Hi! I’m Amy Riolo. Today, we’re making Italian cookies and the cookies which we’re going to make next are Calabrian and Sesame Cookies. And the ingredients we’ll be using are two and a quarter cups unbleached all purpose flour plus extra for the work surface, a third cup of sugar, one and half teaspoons of baking powder, a pinch of salt, six tablespoons of unsalted butter, three quarters cup of untoasted sesame seeds, two teaspoons of vanilla extract that can be dry or liquid, and a quarter cup of milk.
So the first thing that we’ll be using to make our dough is the flour. We’re going to combine all of the dry ingredients into a standing mixer but if you don't have a standing mixer at home or you don't want to use it, you can very easily just do it in a bowl and use a spoon. This is a very old-fashioned cookie and it's definitely fine to do that. And this is a very traditional cookie that's served on Christmas day. And in Italian, they are called Biscotti di Regina or Queen's cookies.
So now we have all of our dry ingredients in the bowl and I’m just going to mix them together for one second. And then we’re going to add our vanilla. And if you have liquid vanilla, that's fine. And then our six tablespoons of unsalted butter and then we’re going to just mix this together. Then as the butter starts to get broken down into little pieces, you can mix it for a little bit longer until it gets more incorporated and then we’re going to add our milk.
So now we can add our milk then we can increase the speed a little bit. Basically, what we’re doing is we’re working the dough until it gets to have a nice pliable texture. So we’re going to keep working it for a few more minutes and then we’ll roll them and roll them into the sesames. So that's mixed enough and what you really want to do to test the dough is just to form it into your hand. And if the dough forms a ball, then that's exactly the right mixture that you need it to be, the right texture. These cookies are very integral to Southern Italian culture. In addition to being served on Christmas day, you can find them a lot at Italian weddings and at other functions. And they’re nice cookie to have on hand because there is not a lot of sugar in them. As you can see, only a 1/3 of a cup is really not a lot at all. So they’re a delicious cookie and they’re pretty healthy in terms of being a dessert. You can eat them for breakfast and you can also freeze them and have them on hand.
So now we have a nice ball with our dough and this is what we need. And then you have a prepared baking pan which you can put either parchment paper on or in this case, we have a Silpat. And then what we’re going to do is break off kind of, one inch piece. And you can make them smaller or larger. It really depends upon what you want to do but the important thing is with this cookie that you make them all even sized. So bigger, smaller, really doesn't matter, just make them at even sized.
And then we’re going to roll them to coat them in the sesame seeds. Then we’re going to place them on our baking pan and then we press down with our finger. In this kind of—it makes this little shape this way, kind of like a walnut piece. That's what you are looking for. You don't want them to be completely round and you don't want them to be completely flat. It’s kind of an in between kind of a size that we’re going for with the Biscotti di Regina. This is really fun for kids. When I was a kid, it was always my job to roll. It's a great way to get them to learn how to bake and to learn the importance of getting things to be even sized. And that really I think, it helps their concentration and their intention span when you give them something like this that takes time to do.
If you didn't have time to roll them out, you could freeze the dough. You could also put the dough in the refrigerator but you would just want to bring it back to room temperature before you go ahead and bake them. So we can continue rolling out the cookies. And then when they’re time to bake, you want to bake them in a preheated oven that's been set to 375 degrees and we’re going to bake it for about 18 to 20 minutes. You want to bake them until they are firm to the touch and the bottoms are lightly golden. You don't want to let them actually turn very dark. But 18 to 20 minutes should be perfect.
And those are our sesame cookies which are Southern Italian Calabrian recipe. They have a great crunchy flavor. And when we come back, we will be making our Pizzelle.
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