 Recently, I shared a family story on Eatocracy about our attempt to get back our family tradition: the befana cookie. My Grandmother passed away before we learned how to make them. We took these special cookies for granted. My brother tried many different combinations of ingredients. He researched with other members of the family, the internet, even conversations with cousins in Italy to try to make them Nonna's way. But, finally, he achieved cookie perfection. I couldn't disclose the secret recipe for fear of Bernardini excommunication. It has now become a family legacy. When the story was re-posted this year, I quickly from the learned from the comment section that that legacy turned into a fatal flaw. So many people were very disgusted with me. As a form of penance, I want to post another recipe that we do share throughout the year: sugar cookies. The cookie is the perfect combination of buttery goodness with a sweetness that doesn't overpower. If you make these cookies with margarine, you will get crispier and flatter cookies. If you make them with butter, they will rise more. We always leave the batter overnight in the refrigerator. If you don't, the dough will be harder to roll out in your hand. The cookie dough balls should be about a tablespoon and a half in size. The aim is to have them all the same size on the plate for uniformity. Hopefully, this recipe will make your holiday as well as ours very special. I look forward to the spending all day today with my brother and sister making our Christmas cookies. Ingredients 2 sticks of softened butter or margarine Directions Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Refrigerate the ingredients overnight (this makes it possible to roll the ingredients). Roll into small balls, then roll the balls in sugar. Bake in preheated 325 degree oven. Check cookies after 12 minutes; the length of time will vary depending on if you used butter or margarine. Previously - Have a sweet holiday and save kitchen memories while you can and It's not the holidays without...befana cookies |
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My awesome family has this recipe for THE BEST cookie, but you can't have it. Here is a recipe for some sucky sugar cookies instead, losers.
Apparently, y'all do not get the whole, "Family Secret Recipe" ordeal. It's called a secret recipe for a reason; it's called a FAMILY secret recipe for a reason. A family secret recipe is either handed down from generation to generation OR it's taken to the grave. Stop it with your selfishness and you gimme-gimmes. Sheesh. If I had written this article, I wouldn't have given you my family's SECRET recipe either.
What is truly sad about this is that Nonna's secret recipe went with her to the grave, so the author and her brother spent years trying to recreate it. The author, having learned nothing apparently, has decided to keep it a secret so that it can go with her to the grave... My beloved aunt made all sorts of yumminess that we kids all loved, especially around Christmas time. Everything from Biscochitos to Tamales. No one ever could re-create exactly how she made her bread pudding or her green chili or her yummy blue corn tortillas. I could never get it right, despite making some of these items with her year after year. A few years ago, for Christmas, every one of us kids got a small book that Tia Connie made by hand where she wrote out every single recipe for us, with every pinch of this or that that was required to make her delicious food. She died the next year just before Thanksgiving. My Tia knew what apparently this author does not: part of the joy of cooking something that your loved ones love is teaching them how to make it for themselves. Now, even though my Aunt is gone, we can all still expierence Christmas with a small part of her. And I have something I can pass down to my daughter that is better than any secret. And anyone who asks gets a copy of whatever recipe they want. This article has made me so mad, that I think I will start my own food blog with the express purpose of sharing these recipes so that everyone can experience them.
Laura,
You're kidding, right? It seems you don't quite get why people are miffed with you. If I were to walk up to someone and relate the story you shared, but then refused to share the recipe when they said, "Gee, the sounds great. I'd love to make some, could I have the recipe?", how do you think they would feel? Yeah, we get your brother went to a lot of trouble to recreate it, but c'mon? If I recreated an old family recipe, I'd (and probably most of us who cook for the pleasure it brings to ourselves and others) share it with anyone who asked. If it was such a big secret, then why share the whole story in the first place? You call this a penance?
This will be the last article of yours I'll bother with. There are plenty of food blogs out there that don't bother with this petty crap.
Eh. Any recipe for baked goods that includes "or margarine" on the ingredient list is probably not worth trying.
"I have a secret cookie recipe but can't share it but I want you to know about my secret cookie recipe". What a useless article. Bonus: mediocre sugar cookies.
As far as anise cookies, I much prefer the springerle, Joy of Cooking pg. 840. Bit of a process, but excellent.
Some people want others to envy them – they wish to be thought to possess something "better" than what another person has. And they do not wish to share it – it's a crutch, a prop, for a wonky ego. Like the "secret" cookie recipe the author brings up again and again. Very silly! But more than that, pathetic. And especially about a CHRISTMAS cookie – really, what would Jesus bake?
