Ligurie Canestrelli
Par Laurie le 18 août 2016, 17:19 - Cookies and bars - Lien permanent
Something different. Something that is neither American nor French. Ah! For once, I'm taking you to Italy.
I went to the local store the other day while on vacation in Southern France and found a box of very enticing cookies. They were imported and bore the name of a cookie bite we do have in France but comes from Corsica and in a very different shape. Those were shaped in a flower pattern and had very simple ingredients - flour, butter, sugar, egg yolk and lemon. You can't make it simpler. And yet, they looked so delicate, they could have been served in a tea party at Downton Abbey.
Ligurie Canestrelli
I tasted them. Loved them. Decided I needed the recipe. Like, really needed it! You know the feeling, I'm sure ;)
So I browsed the internet. Found a few recipes in Italian. Had a splitting headache by the time I was done with them (took Spanish in class and that was a LONG time ago!). I finally found a recipe on a French blog. Here it is in English!
If you don't have a flower-shaped mold like I was lucky to find after a few hours in my local stores, just use another shape. It will taste as lovely and is so worth the try.
Oh and because I love stories and read recipes like they were novels, the name comes from canestro, which means basket. Ligurie is the region where they originate. I know - I'm a nerd!
For 30 cookies, you'll need:
1 and 1/2 cup flour, sifted
9 Tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg yolk
3 tsp vanilla extract (I put 2 and it was enough for me)
zest from one lemon
confectioners' sugar, for sprinkling
Crumb the ingredients together with the tip of your fingers. Shape into a ball. Leave the dough in the fridge for 30 mn.
Roll out on a dusted surface and cut out into flowers. Make sure the dough is 1cm thick. If it's too thin, it will break when baked. Make a hole in the middle. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake 10 mn at 350°F.
Once cooled on a wire rack, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Voilà! That's it!
The recipe I used here comes from a website with a cute name: savoirs&saveurs, which means knowledge and tastes. She used 3 tsp of vanilla. I only used 2 and found it was quite enough. Everyone to their tastes though ;)