved one special shopping trip and a few minutes of preparation time. A 6-ounce package yielded 1 1/2 cups chopped hazelnuts, which was just right for this recipe.
- 2 cups whole raw hazelnuts
- 5 egg whites
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
- Arrange whole hazelnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven 15 minutes or until nuts are fragrant and begin to brown. Remove from oven and put nuts on a clean kitchen towel. Let them cool 10 minutes, then rub the nuts in the towel to remove skin. Coarsely chop and set aside.
- Allow baking sheet to cool, then line with parchment paper. Prepare a second baking sheet in the same fashion.
- In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, then slowly add sugar and vanilla and beat until whites are stiff and shiny. Carefully fold in the chopped nuts so your whipped egg whites don’t collapse.
- Transfer the mixture to a medium saucepan over low heat and cook 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and scoop out by tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, placing each scoop 2 inches apart. Bake 50 minutes or until cookies are dry all the way through. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Makes 37 cookies.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per cookie: 77 calories (percent of calories from fat, 59), 1 gram protein, 7 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 5 grams fat (trace saturated fat), no cholesterol, 8 milligrams sodium.— Adapted from a recipe provided by Caterina Scarano.
Panettone Truffles
Panettone is a beloved Italian holiday classic, a lightly sweet brioche-type yeast bread baked in a cylindrical shape. The dough is rich with candied citrus peel, and the loaf is usually decorated on top with whole skin-on almonds.
We found panettones ranging from just over a pound at Sprouts to 1-pound 10-ounce loaves at Alon’s. The recipe will use about half of that larger loaf.
We confess that unlike a good Italian grandmother, we used a food processor to turn our panettone into coarse crumbs, then added the milk, cream cheese and sugar and lightly pulsed again to yield a mixture that held together perfectly for forming into balls.
- 5 cups coarse panettone crumbs
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup mascarpone or cream cheese, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 1/4 cups dark chocolate chips or chunks
- Chopped hazelnuts, coconut flakes, slivered almonds, or sprinkles, for garnish
- In a large mixing bowl, crumble panettone. Add in milk, mascarpone or cream cheese and sugar and mix until well combined. Cover the mixture and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- When ready to form truffles, in a double boiler, melt chocolate and keep warm.
- Remove mixture from refrigerator. Scoop out a tablespoon of the mixture and roll it into a ball. Continue until all the mix is used. Using two forks, lower each ball into the melted chocolate to cover completely. Remove to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Garnish as desired while chocolate is still warm. Continue until all truffles are made. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Makes 29 truffles.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per truffle: 110 calories (percent of calories from fat, 41), 1 gram protein, 13 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 4 grams fat (2 grams saturated), 23 milligrams cholesterol, 30 milligrams sodium.— Adapted from a recipe provided by Caterina Scarano.
Purcidduzzi
Purcidduzzi is a traditional Christmas treat in the region of Puglia where Scarano is from. These are simple to make, and the orange zest-flavored olive oil is a delicious surprise in the dough. Mix the dough in a bowl or mix it together right on your work surface.
You can bake these, but traditionally they are fried. Tiny balls, piled on a cake plate, make a festive holiday centerpiece. The smaller the ball, the crunchier the purcidduzzi will be. We found some of our taste testers preferred them a little bigger so the interior retained a soft texture.
If you like, fry all these ahead of time and then wait to glaze until just before serving. Be sure you use a honey with a flavor you enjoy because it will be a predominant feature of the finished cookies.
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup pure olive oil
- Peel of 1 orange
- 3/4 cup dry white wine, warmed, or as needed
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- 1 cup honey
- Sprinkles and cinnamon, for garnish
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a small skillet, warm olive oil over medium heat and add orange peel. When orange peel is sizzling, remove pan from heat, discard peel and pour olive oil over flour mixture. Use a fork to start mixing and then use your hands to keep working the dough. Add the warmed wine a little bit at a time until dough becomes smooth and pliable. Form the dough into 1-inch-wide ropes and then cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Set aside, covered.
- In a Dutch oven or fryer, heat oil to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with paper towels.
- Add the balls and fry until golden, about 2 minutes. Do not crowd fryer. Remove balls from hot oil with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
- In a small saucepan, heat honey on low heat. Drop warm balls in honey to coat, then arrange on serving plate. Dust with cinnamon and top with sprinkles. Serves 12.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per serving: 408 calories (percent of calories from fat, 41), 4 grams protein, 55 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 18 grams fat (2 grams saturated), no cholesterol, 221 milligrams sodium.— Adapted from a recipe provided by Caterina Scarano.
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