It's all about the essence

Passport & Plate - Torcetti

Italy | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 4 photos

Ingredients
1 lb. butter

1 lb. vegetable shortening

10 cups sifted flour

1 cup warm milk

1 T. granulated sugar

1 T. vanilla

2 pkgs. yeast

4 eggs, beaten

2 lbs. powdered sugar

 

How to prepare this recipe
Cut the shortening and butter into the flour until it is like corn meal. Combine milk, granulated sugar, vanilla, and stir in yeast. Add liquid to flour mixture. Add eggs and beat. Add more flour if sticky. Knead slightly. Put in a greased bowl, cover in a warm place, and let rise until double in bulk, about one hour. (This is a heavy dough, and has rarely doubled its bulk for me in just one hour. I will sometimes let rise for up to an hour more sprinkling the top with a little water or milk so that it doesn't dry out too much.)

Cover a bread board with some of the powdered sugar. Break off egg-size pieces of the dough, roll in powdered sugar into one long piece, and shape into figures–pretzel, figure 8, knots, candy canes. Bake on a greased sheet 12-15 minutes at 375 degrees. For filled turnovers, roll out dough, sprinkling with powdered sugar if sticky, and use a cookie cutter or water glass to make 3? circles. Fill with a spoonful of your favorite fruit pie filling, fold in half, and seal by pressing a fork along the edge. Turnovers may require a few extra minutes baking.

 

The story behind this recipe
My grandmother sneaking me a candy cane shaped cookie behind my mothers back is an early Christmas memory for me. I watch as they take balls of risen dough and roll them into long rolls on a cutting board covered in powdered sugar. They cut the rolls into six inch pieces and form them into figure eights, candy canes, and rings placing them on the cookie sheets to bake. I know that the last ones will be little half moons filled with different pie and sweet fillings. My favorites are the mincemeat but I will have to wait for those so for now I sneak off with my candy cane to where my hot cocoa is. I bite in, savoring the slightly crunchy sugar coated exterior. It is a yeasted cookie and some of the yeast taste is still apparent. I love it though, I smell the vanilla and milk. I sip my cocoa, which, is the perfect accompaniment for plain torcetti, in between bites of cookie and look at the Christmas tree. Torcetti is not a particularly sweet cookie and some would call it plain and move on to another more "exciting" cookie. They would be cheating themselves. Torcetti is delicious in its versatitlity. This past year I made thumbprint cookies with dollops of apricot jam made the summer before in the indent. The traditional "plain" cookies always get eaten first though, with a cup of hot cocoa, in front of the tree because that is the tradition. This moment is the essence of Christmas for me. I recreate it every year.
I didn't learn this recipe from my great grandmother, Mary Arcuri, but I wish I had. I learned other great recipes and kitchen tricks from her but not this one. It is one of my biggest culinary regrets, that I didn't pay more attention to this story because it is one I have adopted as my own homage to my Italian roots. She learned this recipe from her mother who probably learned it from her mother and so on. Some changes have been made to the recipe as daughters moved from Italy to New York to Alaska to St. Louis but the essence stays the same.