Look through church cookbooks and family booklets and you will find incredible recipes that others were glad to share.
Okay this is nuts. The cookie recipe that she is so proud of has been handed done generations in my family it is no secret cookie recipe. She is just being stingy and does not like to share. If that is how she cares to be remembered as that is her problem. She just needs to grow up and stop the child hood games.
Unless your family is a group of bakers and your living is tied to the secrecy of the recipe, "family secret" recipes are effing stupid beyond words. You like a cookie I make? I'll give you the recipe. I'll tell you exactly how I make it – right down to where I buy ingredients and how long to cool them before moving to the racks. I'll tell you what & how to tweak it if you want it fluffier/flatter/crispier/chewier/whatever. There are secrets which need to be kept secret. There's information that isn't for everyone. For everything else – cookies included – secrets are just stupid and make you look like an egomaniacal cretin.
Mystery solved
https://www.cuisinart.com/recipes/desserts/4376.html
I understand secret recipes. I guess I am bad at keeping them. My mom had always been the cooie maker and Christmas pudding maker for all our friends since I was a kid. After she died I continued making the cookies and sweets for a year or two. But after I was diagnosed with diabetes I really did not enjoy baking 100s of treats I could not eat. So that year I made a booklet of all my mom's holiday sweets recipes and gave them as gifts instead of the cookies.
"I quickly from the learned from the comment section that that legacy turned into a fatal flaw." WTF? What is this article about?
HOW SELFISH ! Laura Bernardi perpetrated a CRUEL hoax, on Christmas no less ! The title is a lie. She did not give the secret recipe. She gave an old recipe that was never a secret! Gee I wonder how your grandmother is being received in Heaven right now ? She must be so ashamed of her children. You are sharing that your entire family is completely selfish. My entire family is so upset with Laura. Why would CNN allow this. This is the polar opposite of what you are suppose to teach our children about sharing!
This Laura lady (author) is being pretty ridiculous in not sharing a silly recipe. Why not spread the wealth and let everyone enjoy the cookies? I, for one, give out all my recipes to anyone who wants them. I like thinking that they will pass the recipe down from generation to generation after I'm gone.
Reminds me of a Chinese Proverb: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
Yes, Laura is being ridiculous. But don't worry. Bob to the rescue! I guarantee that this Befana Cookie Recipe will blow Laura's out of the water. She might as well retire her's because after using this recipe nobody will be able to look at, let alone eat her cookies!
Ingredients
1 1/4 sticks butter
1/4 t. salt
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 T anise seed
3 eggs
Instructions
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs. Beat until light and fluffy. Add salt and anise seed. Add enough flour just so dough holds together. Separate into two rolls. Place in refrigerator for about 1/2 hour. Roll our dough. Use cookie cutters for shapes. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350° ‘til edges just begin to brown. When cool, decorate.
Bob, have you actually really made these? Because it looks to me like you just googled Befana cookies, and cut and pasted the recipe from the Cuisinart webpage. :-)
But I still think the whole "secret family recipe" is silly. That story of hers is posted all over the place. You can' barely find a recipe because half the links returned are to the original story that's evidently been posted 3 years in a row. If she doesn't want all this "stress" and "controversy", then stop posting the same article every year. Plus, it's not like it's even her grandmother's secret recipe. It's just her brother's approximation of it. She needs to try writing something new instead. And I have a sugar cookie recipe that's leaps and bounds better than hers, but I can't share it on here. She might actually lift it from my comment and wouldn't want to hand down a recipe to her or anything.
I'm going to have fun playing with this recipe. By next Christmas I'll have a good spiced sugar cookie recipe and a boat load of memories of making cookies with my 3 year old daughter. Thanks for sharing what looks like a yummy basic recipe. Merry Christmas! The rest of ya'll need to let the whole Befana thing go. It was more of a sad I wish I had spent more time with my grandma story than a nanny nanny boo boo you can't have the recipe story. I'd give anything to have made spritz cookies with my grandma this year. Unfortunately, my grandmother doesn't remember that she had three kids, four grandkids, and four great-grandkids.
I have a cookie story to share that includes the recipe! A few years ago, I was shopping and stopped for a break at the Neiman Marcus cafe. We had coffee and the most amazing cookies I've ever tasted.......
;) (Kidding – google Neiman Marcus cookie receipt for the complete urban legend and cookie recipe!)
Try it, though. It's still a really good cookie recipe.
Go to any pastry chef and they could recreate the befana recipe. People that have secret recipes are oddballs to me. Their lives must be terribly shallow if they have to have a secret recipe. Silly people. Hey CNN....get rid of these dopey stories.
