These elegant, lightly sweet cookies are a Calabrese tradition, passed down through the generations and enjoyed annually at Christmas and Easter.
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Keeping family traditions alive through food is one of my favorite parts of the holidays. And one of the best parts of marrying into an Italian family is learning their traditional holiday recipes. I’m doing my best to take copious notes and keep these family favorites going for the next generation.
My husband gets together with his dad and uncle to make his paternal grandma’s Turdilli & Chinudille for Christmas for many years now, but he hadn’t ever made the cookies that his maternal grandmother always made until fairly recently.
His mom’s cousin Lorraine came over to show us how to make these beauties. She said that his grandma might not have put the orange juice in when she made them, but we really liked the flavor that it added. We found out that this recipe actually came from his great grandmother, who was from Calabria, Italy.
I was so excited to finally get to sit in and help make a batch of these traditional Italian Christmas cookies, as well as documenting the process. The shaping of the cookies is one of the most interesting parts, and it takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it.
These cookies are light and fluffy and not overly sweet. They go perfectly with a hot cup of tea. The orange flavor is really nice. The recipe makes a lot of cookies (and this is apparently half the size of the batch she used to make!). The tricky part is shaping them, but you can really make them any shape that you want to, as long as they’re all a consistent size.
Our son was a toddler when we got together to make these, and he absolutely loved them (they’re great for teething!). I’m so glad I got to be part of this tradition, and now it’s something that we can pass down to our son and enjoy for years to come.
I forgot to note exactly how many cookies this recipe made, but I’ll keep a tally next time and update the recipe here. I’m including some photos to use as visual cues to help you in your Italian Christmas cookie baking adventures.
This is what the consistency of the dough should look like:
My husband learning how to roll out the cookies:
You have to twist and twirl the dough:
The final shape:
Finishing them off with an egg wash:
Looking for more dessert recipes? Check out some of our family favorites:
- Rich Cocoa Brownie Bites
- Elvis-Style Frozen Bananas
- Sweet + Salty Dark Chocolate Clusters
- 5-Ingredient Samoa Cereal Bowls
- Orange Scented Cannoli Dip
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies with Vanilla Icing
- Dessert Nachos with Fresh Baked Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
- Tolon’s Strawberry Basil Shortcake
- Cranberry Orange Snickerdoodles
- Bourbon Bacon Pecan Pie with a Whole Wheat Crust
- Chocolate Cream Pie with Orange Zested Whipped Cream
- Ricotta Cookies
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These elegant, lightly sweet cookies are a Calabrese tradition, passed down through the generations and enjoyed annually at Christmas and Easter.
Ingredients
Cookie dough:
- 9 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup baking powder
- 1 large orange
- 1 1/2 cups Crisco
- 9 eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
Egg wash:
- 2 egg yolks
- splash of milk
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Instructions
- Put the flour, cinnamon and baking powder in a large bowl and mix together with a fork. Add the zest of the orange and stir to combine. Mix in Crisco with a fork or your fingers until the consistency resembles coarse sand.
- In another large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer, adding one egg and a sprinkle of sugar at a time, until all 9 eggs and 2 cups of sugar are combined. Beat in the juice of the orange and vanilla. Gradually add the flour mixture to the eggs, beating until it is all combined. Great Grandma Francesca did the entire thing by hand, but we like to use an electric mixer until the dough gets too thick, and then we switch to a wooden spoon to finish incorporating the ingredients. The finished dough should resemble pizza dough. If it’s too sticky, you can add more flour.
- To shape the cookies, put a light sprinkle of flour on the countertop. Grab a handful of dough and knead it on the counter a couple of times to get it nice and smooth. Break off a walnut-sized piece of dough and roll it between your palm and the countertop until it forms a smooth ball. Roll that ball into a log, about 8 inches long. Bring the ends of the log up next to each other to form a “U” shape, grab the bottom of the “U” with your other hand, and twist it a few times until the dough forms a tight spiral. Place the spiral on the counter and wrap it around your finger to form a circle. Pull the top end over the bottom and pinch it underneath slightly to close. Place onto a cookie sheet.
- Beat the egg wash ingredients together in a small bowl, and brush lightly over each cookie. Bake at 350°F until the cookies have puffed up and are nice and golden brown on top, about 10-15 minutes.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Francesca Cardile by Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen – Ashley Covelli
Note: This post includes affiliate links for items that I genuinely enjoy. Big Flavors will receive a tiny commission from purchases made through affiliate links on this site at no added cost to you. This allows us to cover site-related expenses and helps to keep us cooking up a storm!
21 Comments
Joanne
I wonder how anyone ever had the patience to make all those cookies! My grandmother used to make a similarly crazy amount. Definitely need to try these and see how they compare to my family’s!
Dina
this might be what we call knot cookies. they are yummy.
Ashley
I think a lot of Italian families have similar cookies, with their own twists. It was really cool being a part of something that brings my husband so many fond memories. And my toddler absolutely adores them!
lorhen82
They’re so pretty! It’s good to see Dino keeping the tradition alive too!
ahr
Hello,
I don’t know what’s crisco ( 1 1/2 cups)…
Thanks
Ashley
Crisco is a brand of vegetable shortening.
Janet
I came over from Hoosier Homemade today so I am a newbie to your blog but I had to say the cookbook is a precious item. To have the recipes and the handwriting is priceless let alone all the stains. Lovely, just lovely!!
Ashley
Yes! I totally agree. It belongs to my husband’s mother’s cousin, so she will probably pass it along to her kids, but I made sure to take photos of a lot of the recipes so I have them to try out. Thanks so much for stopping by, Janet! 🙂
Homemade & Yummy
Don’t you just love those old recipe books. I have my mom’s too….but most of the time I still have to figure out how to make the recipe. She never really wrote down directions. Traditional recipes bring back wonderful memories.
Melville Nicoletta
Also for us, that is what is all about, keeping the tradition alive, while creating new memories. These cookies are so good, we tasted some from Loreto’s God mother who is from Calabria 🙂 ! Great job!
veenaazmnaov
I love traditional grand ma kinda cookies especially at such festive times. These look perfect. Saving for late. YUM!
Analida's Ethnic Spoon
I love the old recipe book in your photos as we have one we are preserving as well with online recipes we publish. Bringing the family together with food is so important a tradition. Merry Christmas to you and your family Ashley!
Dishes Delish
Your recipe book looks like one of mine!! So fun to have an old handwritten book! I love cookies that aren’t too sweet and these look perfect. Simply perfect!
Dixya Bhattarai RD
love the intricate shape!!!
erica acevedo
These cookies are too adorable! And your recipe book looks a lot like my Nana’s! Definitely enjoying working through the recipes in it as I get older!
Megan
Family traditions are the best part of the holidays. I like how well loved that recipe book looks!
Helene Dsouza
Oh those are pretty cookies! You guys got a hand for this. I am usually super messy. First time I see those cookies too, and I love learning about Italian cookie traditions. I have to admit we don’t really know much about Italian cookies in Austria and Germany, because we have so much choice of local cookies. However, I am going to share this recipe with my mum now, maybe she can introduce these at the upcoming gardening club in the village there. 🙂
prasanna hede
pretty cookies perfect for Christmas! loved that handwritten recipe book.
Leslie Haasch
I’ve had these at a friend’s Easter celebration, but I had no idea that they were for Christmas, too!
Jillian
I love old family recipes. These look delicious. Thank you for sharing.
Amélie van der Aa
I love how these cookies were shared generation after generation, This is so precious, and so is the old and browned cookbook in the picture! And these cookies look so pretty too!