Italian Easter Cookies

Terry Van Kirk's Grandma DiTucci

Serving Size : 144
Categories: Cookies Formed

12 medium eggs
4 tablespoons milk
2 cups oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups sugar
12 cups flour
4 tablespoons baking powder

Cream sugar and oil.
Whip eggs until lemony.
Combine with sugar mixture and beat until light.
Sift dry ingredients together. Combine with egg mixture and knead until
air bubbles are out. You will have a dough that can be kneaded and
rolled and shaped.
Roll out long tubes about a half inch in diameter, cut into four inch
long pieces, tie into knots or just make circles.
Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees until lightly browned.
Frost with lemon or anise frosting, sprinkle with confetti colored
sprinkles. May use red and green sprinkles to make into Christmas
cookies.

To make these into true Italian Easter cookies, roll out a large, flat
round of dough and shape it into a boy or a girl shape, about six to
eight inches in height. Flatten the shape onto a cookie sheet. Make
dough ropes and braid them into arms, which are held "akimbo" on the
hips. Set a hard-boiled egg into the belly of the figures, braid some
more dough, and criss-cross the eggs with two braids, fastening it down
to the body of the figure. Add cloves for eyes and mouth.
Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees until lightly browned. Make
clothing with lemon or anise frosting, leaving the facial features
unfrosted. These are traditionally given to each boy or girl child on
Easter Sunday. Nowadays, we make more nontraditional chickens and
bunnies, for the same purpose.
Putting the egg in the stomach seems to be a leftover allusion to an
ancient spring fertility ritual.

Frosting:
1 box powdered sugar
Few tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons lemon or anise flavoring.

sent by minnie


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