Reginelle, the Sicilian sesame cookies, another delight added to our collection dedicated to many delicious cookie recipes. Today we’ll make grandma’s recipe for Sicilian sesame cookies: the regina cookies with sesame, not to be confused with the Catania “biscotti regina”, typical Dolci dei morti, and with a dough similar to the traditional braided Sicilian cookies or the more famous Squisiti modicani.
They can be called by many names: in Palermo they’re called reginelle, in other areas biscotti regina, in Catania they are “cca ciciciulena” or “viscotta cca ciciciulena”, and in other parts “cca gigiulena”. Whatever the name, these grandma’s Sicilian sesame cookies are widespread across the region, they accompanied the childhood and old age of many of us, they are simply wonderful and part of Sicilian cuisine and grandma’s recipes!!
The scent is always the same: baker’s ammonia, vanillin and toasted sesame seeds, and if you passed in front of a bakery while they were taking these out of the oven, you’d immediately recognize that fragrance! Warm, very aromatic and crunchy, eaten in the morning on a cold winter day while walking through the streets of one of the many historic centers of small Sicilian towns, these sweets will instantly take you back to memories or create new ones!
The reginelle dough is simple, old-fashioned and traditional — a cookie from old times, from when butter was mainly used in the North and here lard was commonly used. Don’t ask me if you can substitute lard with butter or oil, because you can — in your own kitchen you can do what you like — but the taste, aroma and crunch will never be the same as the real “viscotta cca ciciulena”!
But I’m sure if you’ve reached this webpage you’re looking for the original reginelle recipe or the “biscotti regina” recipe. So let’s go to the kitchen, roll up our sleeves, and bake some delicious sesame cookies as fragrant as mafaldine with sesame, cubaita and sesame breadsticks. Before we start, remember that if you want to stay updated on all my recipes you can follow my Facebook page and my Instagram profile, and here you’ll find Sicilian cuisine and grandma’s recipes.
Take a look at these Sicilian sweets:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: about 50 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 99.29 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 11.43 (g) of which sugars 3.37 (g)
- Proteins 2.10 (g)
- Fat 5.43 (g) of which saturated 1.64 (g)of which unsaturated 3.49 (g)
- Fibers 0.90 (g)
- Sodium 22.14 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 20 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients to make reginelle with sesame
- 4 1/6 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 11.5 tbsp lard
- 2 eggs (large)
- 1 1/2 cups sesame seeds
- 3 tbsp milk (to adjust the dough)
- 1 sachet vanillin
- 1 tbsp baker's ammonia (ammonium bicarbonate)
- to taste lemon zest
Tools to make these Sicilian sesame cookies
- Baking sheet
- Tray
- Parchment paper
- Pastry brush
How to make reginelle
Pour the flour onto your work surface, add the lard and work it in with your hands, mixing it into the flour until you obtain a coarse, crumbly mixture.
Make a well and add the sugar.
Add the baker’s ammonia, the vanillin, the lemon zest, the eggs and begin to knead; adjust the dough by adding a little milk and work quickly until you obtain a homogeneous dough.
Shape the dough into a rough cylinder, wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for about half an hour.
After resting, divide the dough into 4 parts and roll into ropes about 3/4 inch thick.
Cut the ropes into pieces about 1 1/4 inches long, then roll each piece a little between your hand and the work surface to thin them slightly.
Brush the pieces with a kitchen brush moistened with water and press them into the sesame seeds so they adhere well to the dough.
Arrange them neatly and spaced on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (I used a silicone baking mat) and bake at 356°F (convection) for about 15 minutes.
Once all the cookies are baked (I made two trays), gather them on the same tray and place them in a warm but turned-off oven for one hour. This will toast the sesame seeds even more and, above all, will dry the cookies so they become truly crisp.
Store the cooled cookies in a tin or an airtight container and consume them as soon as possible, because although they won’t spoil, after several days they will lose crunchiness, aroma and flavor.
If you liked this recipe, take a look at:
– Sicilian pistachio pastries original recipe;
– Easy brioche col tuppo without a stand mixer;
– Nzuddi traditional Sicilian recipe;
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