X Cookies

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is for X Cookies, which is a traditional Italian cookie. I’m pretty sure that it’s a Christmas cookies, as X is the Greek letter Chi, meaning Christ. Ok, so I am making these in the fall but that’s ok. Figs are in season right now, even though this uses dried figs, so that seems seasonable. You can do a quick search on the web and find the recipe for these cookies. Also, make sure that you check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see the posts from all the other bakers. I think there will be quite a few filling variations for these cookies.

When I looked at this recipe, I thought that they would be a lot of work. Sometimes I get annoyed when cookies take a bit more effort, but I was really excited to make these. I started making them and I was very surprised at how easily they came together. A recipe I looked at online had you chill the dough and filling, but the original recipe said you could proceed right away. I didn’t chill mine and it worked flawlessly. I was really pleased with how well these turned out.

I halved the recipe, which was plenty of cookies (32). Normally I have no luck rolling out dough to a certain size, but this dough was super easy to work with. I made the filling as the recipe specified, but used hazelnuts rather than almonds as I seem to be out of those. I had candied orange peel on hand; I use that in British recipes fairly regularly so I try to keep some in the cupboard as it can be tricky to find. I assembled all of these and then baked them up. The first few cookies took a little longer but then I had it down to a science. These kind of taste like a Fig Newton with a crisper outer cookie, and I really enjoyed making them!

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan