| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 2 hr 45 min |
| Prep: | 30 min |
| Inactive: | 2 hr |
| Cook: | 15 min |
| Yield: | 200 Cookies |
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting work surface
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup pure olive oil
- 3/4 cup red vermouth, Marsala, sweet sherry, or other sweet wine such as Vin Santo
- 2 large eggs
- 4 to 6 cups peanut or vegetable oil, for deep-frying
- About 2 cups honey, warm
Instructions
- Sift together the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the olive oil, vermouth, and eggs until well blended. Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix on low speed until the mixture forms a cohesive mass. Scrape the dough onto a very lightly floured board. Knead lightly until smooth. Shape the dough into a ball, flatten, and place in a bowl. Dust the top lightly with flour, cover with a towel or plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight to allow the dough to relax.
- If necessary, lightly dust the work surface with flour. Cut the dough into 6 or 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope 1/2-inch in diameter. Cut the ropes into 1/2-inch pieces. Shape into “gnocchi” with a gnocchi board, butter paddle, or on the back side of the tines of a fork. The deeper the grooves on the cookies the better as they puff up as they fry and the ridges, unless deep, tend to disappear.
- Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or deep pan to 350 degrees F.
- Fry the cookies in about 4 batches until puffed and medium to dark brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. It is easiest to pile the cookies in a sieve or fry basket and then dip them into the hot oil. Each batch should include enough cookies to cover the surface of the oil. Any fewer and the oil gets too hot and browns the cookies before they are cooked through. Stir the cookies while they fry so they do not stick together. The number of cookies you add to the oil and the amount of oil will change the timing. The cookies first turn light gold, then a light brown, and finally almost a light milk chocolate color. Remove just as they get to this color or a little before. Drain on paper towels.
- While still hot, put the cookies in a large shallow dish and pour the honey over them. Toss the cookies several times as they cool. If the cookies absorb all the honey, add more – they should be fully saturated. Serve in a pretty bowl or store in a covered container. They will keep for about 1 week.
- Chef’s Notes: Starting with a 1/2-inch piece of dough yields a cookie about 1 inch long, perfect for popping in your mouth all at once. They can be made smaller or larger, depending on your preference. Two hundred sounds like a lot of cookies. But once you taste one you will understand why you should be thinking about making several batches in quick succession.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 200 servings |
| Calories | 75 |
| Total Fat | 6 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0 g |
| Carbohydrates | 5 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 3 g |
| Protein | 0 g |
| Cholesterol | 2 mg |
| Sodium | 8 mg |
Reviews
Our grandmother, from Calabria, made something similar, called Crustula. Recipe called for 2 boxes of Cream of Wheat, and an equal amount of flour. Spices are cinnamon and cloves, no eggs but 2 cups of sugar and peel of 3 oranges roasted and crushed. Wet ingredients are 2 cups of wine and 2 cups of liquor (4 cups needed, feel free to modify ratio or substitute water for a cup of the liquor) . Made them this year and used a sweet red wine and Amoretto. After they are rolled and fried they are dipped in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Wonderful!
Oh my goodness! Have never seen a recipe for these, but always made by my Nona who was from a small town near Catanzaro. She always sent a batch home with us in a coffee tin. When I made these I was transported to her kitchen table and me standing on a chair watching her cook. I’ve now seen a couple other recipes for these but this one is most like hers! Thank you!
I just made a batch of these; been making them for years from my nonni’s recipe. We always called them “wine cookies” or Pinecones. I take a piece of dough and roll in against a flat cheese grater, curling it so it looks like pine cone. That creates the ridges so they fry up nicely and the honey gets into the grooves. Add some walnuts and nonpareils for Christmas and they are my favorite!
Can these be made without the wine?
I made these with my mom when I was a kid and we used a metal washboard to get the grooves…I was pretty good at it….they were my fave as a kid.
I have not tried these yet but surely will. My great grandmother came over from Italy as a young women. She called these cookies by a similar name and made them every Christmas. They are my favorite!
This is the recipe I have been looking for. My NaNa was from Cosenza and came to the US when she was 15 to get married to my PaPa. She didn’t read or write and all her recipes were in her head. I always loved these and Scalidi and will be making them both this year. Thank you very much!! P.S. Girls didn’t go to school in Italy in the days my Grandmother was a girl. They stayed home and learned to cook, crochet, grow a garden, make soap, lard bread, etc. Actually, I don’t know how they had the time to do all they did, plus she had 5 children. She died in 1967 and I was a young woman and I wished i would have learned a lot of what she knew!!!
My dad loved this.He said he preferred the size to how my nonna used to make it. It was very easy too. Grazie tanto Michael
Update: The missing directions have been added. We apologize for the inconvenience.
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I would love to see the directions to this recipe???? My mother is Italian and I grew -up eating turdelli ( a different recipe from this one) but I would love to try this recipe to compare the difference. If someone can help with the directions that would be great…..Thanks