Italian Christmas Cookie

Cookies with a simple icing.

A festive and simple cookie that will be enjoyed by everyone. It is fun to make and young children might enjoy helping.

Italian Christmas Cookies

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cup flour
4 tsp. baking powder

Sift dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs; add vanilla and dry ingredients.

Knead and add flour as needed to keep dough from sticking to hands. Pinch off dough, roll in your hands to form a log and then twirl into shape. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

Icing

2 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
6 tsp. water
Stir until creamy

Dip cookies into icing and sprinkle with trim. Place on wire rack with wax paper on counter to collect the dripping icing and sprinkles.

Place iced cookies on wire rack with wax paper under for easy cleanup.

Julie Fergus, ASID, is a nationally published interior designer. Her studio and showroom is located in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Julie's clients are primarily in the Lakes Region and Mount Washington Valley, however, she will travel throughout the state and North East. www.JulieFergus.com | www.DesignByMail.com

Old Family Recipe - Nutroll

This is a very old family recipe passed down through my family by my slovak great-grandmother.

Nut Roll Dough

10 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2  pounds butter
5 eggs
4 1/2 tsp. powdered sugar
1 1/2 can evaporated milk
2 rapid rise yeast packets
3 tsp. vanilla
9 tsp. baking powder

Mix butter and flour as for pie.  Add eggs, powdered sugar, yeast,pinch salt vanilla and baking powder.  Mix in the milk, knead it into a large ball. Let stand in refrigerator for a few hours.  Makes about 14 rolls. 

Nut Roll Filling

4 pounds of shelled walnuts

1 cup sugar + more to taste
1 egg white beaten
1 can evaporated milk + more to make filling spreadable
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp.+ almond extract - to taste

Grind nuts fine in food processor or grinder - nuts must be very, very fine. I use the grinder attachment on my Kitchen-Aid mixer. Mix ingredients in bowl.  The above are approximate amounts; you may need to add more milk to a make it spreadable and more sugar to sweeten. 

Create a mixture of powdered sugar and granular sugar; use this to roll the dough on Instead of flour. It makes It sweet and a nice crusty outside finish.

Take a tennis ball size of dough and roll it to 1/8 inch thick.  Spread with nut filling all over the dough (not too much). Roll up, like a jelly roll and tuck ends under.  On a baking sheet create foil boats - 3 per sheet. Once the roll is formed, set nut rolls inside boats and bake.

Place inside the foil boat and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until light brown.

Once cool, wrap each roll in the foil and store in the freezer until to you are ready to slice and serve.

here is the roll sliced.

Griding the nuts.

The walnuts very, very fine.

Start with a tennis ball size dough ball.

Roll till about 1/8" think and spread nut paste.

Roll the roll.

Bake rolls in foil "boats"