These were the kind of cookies we traditionally ate at Easter, and Grandpa Alfieri’s sweet and admired sister, Ange, made the best in town. Unfortunately, she never divulged her coveted recipe and carried it to her grave (so maybe she wasn't as sweet as we had thought).
I am still trying to find a version of this recipe that reminds me of the ones I liked when I was a kid. Below is my best find so far. I've also archived for posterity a version by my Uncle Alex’s mother-in-law, Gilda Milo, that my sister prefers.
Refer to the introduction for the Chocolate Spice Cookies for an explanation of the Sicilian origin of both of these cookies, Tetù (chocolate) and Teio (white). This white cookie is never going to be as good as the chocolate one.
Note: As in the chocolate spice cookies, I'd like to try adding cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and maybe walnuts, but not over-do it. The problem is that these cookies are a little boring.
Dough:
1/4 lb (113 g) Crisco vegetable shortening
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp (128 g) sugar
3 large eggs (168 g)
1/4 cup (61 g) whole milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
3 1/2 cups (525 g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
Icing:
2 lb (907 g) confectioner’s sugar
7/8 cup (207 mL/g) lukewarm water
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Set up your stand mixer with the wire beater attachment.
3. Cream shortening and sugar well.
4. Mix in eggs one at a time.
5. Add milk, vanilla extract, and lemon extract.
6. Mix together salt, baking powder, and flour.
7. Add dry mixture to wet mixture a little at a time until the mixer can't take any more (mine could take the whole thing), then finish adding it in the bowl using your hands, including pulling any dry mixer off the walls of the bowl.
8. Shape pieces of dough into 1 5/8-inch balls. DO NOT ROLL. You do not want smooth cookies but rough ones, with lots of bumps and cracks to catch the icing.
9. Space cookies 3 inches apart (center to center) on ungreased (preferably insulated) cookie sheet.
10. Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for 14 minutes. The cookies should NOT be completely dry when you take them out.
11. Let the cookies cool for a little bit, then transfer to a large work surface covered with aluminum foil.
12. Mix batch of icing using above icing ingredients. This icing is slightly thicker than that for the chocolate cookies.
13. Once the cookies are cool enough to handle (but still warm/hot), dunk each top down into icing all the way to the base of the cookie. Shake off excess and place right side up on aluminum foil.
14. Wait 1 hour, then loosely cover cookies with aluminum foil and let them dry overnight.
15. Store cookies at room temperature or freeze for later use.
These photos depict a half batch:
