Passport & Plate - Chichinotti - Nonna's Cookies
Italy | Saturday, March 8, 2014 | 5 photos
Chichinotti (Nonna’s Chocolate & Toasted Almond Cookies) – makes about 3 dozen.
For the filling: 14 oz skinless almonds (toasted, then ground); 10 egg whites (the yolks will be used later – see below); 4 oz cocoa powder; 12 oz; 4 oz bitter-sweet chocolate, finely chopped; rind of 1 lemon, finely grated; about 2 tsp cinnamon.
For the pastry: 10 egg yolks; 7 oz vegetable shortening, room temperature; 10 oz ; 16 oz all-purpose flour; rind of 1 lemon, finely grated. Note: you will need metal pastry tins from the cooking supply store to achieve the desired shapes. Nonna uses a stand mixer for the filling, but a whisk will do just fine.
How to prepare this recipe:
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
1) Roast the almonds at 350°F for about 10-15 minutes until golden, turning once halfway through. Allow to cool, then grind them finely in a food processor. Set aside.
2) Prepare the filling: combine all the ingredients listed in the “filling” section above (except the ground almonds) in a medium-sized bowl. Use a stand mixer, hand mixer or whisk to combine the ingredients until uniform in colour and texture. Add the ground almonds, mixing with a wooden spoon to combine.
3) Prepare the pastry: combine all the ingredients listed in the “pastry” section (except the flour) in a medium-sized bowl. Begin to mix with a whisk, increasing speed as the mixture starts to come together. Once the mixture is smooth and creamy in colour, begin to slowly add the flour in batches, whisking between each addition. Once it reaches the consistency of dough, knead it gently into a rough ball.
4) Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. With your hands, take a small quantity of pastry dough and press it into the mould, making sure that the bottom is completely covered and the sides as well. There are no exact measurements behind this, but you’re going for a medium-thickness – meaning that you don’t want it so thick that it would be un-enjoyable to eat, but not so thin that it burns and hardens. Try to reach a happy medium. Practice is key to getting this part.
5) Fill each pastry shell with some of the chocolate mixture, nearly filling to the brim. Place filled tins on the prepared baking sheets.
6) Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes, or until the filling is puffy and the pastry is golden.
7) Allow the tins to cool enough for you to handle; gently pry each “cookie” from the tins. If desired, dust with powdered sugar once cooled and serve.
The story behind this recipe: It’s the kind of thing that is ubiquitous in the world of grandmas – the mythical recipe book that is beaten, bruised, smeared with grease-marks and filled with barely legible handwriting. Much like a book of old-world magic spells, the recipes are often a blend of tried-and-true methods and weirdly incongruous instructions. My grandmother’s notebook is no exception. Some ingredients are missing and misspelled. Some pages are completely devoid of baking instructions. She keeps her tattered notebook tucked away in the top drawer of the china cabinet, next to the silverware and the birthday candles and only takes it out at Christmas, baby showers and weddings, when she triples and quadruples the recipe to suit the occasion. It’s a disarming specimen of love and care and ancestry, bringing together a collection of recipes from her tiny mountain village in Aquila, populated by a mere 178 people. The preciousness of these recipes was never lost on me. On different occasions, I’ve asked my Italian grandma, Nonna, to teach me to make my favorite – her hazelnut-chocolate tartlet-cookies, Chichinotti. I still remember the morning I got the call from her telling me today was the day she was going to teach me how to make these cookies. It was treated like a special event, with our whole family making the trip to her house to witness it. We even excavated her 1970s Oster Kitchen Mixer for the occasion (as per her instructions). With a fair amount of laughing, shouting and a few shakes of the head, she showed me the process, step by step, emphasizing the correct way to blend, press, shape, bake – imparting her knowledge of a recipe that would otherwise be forgotten. Learning about food this way holds a special importance in the way that traditions can transcend time and space. This story of baking cookies with my grandmother is simple one, a fleeting memory in the grand scheme of things, but it is with a full heart that I realize how much I cherish these moments most of all.
