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Cornmeal Cookies

If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can still enjoy these delicious and crunchy cookies in their traditional shape: Chill the cookie dough for about 1 hour, then divide it into fourths. Roll each piece out with the palms of your hands to a rope about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the rope into 4-inch lengths and lay them on the prepared baking sheets, shaping them into crescents and leaving about 3/4 inch between them. Lightly drag the tines of a fork over the crescents to create ridges. Bake and cool them as described below

Recipe information

  • Yield

    makes about 48 cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 16 pieces, plus more for the baking sheets
2 cups very fine yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for the baking sheets
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Arrange the racks in the upper and lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400° F. Lightly butter and flour two baking sheets. (This isn’t necessary if using nonstick pans.)

    Step 2

    Stir the cornmeal and 1 cup flour together in a small bowl. Beat the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla together in a separate bowl with a handheld electric mixer until foamy. As you continue beating, pour in the sugar gradually, until smooth. Add the butter and beat until incorporated. Spoon in the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until incorporated. (The dough can be formed into cookies and baked at this point, or wrapped in plastic and refrigerated up to 1 day.)

    Step 3

    Divide the dough into three pieces. Working with one at a time, roll it into a thick log and slide it into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Squeeze the dough out of the pastry bag and onto the prepared baking sheet, cutting it into 4-inch lengths and leaving 3/4 inch between them as you do. Shape the strips of dough into crescents. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

    Step 4

    Cool the cookies completely before serving. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

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From Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich Copyright © 2001 by A La Carte Communications and Tutti a Tavola, LLC. Published by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of The Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Buy the full book from Amazon.
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