Delicious Modican Cookies, the original recipe for the Modica biscuits made with lard and ammonium bicarbonate, a recipe that recalls the more rustic Sicilian braided cookies and the better-known reginelle with sesame seeds. If you love Sicilian cuisine and grandma’s recipes, the Squisiti cookies are truly a traditional Sicilian recipe. The Squisiti biscuits are dunking cookies similar to dunking cookies made with lard and ammonium bicarbonate, but they are made with regular baking powder and have a denser, crunchier texture. They are excellent for breakfast with milk or coffee, for an afternoon snack or a quick bite, and they are also delightful at the end of a meal with a small glass of sweet wine. Truly delicious, these cookies are also called “S-shaped” cookies, but they are not the famous Catanese nun’s cookies, even if they are equally famous. These golden and crunchy cookies, with their characteristic star-shaped cross-section and typical amber color, are prepared in Scicli, Modica and throughout the Ragusa area and have accompanied many of our Sicilian seaside breakfasts. Easy to make, the Squisiti cookies are very crunchy and have a pleasant lemon aroma; preparing them at home according to the traditional recipe will give you real satisfaction and fill your home with scents that take you back in time, to the cookies grandmothers made with lard and lots of love. Let’s go to the kitchen and discover how to make Modican Squisiti Biscuits — what a show!! Before you run to the kitchen, I remind you that if you want to stay updated on my recipes, you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here).
Read the recipe in English: Sicilian Biscuit recipe, from Modica.
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients to make Delicious Modican Cookies
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 lemon (juice and zest)
- 1 packet (about 4 tsp) baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup lard (about 4.4 oz (125 g))
- 1 pinch salt
Tools
- Bowls
- Meat grinder With cookie accessory
- Oven
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
Preparation of Delicious Modican Cookies
To make Modican “Squisiti” cookies, gather the flour in a bowl, add the lard and mix everything together.
Make a well in the flour-lard mixture and add the sugar and eggs, mix together, then add
all the grated zest of one lemon (preferably a green lemon, as it’s more fragrant) and all the juice; mix and add the baking powder, a pinch of salt and the vanilla extract or vanillin.
Knead first in the bowl and then on the work surface, but do not overwork the dough.
Extrude the dough using the appropriate machine, using a star-shaped nozzle or the suitable star accessory. Extrude pieces of dough about 6 inches long and form the famous “S” shapes.
Arrange the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in a static oven at 356°F for 20 minutes or until they reach the right amber color. Remove from the oven and let cool before moving them from the tray.
Enjoy the cookies right away or store them like regular cookies in a tin or glass jar.
Notes
I recommend using the machine rather than a piping bag, because the dough is difficult to extrude by hand. For more fragrant and more amber-colored cookies, replace two tablespoons of sugar with two tablespoons of honey.
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