I am 90 years old, and have many memories of my cookie baking and sharing at Christmas. It was a joy to give cookies to family, friends, and doctors, and I gave favorite recipes along with them. I also had them published in our church's cook book. I never wanted to die with them.
Good for you, guess you're a chef, not a cook (see my somewhat lengthy comment below). My older sister has made some of the best things I ever ate (mainated mushrooms, beer cheese and crabmeat fondue) and I have multiple copies of her recipes to make sure they don't get lost.
"mariniated mushrooms" This chicklet keyboard is killing me.
You say much about your own character by voicing your imaginings of the writers motives.
As I said before, "She wants the world to beg for the recipe and would probably sell it to Keebler in a heart beat." If they would have it. I imagine it a well known recipe anyway.
Merry Christmas:
Ingredients
1 1/4 sticks butter
1/4 t. salt
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 T anise seed
3 eggs
--------------------------–
Instructions
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs. Beat until light and fluffy. Add salt and anise seed. Add enough flour just so dough holds together. Separate into two rolls. Place in refrigerator for about 1/2 hour. Roll our dough. Use cookie cutters for shapes. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350° ‘til edges just begin to brown. When cool, decorate.
What a worthless POS Ms. Bernardini is..... why write and article about a recreated recipe you can't share. Hope you've been separated from CNN by New Years, so you'll have plenty of time to bake your secret cookies for laBefana. What is it that rhymes with witch..?
Well said. I fail to understand a.) what this person could possibly lose by sharing the recipe other than some small-time family-level jingoism award and b.) how this represents the "season of giving". CNN editors should read their own "Bedford Falls vs. Pottersville" article.
omg, get OVER it. It's a cookie recipe. There are millions out there. Pull the log of cookie dough out of your @ss and move on.
If the author here is a worthless POS, what does that make you, exactly? Certainly no better.
Maybe he or she read the article for the "secret" recipe as the headline implies, only to find out that the secret family recipe was not revealed just an average sugar cookie recipe.
Ten bucks says there is no "secret recipe." But she sure got everyone talking, didn't she?
I'm not sure I've ever seen a sugar cookie recipe made with just the yolks of the eggs. I'm intrigued.
Watch out for all of that vicious 'christmas spirit' that seems to be running so rampant... yeesh. I would guess that the people here being so nasty would be eating these cookies themselves, because who would really want to be around them? Oh, that's right. They only act like this on the internet, when they don't have to face down anyone that they act so horrible to. Like cowards.
You're absolutely right: the anonymity of the internet gives people license to act totally uncivilized and hateful these days. That's what a true coward is — they wouldn't have the guts to act that way other than anonymously. Thanks! :D and all best in the new year.
It's actually far, far worse than that. True, anonymity of the internet gives people license to act uncivilized and hateful. However, the fact is the internet has given way too many of us the idea that our thoughts and ideas are more important than they actually are. We've allowed a sort of 'my opine is more important than everyone elses' mentality to begin taking us over. And like a virus, or rather meme, it continues to spread.
OK, I am going to share my secret family chocolate chip cookie recipe:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts
Directions
PREHEAT oven to 375° F.
COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
I don't understand the hostility towards the author.. He gave a intriguing story about Grandma secret cookie recipe but didn't deliver. So what are you mad at? the fact that you did not get something for free and that you might need to get off your lazy butts and come up with your own ? or is it that your jealous knowing that your own family,based off your comments, were to lazy to come up with a secret family recipe of there own?
hey hers a hint take a well known sugar cookie recipe and add your own flair to it and quit being so lazy quit asking for handouts and do something on your own........
Here, here! I don't normally mix with the masses here in these comment sections, but in support of Laura, I have to say how proud I am of you, dear – year after year, I'm sure the pressure is great since you write for CNN for a living, to divulge the details of our secret recipe. You don't-go girl!
If the pressure is so great, maybe she should keep it to herself and quit dangling it in front of everyone. Merry Christmas and have fun eating those fabulous cookies no one else gets to try.
Enjoy your cookies! I personally think you and yours are rather more like the END result of the metabolic process of digesting the super-secret cookies.
Seriously you shared a recipe for sugar cookies? Pillsbury perfected these quite awhile ago. So much so that they started putting them in tubes and selling them in supermarkets everywhere.
I can't tell you how sorry I feel for you if you truly believe Pillsbury cookies in a plastic tube, with their flavor enhancements and shelf-life additives, compare to cookies made with fresh ingredients. .
Should have called, this is the recipe I have used for years. Sorry.
