X - cookies

In this mega marathon, I had no difficulty in finalizing the recipes for the difficult alphabets like Q, X, Z etc. Somehow these were the among the first ones to finalize. As soon as I saw the recipe for X-cookies in gayathri's space, I picked it up and finalized it for 'X'. I guess this is the first cookie I am preparing with chocolate. The cookies turned out fantastic. H said they actually looked like human beings.

X Cookies is a Sicilian cookie, also known as Cucidati. Whether you call them Cucidati, Sicilian X Cookies, or just plain Italian Fig Cookies, the end result is the same. Tender sweet dough, that’s wrapped around a very flavorful spiced fig filling.  The cookie dough is so buttery and is prepared like a pie crust with cold butter so that the cookie turns out buttery and flaky.  The filling has figs and apart from that it has lots of candied orange peel, chocolate, apricots and raisins.  The cookie dough is so buttery and is prepared like a pie crust with cold butter so that the cookie turns out buttery and flaky.  The filling has figs and apart from that it has lots of candied orange peel, chocolate, apricots and raisins.

Recipe Source: gayathriscookspot

Country: Sicily

Ingredients:

For The Filling:

Dried Figs-1 cup

Raisins-1/4 cup

Candied Orange Peel-1/6 cup

Dark Chocolate-45 gm

Almonds-1/6 cup

Apricots-1/6 cup

Instant Coffee Powder-1/2 tsp

Cinnamon-1/4 tsp

For The Pasta Flora:

Flour/ Maida-2 cups

Sugar-1/3 cup

Baking Powder-1/2 tsp

Salt-1/2 tsp

Cold Butter-1/2 cup

Curd/ Yogurt-1/2 cup

 Method:

For The Pasta Frolla:

• In a food processor add flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and butter.
• Run the processor until the flour resembles bread crumbs.
• Add curd and run until a crumbly dough is formed.
• Transfer to a cling wrap, cover it tightly and refrigerate.

For The Filling:

• Boil 1 cup of water and add figs.
• Boil for 2-3 minutes until the figs are soft.
• Drain water and allow it to cool.
• In the same jar in which you made the pasta frolla, add all the ingredients for filling.
• Run the processor until the filling forms a ball.
• Remove from the jar, divide it into 6 equal portions and keep it covered.

Making The X-Cookies:

• Remove dough from fridge.
• Divide it into 6 equal portions.
• Dust counter with flour.
• Roll a single portion into a 6″ log.
• Roll it into a rectangle of 2 1/2″ * 9″.
• Now roll one portion of the filling into a 9″ log.
• Place it in the rectangle.
• Bring the sides of the dough and cover the filling.
• Now holding the log tightly, roll it into 12″ log.
• Divide into 4 equal portions.
• Now make a slit mark on both sides of the smaller log leaving 1 1/2 cm intact.
• Curve the slit edges on both sides to form the letter X.
• Arrange on a greased baking tray.
• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes or until golden.
• Cool on wire rack.
• Store in air tight jar and serve along with coffee.

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