Dec 20 2009

Day 11: Traditional Scalette Cookies.

The 12 Days of Christmas Baking

On the 11th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me..
My families traditional Italian Christmas cookies, Scalette.

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These cookies are very important to our family. A Christmas without Scalette is no Christmas at all. This recipe has been handed down several generations. We love Scalette because they are fun to make and you can top them with anything you want!

These cookies are from the region of Calabria. In our town they are called scalette but they are also know in other towns as scalille or scalidde.

Some of our favorite toppings are: honey,a homemade anise flavored liquor icing, and even melted chocolate! They are even so good plain!

Scalette are composed of only a few ingredients, the time consuming part is rolling out the dough and shaping it in the traditional design.

Now that our Mom has taught us how to make Scalette, we promise to make them for every Christmas and to continue to pass it down to future generations.

Here is the recipe along with some step by step instructions!

Ingredients
makes around 2 dozen

12 egg yolks
8 TBS sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 shot anisette liquor
12 TBS melted vegetable shortening, crisco
2 1\2 cups all purpose flour
Vegetable oil

Directions

Put the yolks in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and mix on medium speed for about 7-8 minutes.

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Add the baking powder and mix until it’s combined. Now you can add the shot of anisette and mix until combined.
With the mixer turned on, add in the melted crisco.
Slowy add in the flour. First add the the two cups, 1 at a time. If they dough is still too sticky, you can add in the 1\4 cup flour in slowly.
You want the dough to look like this:
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Once the dough is ready, put it on the counted and knead it for a couple minutes. You want the dough to be smooth like this:
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You are know ready to start all the fun shaping! We play around with different shapes, but here is a demonstration of the traditional way from our town.
Take a small piece of dough and roll it out so that it is about 10 inches long and 1\2 inch thick.
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Take a wooden spoon and dip the end in flour. Wrap the dough around it 4 or 5 times.
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Slip the wooden spoon out and bring the rest of the dough down.
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Wrap the rest of the dough around so it meets the top part of the cookie.
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Now you are ready to fry! Fill up a large frying pan with the oil. Leave about 2 fingers at the top empty. These fry pretty fast. Only a minute on each side!
Here they are all done! We made this recipe x 3!
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A close-up of the traditional shape fried.
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Here are some other shapes we played around with!
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by admin

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March 22, 2010 - 5:35 am

nancy - Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and all of your fabulous photos! I am Sicilian and I love to see how other families celebrate. Our family never made these but I have had them at weddings. I am excited to try them. I wish I had a plateful now!

March 27, 2010 - 12:25 pm

admin - Hi Nancy!
Thanks for stopping by! We’re glad that you enjoyed looking at this recipe! We love sharing family recipes with people. Let us know if you ever give these a try or have and questions!

December 20, 2010 - 5:55 pm

Pat - My family has enjoyed these for years! My great-grandmother used to make these when I was a kid, and since she’s passed my mother and I have been making these at Christmas every year. Our recipe is a little different (only eggs, anise oil, baking powder and flour) but we cannot figure out how to make sure these keep their shape in the oil. What do you do to seal the ends together so it keeps its great shape?

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