I believe that this is why we have quests for "Lost Recipes" so sad!
Ironinc that a stroy around Christmas memories is best described as arrogant, selfish, self serving, conceited, writing by the "author". A complete waste of my time. If your "Top Secret" family cookie recipe is so grand then share it or are you afraid of negative feedback? What purpose did it servre to retell a story – for a 3rd time – without providing substantiation? Personally, I think the whole thing is made up as there's no proof to back it up. Put up or shut up. Oh, and Merry Christmas or what ever else it is such a rude family celebrates this time of year.
Of the many comments in this vein, yours seemed the most to the point and a good place to jump in. A posting in "the bafana cookie" link at the top of the article has a recipe to use and share. It's basically just another anise cookie variation.
Some lady mentioned a special rolling pin, and a German grandmother. Those are not anise drops, those are springerle and take two days to make, not two weeks because they have to dried out for 24 hrs.
Yes, many good recipes are taken to the grave because of selfish stupidity. I'm proud to share anything I make that people compliment me for. In the middle nowhere in S. Florida there is Chalet Suzanne with 'secret recipe' soups. Romaine, renamed Moon Soup for awhile, is one. Seems the highly guarded recipe is so good that the cannery shut down for a while. Being canned under two different names, and two (minor) variations of ingredients, it's not THE secret recipe, it's the lowest cost to make at the soup plant. There are recipes out there ( see CORA COOKS: Romaine Lettuce Soup, her variation from the NYT Cook book, but you'll need the 1961 version).
I'm considered a very good cook and read the ingredients and consider the taste. Here's how to make a my fast version. Take some cheap Thrifty Maid cream of mushroom soup (why? it has the garlic overtones needed) . Heat 2/3 can milk of 1/2 & 1/2 or light cream. Puree maybe 1/3 to 1/2 cup canned spinach and add to milk, then add to soup. Season (pepper mostly) to taste and a dash of Spike if you have it. Beats what I bet you'd end up spending $18 for at dinner for the soup.
That was a throw in, I'm going somewhere with this. Turned out at the time I had my version but the Chalet plant was closed and I had no 1 to 1 comparison. Turned out I was working with a guy who went fishing with one of the sons of the resaurant, and I asked him if he'd try to see if it was OK for us to compare recipes. You'd think I asked him to shoot his mother and said he wouldn't even try. He was on the input end of what our company did, and I was in the critical path to the output. Guess what happened when he needed my help from then on.
The point I'm making is mere cooks cloak their one hit wonder recipes in secrecy because they're afraid they'll never do better. Chefs like Emeril and Mario share as much as possible. Emeril even publishes his cajun seasoning (the BAM) on the web even though he's sells it commercially. Why? I happened to have the ingredients on hand and made a small batch, but if you had to go out and but it all, it's cheaper (and probably fresher) to order it from Emeril.
That's the difference between a cook (or baker) and a chef. Many restaurants will give you the recipe for something you like, if not at least the ingredients. TIP: Look in the back of restaurants, especially ethnic ones, to see which BRANDS they use. That's how I know Chaokoh coconut milk is the best for Thai and other recipes and use it almost exclusively.
As for the original useless article that started this, guess they're cooks and a bunch of, whats the Italian word for 'dorks'
Try the Mae Ploy coconut milk: the thickest, the best! Thicker and better tasting than Chaokoh by some measure.
This family secret stuff is for the birds. You have now lost a reader. It is this mentality that has sent many a good recipe to the grave. So your good recipes are in the grave and now your writing and Eatoracy can go with it, for not finding the major flaw in this article. The ego displayed in this article is just a sample of why so many of the true talents of our ancestors are a thing of the past. Enjoy those cookies while helping this page to die.
Way, I totally agree with you! When my dad was dying from cancer a few years ago, all he wanted was lemon squares. Well, I made lemon squares that he loved, but after hearing about a co workers famous lemon squares, I really wanted to try her recipe. But would she budge?? Nope. The man, my dad, was dying!!! That is what he was craving, and she would not give up the recipe. I promised to never give it out, but still she wouldn't give an inch. I will never understand the mentality of a "secret recipe" unless you are Mrs. Fields or KFC. It still makes me sad. I did make him my lemon squares and he was happy, but I would have loved to try her supposedly amazing recipe.
Maybe tasted better in your opinion, but I bet your father appreciated yours much more than he would have you co-workers (glad you didn't say "friend's") recipe. Co-workers squares sound highly suspicious, probably the Betty Crocker box mix or some brand that begins with a "K" and sounds German (which is good). Anyhow, how many different ways can you top some pastry with a lemon juice/extract custard and dust with powdered sugar? Google some recipes if you think yours is lacking in some way.
