Cucidati recipe
 

Cucidati is a traditional sicilian Christmas cookie recipe. When we were in Siciliy over the holidays, every bakery had them. But we concluded that our recipe tasted better! This makes 5-6 dozen cookies, even more if you cut the cookies small. You could easily cut the recipe in half.

First, make the filling and let it cool. I usually do this the day before (don't need to refrigerate it):

1/4 c. sugar
1/2 pound figs, de-stemmed and ground
1/2 c. raisins, ground
1/2 c. honey
1 c. mincemeat (I use the whole small jar of mincement - it's probably more than a cup?)
grated rind of one orange
1/2 c. water and 1/4 c. brandy

Simmer 5 minutes, take off the heat and add:
1 c. nuts (toasted, finely chopped) - I usually use walnts and almonds, 1 T. cinnamon, 1 T. allspice,
1/2 c. chocolate, chopped (I use semisweet chocolate chips)

The cookie dough:
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 T. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c. milk
1 T. vanilla
4 1/2 c. flour

The dough is pretty easy to work. Divide it up into 5-6 pieces, and roll each piece into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. I don't use flour for rolling, but you could use a little if needed. Arrange the filling down the middle of the rectangle, the long way. The filling should be kind of mounded like a log down the dough. The filling is pretty sticky! Then fold up the edges of the dough to encase the filling and secure the edges with a little water. Cut the cookies whatever size you want - I usually cut them so each cookie is 2-3 bites. In Siciliy some of the cookies were gigantic, like 10 - 12 inches long! Place them seam side up on the cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies on parchment paper, in a 350 degree preheated oven. They take about 13-15 minutes.
Let them cool on their parchment paper.

After they cool, frost with royal icing and sprinkle with multi-colored sprinkles. I use the royal icing that comes in a package - I get it at the cake decorating store and they also have it at JoAnn's. My husband's family made the icing with powdered sugar and an egg white. I don't eat raw eggs anymore, and I don't think this icing hardens up like the packaged icing.

These freeze nicely. To store them, I use parchment paper to separate the layers so they don't stick together.

This is similar to my mom's recipe with two exceptions: no alcohol and she added ground nuts. They were never my favorite, I couldn't stand the mincemeat in them. I was alone in my opinion in my family, as everybody else loved them.

These sound just wonderful.

I made something similar using only mincement instead of the various fruits, and made them with cream cheese cookie dough (actually more like a pastry) and formed them in foldover pockets with a very thin powdered sugar glaze. I used rum with the mincemeat. Everyone who tasted these cookies liked them.

These sound yummy. I might have to make them.

In December of every year, our Newcomers Club has a cookie exchange. We bring 1/2 dozen cookies for each attendee. I place my half-dozen cookies for the exchange in cute little bags from the Dollar Tree. We provide the recipe with the cookie bags. Additionally, we bring one dozen cookies to sample at the party. I plan to make this recipe next year!! Thx

MIL came from Sicily and made these along with ravioli, biscotti, etc..........I've done homemade ravioli, biscotti, but never attempted the cucidati.......that's were this Polish lady drew the line! But I did like them......your recipe brought back tasty memories.......

I definitely will be making these this year with my pizzelles. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

Sounds very good! Never heard of them but may have to try to make them, I go to a cookie exchange every year and I think by next year I will be abler to add these to my plates. We each bake 6 dozen, 5 dozen to exchange and 1 dozen as a gift for our local assisted living or homeless shelter, we put 1 dozen on a plate and draw order numbers to pick out plates to take home. Everyone ends up with 5 dozen and they are beautiful as they are delicious, thank you for the recipe.

Hi, I just wanted to clarify that I use the dried figs. Also if the cookies are ugly when they're baked, that's easy to fix with the frosting!