by Cafe’ Valenti
12:39 p.m. EST, December 8, 2011
Italian Filled Cookies
Filling:
1 lb. dried fruit – pears, peaches, apricots or prunes (no dates)
1 lb. dates – pitted
20 oz. can crushed pineapple
5 oz. candied cherries
1 lb. honey
1 heaping, packed cup brown sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp mace
1 cup water
Grind all fruit in food processer. Place all ingredients into a 6 qt. pot. Stir well. Simmer on low heat for 1 ½ hours. Stir every 15 minutes. Completely cool before using.
Dough:
4 cups flour
1 ½ cups sugar
6 heaping tsp. baking powder
½ cup plus 1 ½ Tablespoons Crisco
6 large eggs
½ cup whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix dry ingredients. Add Crisco and mix until coarse crumbs form as with a pie crust. In a separate bowl, mix beaten eggs, milk and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and mix well. Add at least 1 more cup of flour and continue to add flour until the dough is the right consistency to roll out. You may need to add as much as 3 cups of flour.
Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Cut the bottom portion to make a straight line of dough. Place the filling in a pastry bag and pipe out a strip of filling onto the bottom portion of the rectangle. Roll the dough over the filling and cut the dough leaving enough dough to fit completely around the filling. Bring the dough up from the far side and pinch the edge together to form a tube. Place the tube with the seam side down and go over with your fingers to try to make the tube uniform in size. Slice the tube at a diagonal beginning on the left side – the first one will not be used as it is an end cut. Continue slicing until you have a row of diamond shaped cookies. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. If using 2 trays rotate trays from top to bottom halfway through baking. Cool before icing.
Icing:
1 lb. powdered sugar
¼ cup Crisco
¼ cup whole milk to start with
1/8 tsp. vanilla powder
Mix above ingredients. Add additional milk to desired consistency. Spread the icing on the cookies and add sprinkles if desired.