Maybe it was because she used Krusteaz or some other company's mix, and was too embarrassed to say so or didn't want people to know. I like homemade the best, but some of the mixes are pretty good.
So sorry about your father's passing.
Control freaks! The idea of having a carrot to dangle over someone's nose is too good to pass up. I have a solution for those types: add your own special touches! Make it your own.
Thanks for the consolation prize of the sugar cookie recipe, I guess. The whole thing smacks of condescension. You acknowledge that the readers are upset that you won't give up the befana recipe, but then you say, 'Oh, well, here, you can have *this* recipe instead, it isn't as important to me", which kind of cheapens the whole thing. I'll stick to my Betty Crocker sugar cookie recipe, it may not be your super special one, but at least Betty Crocker doesn't serve it up with the generous helping of patronization that you do.
Congrats I guess on finding the recipe then? I'm not sure why to taunt your readers though with "I have the most amazing cookie recipe but I won't share it with you".
Since none of us are friends or family I guess we'll just take your word that they are great and congratulations...I guess...for your success.
I never understood secret recipes. Recipes are lost because of things just like this.
Writing about it confuses me even more when it just seems to be that you are flaunting something out there for people to see but won't share it fully. Oh well...it's Christmas. Happy Holidays all, and lets hope everyone else has good cookies somewhere in your family history.
I've never understood the lack of generosity that causes people to guard recipes. When I was a child the mother of my very best friend made a kind of cake I loved. She would parcel it out when she made it, but never give me the recipe. I practically lived in that house, but she wouldn't share that information. I loved that family, but I wish I didn't know that about my friend's mother. It's strange, because it was such a trivial thing, but that left a lasting impression on me. A negative one.
This article is lame, as many posters have already mentioned. There's no need to write an article about your grandma's cookie recipe if you had no intentions of sharing it in the first place. Nobody outside of your family really cares about your family memories. If you had posted the recipe, then the people that read your article could have benefited from it. But you didn't and your readers got nothing but a story about your family which they can't do anything with, other than wasting their time reading it. And you wonder why there's a backlash? If you didn't plan on sharing the cookie recipe, you shouldn't have wrote the article. Get a clue already! BTW...I receive this great sugar cookie recipe that will make yours taste like crap, but unfortunately I can't give it to you because you're a selfish person and I don't want to anger the magical king toad! My post as much a waste of time as your two articles combined! :-)
Actually, John, I rather enjoyed your post. It was entertaining, and it gave me more satisfaction than the original article about the mystical "cookie of the yuletide gods," which left me unsatisfied and disgruntled because of the let down of no benfana recipe included.
I just checked this against my sugar cookie recipe that I've had for 11 years. It's exactly the same, except mine has 1/2 tsp more vanilla. MY secret is adding 1/8 tsp of nutmeg, though. That scant amount adds a nice Mmmmm Factor. Still, I don't mind this article at all. It sure beats reading the rest of the news, which is 99% bad anyway!
Actually, this story makes me sad. Laura wasn't close enough to Nonna because they didn't make the cookies together.
Otherwise she would have learnt how to make them. Therefore saving Ralph 8 years of his precious life not to try to re-create the original recipe that only Nonna knew.
No matter what, when you are posting on the internet, many people will be disgusted with you. I agree though, this story of your recipe is fairly dumb and it's kind of a "why do I care about your family" thing. And yeah, the sugar cookie recipe, I do believe that is Betty Crocker, simplest thing ever and the one my mom used to make. Dammit! Now everyone knows, thanks.
Only a complete, giant, puckered, self-important, selfish asshole would consider a recipe–basically a set of instructions to combine standard ingredients into something to eat–so precious and so proprietary that they could refuse to share it (in a public article no less!) with a straight face. What a schmuck (figuratively, of course) this writer must be. I don't even know her but I hate her and her kind completely. Seriously.
Wow! We have the same recipe in the South??
so you all may subpar cookies?
sugar cookie is a sugar cookie.
Its missing the secret ingrediant though, spooge.
Where do they find such non-talented people? The occupy protesters?
Wow. I thought trolls only patrolled the religious and/or political articles; now they are fouling up a perfectly benign nostalgic piece about ONE PERSON'S family tradition.
