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<\/a><\/p>\nThe other sturdy cookie is the anisette cookies.\u00a0 This recipe is from Nanny LoConti.\u00a0 The boys usually get together each year to make them at the deli.\u00a0 They use the huge stand mixer, the commercial ovens, and a gun formed from a calking kind of thing.\u00a0 Obviously, I don\u2019t have a deli, nor do I have a caulking gun kind of thing and I was lucky enough to escape with the recipe so I improvise.<\/p>\n
The recipe had to be halved so that it would fit in my Kitchenaid stand mixer.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very solid dough so I use the bread hook. I once, and only once, tried to mix it with a normal paddle but the mixer was groaning and straining and just simply refused to move after a while.\u00a0 Then I had to figure out the extruder kind of thing. Hmmm.<\/p>\n
I am so damn clever some times.\u00a0 I bought the sausage attachment for the mixer so instead of filling sausage I\u2019m extruding the dough so I can form them into the signature braid-like shapes so easily recognized by my mother.\u00a0\u00a0 There is a knack to it, a rhythm, and a bit of dexterity required.\u00a0 As the dough is extruded I measure it against the palm of my hand, clip it off with my finger and drop it on to a plate as I count them off by the dozen.\u00a0 Once I\u2019ve got a dozen, I twist them into the braid and place them on the sheet pan.\u00a0 Get two pans done and into the oven they go.\u00a0 But any number of things can happen in this little operation.\u00a0 The strands can stick together on the plate, they can break on the sheet pan, and I can, and have, increased the mixer speed instead of turning it off.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s always fun, an I Love Lucy moment.<\/p>\n
But all in all, the concentration takes your mind off of everything.\u00a0 The music lurks in the background and the smell is like the best kind of aroma therapy the spa has to offer.\u00a0 It is the Zen of Christmas.<\/p>\n I have containers especially for the zillion dozen cookies I make every year and a little mistake container for those who burst through the door (usually looking for their keys because they\u2019ve locked themselves out) and stop in their tracks saying, \u201cWhat is that smell?\u00a0 What is happening here?\u201d\u00a0 As if they didn\u2019t know.\u00a0 Off they go with a bag of \u201cmistakes\u201d to enjoy later on, if they make it to later on.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if everyone enjoys the cookies as much as I enjoy the process of making them. Little Red Hen be damned.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if everyone knows where the recipes come from or that they will be gone at some point if no one learns to enjoy making them going forward. I don\u2019t know if anyone appreciates the love that goes into them or the honor it is to continue the tradition but I know like I know that there are never any left come New Years Day.<\/p>\n Well, accept for the ones that Sandra stashes in her freezer for emergency consumption on a really bad day (those get made closer to the day).\u00a0 So OK, maybe I don\u2019t know but I have a funny feeling that if there were no cookies there might not be any crumbs in the beds of those sneaking them up to their rooms, there might not be the saving grace cookies that can be eaten by the celiac disease crowd, and I wouldn\u2019t have the wonderful Christmas celebration I have each year by avoiding all malls in lieu of my kitchen and all its comforts.\u00a0 Next week, snowballs, fig chiucharidi, Sandra\u2019s favorite Italian cookies with the anise icing and nonpareils.\u00a0 The week after that, pignoli nut cookies and finishing touches.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And so it begins, that time of year where I turn into the Little Red Hen asking who will help me make the cookies.\u00a0 \u201cNot I\u201d, said\u2026everybody.\u00a0 Excuses from A to Z, but my very favorite is the \u201cthey … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n