Last night I made my annual batch of cookies to take home to my family in Albany. I made Peanut Butter Blossoms for my sisters, Muddy Buddies for my wonderful husband (hmmm… there’s about a cup left), Spicy Chex Party Mix for my brother-in-law, dark-chocolate dipped shortbread cookies for whomever is interested, peanut butter balls for everyone courtesy of my Grandma Cel’s ledgendary recipe (because, let’s face it who doesn’t like butter, chocolate, sugar, and peanut butter combined in one festive bite?), and, last-but-not-least, ginettes for my Mom and Aunt Suzy. You might be thinking this sounds like a lot of cookies, but you haven’t seen anything until you’ve been to a wedding with a cookie station. The NYTimes just wrote an article about this common practice at weddings, especially in our region of the country. Check it out here.
What are ginettes you might ask? In Rochester, they are known as Italian “meatball cookies.” They are also sometimes calleg “Aginoretti,” as in an Italian lemon drop cookie. My family isn’t even that Italian, but the influence was huge in my upbringing. I remember going over to my great aunts around the holidays, and there would just be plates and plates of these delightful little cookies. I also realized as I’ve gotten older how much the feed the ones you love until they explode and/or go into a food coma is ingrained into me, thus the 20 dozen or so cookies I’ve baked this week. What can I say? I’ve got a lot of love in my heart! Thankfully, ginettes are not very fattening, as cookies go. They require very little sugar and oil, which leads towards their trademark dry and slightly sweet texture. These cookies just scream nostagia for me, and I love making them for my mom especially since I think they bring back tons of fabulous memories for her as well.
Anyway, here’s my favorite recipe for Ginettes/Italian Lemon Drop Cookies/Aginoretti/Meatball Cookies
These cookies are traditional Italian cookies, cakey but somewhat dry, and not very sweet.
Makes about 24 cookies
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons anise extract – don’t be afraid of the licorice fumes of the anise if you don’t like licorice – it will mix with the lemon extract in the glaze and make the most delicious fusion of flavors – I promise, from one licorice-hater to another.
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Glaze (below)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients. Mix well. The dough should be soft and sticky.
With a small cookie scoop (mine is about 1 Tablespoon), form balls. Drop balls on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets, spaced 2 inches apart. Make sure you don’t make the balls too big… think walnut sized.
Bake for about 8-11 minutes, or until firm and lightly brown. Remove cookies from cookie sheet and allow to cool completely on wire racks.
Glaze as directed below. Store in an airtight container. If you want to freeze the cookies, let glaze harden completely before freezing and separate layers with parchment paper.
For Glaze:
3 cups confectioners sugar
2 tsp. lemon extract
1 tbsp. or so of milk
lemon zest of you have it
The idea with the glaze is to combine confectioner’s sugar with just enough milk to form a thin glaze… slightly thinner than elmer’s glue. If you make a mistake, add sugar or milk until you reach the right consistency. Sprinkle with jimmies or nonpareils for extra festivus (if it’s Dec. 23rd)! You’ll note that I sprinkled mine with blue sprinkles, a symbol of our interfaith solidarity and melding of two cultures!
Happy Holidays!