@Laura Bernardini: Just because a bunch of stupid trolls (who are literal readers with the emotional brevity and depth of a mud drip) find it difficult to read human interest stories, doesn't mean you to have to take their inane vitriol to heart. There was no flaw in the original piece; therefore, no reason to make penance for a perceived sin you didn't commit.
not too difficult to locate any recipe on the internet. http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/la-befanarsquos-stars
All the people who posted nasty comments are obviously products of the "entitlement" society we live in today. They think the author owes them the recipe for befana cookies. NOT!! I say to them, "If you don't like it, get off your lazy asses, go into the kitchen, and invent something of your own!"
Befana cookie recipe:
Ingredients For the Cookie:
•4 cups flour
•1 1/2 cups sugar
•2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
•1/2 tsp. salt
•3 eggs
•1 1/2 sticks of butter
•Skin of 1/2 orange, grated
•Skin of 1/2 lemon, grated
•1 tsp. vanilla
•Milk, just enough to work with (about 1/4 – 1/2 cup)
•Crisco shortening (enough to grease a few cookie sheets)
Ingredients For the Filling:
•1/2 cup of almonds
•Sugar (1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup)
•Skin of 1/2 orange, grated
•Skin of 1/2 lemon, grated
•Vanilla (1/2 tsp.)
•1/2 ounce of Anisette or Whiskey
•1 drop of red food coloring
•1/16 tsp. of cinnamon
•1 egg white (beaten until foamy)
To make the cookie dough, put all cookie ingredients in a bowl and stir well to blend ingredients.
Put flour over your hands and over a flat surface. Take dough from bowl and knead a few times until all ingredients are blended well.
Take large chunks of the dough and roll it out on a floured surface with a rolling pin covered with flour. Roll it out to about 1/4-inch thickness.
Grease a couple of cookie sheets by spreading Crisco shortening over them and then flouring them.
Take your cookie cutters and cut out cookies. Put on a greased baking sheet and with your index finger, make a small indentation in each one (This is where the filling will go.)
To make the filling, put almonds and sugar in a food processor and mix until very fine. Empty into a small bowl.
Add the rest of the filling ingredients, except for the egg white, and mix well. Then fold in the egg white.
Put a small drop of the filling on each cookie and bake in a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes, until the cookies turn a dark golden brown on the bottom. (Note: You only need about a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of filling for each cookie as the egg white makes the mixture expand during cooking.) (Warning: If the cookies are too thin, they will cook quickly and could burn if you don’t watch them.)
Let them cook on a rack and bake the rest in batches.
That is about as basic a recipe for sugar cookies as one can find. And one can find it – all over the internet. This is hardly atonement for the earlier lapse.
Why are you people so pickey-derisive in your comments about a sweetly shared Christmas tradition cookie story? Would your harsh façade shatter and fall on your feet if you smiled at the kind spirit of the story?
Yes, now go throw yourself in traffic
ma & pa, thank you. I wish more commenters had your perspective. Or at least got a pinch of the holiday spirit. Too many grinches and scrooges.
Yeah, like people too selfish to share a "secret" cookie recipe during the holiday season. Bah humbug. I prefer those insanely addictive Danish butter cookies in the blue tin, anyway. We buy one tin at Christmas, and we make it last until well into January.
No. This is a stupid article, bad writing, and strains 'holiday spirit' to the point of credulity when we are asked to display it over such a petty, condescending lack.
Looking for the cookie recipe for Pete's Sweddi Balls. Wonder what the secret ingridient is?
Yawn.. Very boring recipe, I imagine the befana recipe is just as boring. Most people have these "memories" of eating things in their childhood, as I do, but the actual food by itself is rather plain. When you eat something from your childhood, it triggers response in the brain very closely to the stored memory of the past memories of that time. That's why when you hear songs or eat foods from times ago, they take you right back.
The story would have been great as a standalone story about the memory of eating those cookies in her childhood. The whole "perfecting" the recipe and then not sharing it is pretty selfish, although I don't imagine there is any magic in that recipe unless Grandma put in a pinch of magic mushrooms! Hey, is that an elf in the kitchen riding a dragon?
The headline of this article was probably written by CNN saying sugar cookies. The author clearly stated the family tradition cookie was the "befana cookie". In the linked Dec.9 post the author said "I want to post another recipe that we do share throughout the year: sugar cookies". To those who get confused easily, reread and understand. We are happy to have this nice substituted recipe.
Here is her previous nonsense article about these silly cookies: "It's not the holidays without...befana cookies"
" Growing up with an Italian grandmother, Christmas meant befana cookies. My Nonna would make these anise treats every December. Italian legend has La Befana as a good witch in the style of Santa Claus, but for some reason in my family, befana became the name for Christmas cookies.
