#18 Biscotti di Regina (Queen's Biscuits) 1955

Round balls, as per the recipe, and thumbprint variation.

Gourmet Cookie Book says these are cake-like sesame cookies, served at Italian weddings and christenings. In spite of the toasted sesame coating and a tasty vanilla-flavored dough (I always taste the raw dough, don't you?), these cookies are dry, dry, dry. Their saving grace is that they soften and color up nicely when dunked into wine. As long as you don't mind sesame seeds in your wine.

Butter mixture gets mooshed into flour mixture.

Refrigerating in discs allows quicker chilling.

I tried an alternative preparation. The sesame coating reminded me of a thumbprint cookie recipe, so I pressed small holes in the center of each dough ball and filled them with apricot jam. The fruit adds to the flavor combo, adds moisture, and glues some of the crumbly dough together. My Tuesday knitting group likes them. Good thing, because the recipe makes 5 dozen.

I'm sticking with my initial assessment. They still look prettier than they taste, and that is Karen's kiss of death. Who needs any more disappointment in life? I won't be making these again.

Technique: When a recipe calls for refrigeration, it usually instructs you to chill the dough all together in a ball. Waste of precious time. I form the dough into several "discs" about the height of the chunks I expect to break off for each cookie. Then, I wrap each disc separately in plastic and place them in different places in the frig, rather than piled on top of each other. They are usually chilled enough and ready to bake in 30 minutes.

Just remember where in the frig you put them. Cookie dough is a terrible thing to waste.

Comments

#33 Almond Bolas (Portuguese Almond Cookies) 1975

Three almond balls ( bolas ) in a row. "This one is good," my sister-in-law Jill told me. She tried not to express too much surprise, but I have regaled her with too many tales of failed cookies. And forced her to eat a few duds. I was glad this one made the grade. I liked it, too. You might think I am a hopeless romantic to fall for another almond cookie. (Italy, almond cookies. Almond cookies, Italy.) The fact is every country that can grow almonds has its special recipes for almond cookies. Portugal is no exception. The ground blanched almonds combine with dry bread crumbs, then the usual sugar, egg whites and almond extract. The dry bread crumbs are key. When the cookies are fresh from the oven, the bread crumbs add a perfect crunch to their rustic, nutty texture. Holes in the center ready for filling. These cookies don't "drop." You roll them in a ball ( bola ) and press a hole in the center, as for jelly-filled thumbprint cookies. Egg yolk

#17 Brazil Nut Crescents 1958

Light as a feather, these cookies showcase the Brazil nut. After my fiasco of many ingredients (the Oatmeal Molasses Cookies seem so last month), I wondered if only four ingredients would be enough to make a decent attempt at a cookie. I creamed the butter, added sugar, flour and finely chopped Brazil nuts, as instructed. I kneaded the dough on a floured surface a bit, and formed my 2-inch cylinder of dough. The ridged crescent shapes emerge when you cut off each slice. As you cut, each round compresses into more of an oval or square. Help it shape by giving it a pat on top. Then, poke a finger sideways into the middle of each slice, and pull the ends toward you to form the crescents. Cookie rounds flatten as you slice them. I expected a firm cookie, like the Mexican Wedding Cakes I've made. But these are lighter. When I bit in, they crumbled like an abandoned sand castle. OK, edible sand castle. I wondered how they had stayed together until then. The texture difference c

#21 Cornetti 1989

First, the texture. These crescent-shaped darlings came closest to the crisp-outside, soft-inside of the almond cookies I've been craving. The difference with these is their distinct orange flavor, from chopped, candied orange peel, and the cup of white cornmeal that adds a gritty crunch to each bite. Cornetti, dusted with powdered sugar. These firm, hearty cookies, with a ground almond base, are my first real almond cookie success. They are not the same as any cookie I tasted in Italy; I have yet to duplicate those bakery cookies. These stand on their own, apart from the rest, and they are every bit as good. After one minute in boiling water, almonds are ready to have skins removed. Blanching almonds. Orange peels simmering in sugar syrup. The bad news is the labor required, especially if you begin with almonds that have their skins. Although an easy process of blanching in hot water allows the skins to be removed for an all-white dough, by the time I was done,

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