Nonna would make enough befana cookies to fill a glass jar that was about two feet tall. She would store them on the stairs leading to the attic with a piece of bread on top to keep out any moisture. I grew up in Vermont and I remember the cold as you would try to sneak a cookie. Of course, Nonna would catch me – the powdered sugar on top of the cookie made it very obvious.
My Nonna passed away in November of 2001 and unfortunately, no one in the family had learned how to make the befana cookies. Thus, my younger brother has spent the last eight years trying to perfect the recipe and seems to have come as close to Nonna's as possible.
The cookies are perfect in their simplicity. They are like shortbread without the butter flavoring. You make a mass of dough, roll it out and then use seasonal cutters. It is a dense cookie, but the anise has quite a kick.
My brother Ralph tried everything to recreate the cookies. He imported straight anise liquor in his suitcases from Italy to try out; that didn't work. There was one year where he added every extract in the cabinet to try to capture the flavor; that didn't work. He added orange juice because my Dad thought he had seen her use some; that didn't cut it either.
Finally, he got it last year. The whole family agreed that this was THE cookie. We closed our eyes and it was like my grandmother was with us again.
The thing that always amazes me about making befana is that it takes four of us to do what my Nonna accomplished by herself – but, that is the fun.
Sadly, I can't share my brother's recipe with you as I want to be able to attend Christmas dinner with my family and this would cause a feud. Plus, Ralph would deny me cookies forever if I let the secret out – and that's a consequence I'm not willing to face".
It's kind of like the person who stands around talking about the party she is giving who then says "oh sorry, you all are not invted." Good grief!!! Why talk about it all if that's the case.
Wow, this is a lot better than the article!
But still there is a lot of ego there, selfisness, greed....and more selfisness, and greed, and ego.
I create cookies, I create food....and I give the recipes away. It makes me happy!
They just sound like tight-a$$e$. Jerks. Really anal. Maybe they'll publish a family cookbook with all blank pages.
seriously, why do we keep posting cookie stories from this woman who won't share the original recipe she wrote a story about? go have a merry christmas with your stingy family.
A-men. This whole "nah-nah-nah-nah-boo-boo" thing is ridiculous. And she can have her nasty sugar cookie recipe, too.
If she's not going to share the original recipe, she should just drop the subject. Now I'm even more annoyed.
Yep! Stop posting what she writes. She wants the world to beg for the recipe and would probably sell it to Keebler in a heart beat.
What does this mean?
I couldn't disclose the secret recipe for fear of Bernardini excommunication (did you find the recipe or did your brother develop it in the kitchen after much trail and error?). It has now become a family legacy (since when? Wasn't it either just recently discovered or just developed? When did it become a legacy?). When the story was re-posted (from where?) this year, I quickly from the learned from the comment section that that (two "that's") legacy turned into a fatal flaw (WHAT??). So many people were very disgusted with me (Why? For telling people the recipe your brother developed? For telling people of a recipe your neighbor gave you? I am lost).
I have read it several times and can't understand what this lady is saying.
Let me sum up: There was a great cookie recipe that her Gramma made (the befana cookie). After the Gramma passed away, the recipe was lost. The family went on a quest to re-create the recipe. After a lot of work, they succeeded, but it was agreed that the recipe would be secret and not passed to anyone outside of the family. After that story was written and posted, and the recipe was not shared, people wrote mean comments because they couldn't have the recipe (this is most likely sarcasm). To smooth things over with the readers, she is sharing this sugar cookie recipe with everyone that is also a family recipe, but not a family secret.
You're welcome.
Thanks Bob! There are some really petty, ugly people posting here.
The pettiness started when someone wrote an in depth article about a frikkin cookie, and than acted all precious and coy by letting us know they couldn't possible share the recipe. Petty invited petty, and voila – a posting flame war began. That's me, petty and ugly enough to break it down for a better understanding. What people who hoard recipes like Gollum's "precious" ring don't understand – yes, you will be remembered for your secret recipe someday – you will be remembered as a mean spirited, selfish jerk who made a decent whatever the hell your secret recipe is.
@holy guac below, talk about hitting the nail on the head. Drove it in with one shot. Excellent
meant @holy guac just above me
This is really poorly written. For example "But, finally, he achieved cookie perfection" But what? What was overcome? Grandma's death? That was too many sentences ago for this to be relevant. Another great one: "the recipe's origin was a mystery to me until I asked My Mom?" How long was it a mystery? Does mom live on the moon? But for the advent of space travel, the recipe would have remained a mystery. The biggest mystery is what it takes to write for CNN. Only nepotism or conjugal favors explains this article. Oh and, if your family is not dead, how can it have a legacy that came to be just now? It has now become a family tradition is possible, except allegedly grandma made them with some frequency. So it's really her legacy that came to be when she died. Ridiculous.
As with stories all that are on CNN . com , the mystery for me is within them That's what I told her when we found out . <just wanted to stay in line with CNNs format, LOL. I couldn't agree more Martin. Ninety-nine percent of the writing here is atrocious.. unreadable and makes zero sense. I refuse to double back in order to find the meaning. I rarely come here any longer due to it, and I've written to CNN about what an embarrassment it is. Apparently the cheap freelance route is not going to change, nor is the lack of care about quality. Read at your own risk.
One of the volunteers that comes in to the hospital told me a story of how she used to make sugar cookes and send them to school with her son for lunch because they were his favorite. She learned many years later that her son would sell his cookies to his friends for a dollar a each.
LOL. :) Awesome story and far more entertaining than this article. You should write a little blog about this. Thanks for sharing. :)
I miss my Grammie's anise cookies and rum balls. And I have tried and failed many times to replicate her Italian red wine cookies, even with the recipe in front of me. This year, simple frosted sugar cookies...
A secret sugar recipe as secret as a Betty Crocker's Cookbook? And a rerun of a snobby " I have the best holiday cookies and you don't" story". Well, Bah, Humbug to you too.
The "secret" ingredient in the befana cookies is Amaretto. Big deal.
Let me get this straight...you are sharing a recipe that your family was given by a neighbor? You should be grateful your neighbor wasn't as selfish as your family is with recipes otherwise you wouldn't have it.
Wonderful use of irony – love it!
WHAT SHE SAID!!!
Let me get this correct, you are sharing the "family secret sugar cookie" recipe? WOW! "Our upstairs neighbor shared a cookie recipe with her .." You should be grateful your neighbor shared with you and wasn't so selfish as your family seems to be.
Sounds delicious
Johnf, I think this might be the recipe you are searching for. I've tried them, and they are delicious.
http://www.food.com/recipe/self-frosting-anise-cookies-42320
This sounds great. I love German anise cookies. I'm going to try it for New Year. Thanks.
I have fond memories of a German Anise drop cookie that my grandmother made. No one in the family can make it despite having the handwritten recipe. We have all tried without success to replicate the cookie. Unfortunately, all we have is our wonderful memories, but no Anise Drops. They were hard cookies with a hollow meringue peak that required the dropped cookies to set overnight on the baking pans before baking.
Any suggestions?
I make these every year, but my recipe does not have baking powder in it. About 25% of the time they look like flat mushrooms as they're supposed to and the other times they taste fine but don't have that nice shape. It could be that the size of the eggs matters. It could be that I don't beat them long enough. My recipe says 10 minutes for the eggs, 10 more minutes after adding the sugar, and 10 more minute after adding the flour. With a hand beater, this is very wearing and the beater gets hot. And I use anise extract, not seeds. And the recipe came from my german grandmother.
Janet, baking powder is a leavening agent, it increases the volume and lightens the texture of baked goods. That should help those flat cookies. The size of the eggs can matter, but you can add a little more flour if the eggs make things a bit too "soft". Lastly, you don't want to overbeat. Next time add half the flour using the mixer, but finish the flour by hand, you'll get a better feel of the consistency with your hands. Add a little water if it is crumbly. Definitely refrigerate overnight to let those agents go to work! Baking is chemistry with a side of love.
Keith is 100% correct. And, even though it's good to chill the dough before baking it, make sure your butter and eggs are room temperature when you use them. This is a good idea for most everything you're baking actually. It can make a big difference.
I have a recipe that I think is just what you are looking for Drop Anise Cookies.
3 eggs set out 4 or 5 hour so they are room temperature
1 cup, plus 2 TBS granulated sugar
1 3/4 cup un-sifted flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 plus 1/2 tsp. anise extract
Beat eggs until fluffy
Gradually add sugar and beat for 20 (twenty) minutes. Now and then scraping sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt.
Drop by small spoon onto a greased and floured cookie sheet.
Swirl with the spoon in a circular motion
Let cookies sit out at least 8 hours or overnight
Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes until smooth and firm when touched
Cool on a wire rack and store in a can with a tight fitting lid.
Makes about 68-70 cookies.
It's a good recipe, but secret? What's secret about it. Nothing.
I read that piece about the befana cookie and loved it. Thanks for this cookie recipe. I'm trying it tonight!