Sicilian Sesame Cookies: Italian Christmas Cookie Recipe

Growing up in Queens, New York, my mom first lived with, then around the corner from, her grandmother, Vincenzina Orlando, who immigrated to America as a child from Prizzi, located in the Palermo region of Sicily. Grandma Vincie loved to bake, and whenever my mom and her sisters would stop by to visit, like any good Italian Grandma Vincie always had cookies on the table. These slightly sweetened sesame cookies - "Juju cookies", as Grandma Vincie called them - were her specialty, and she'd make more than 500 of them at a time, to serve with tea, or coffee, or to one of her five granddaughters who'd come visit after school.

My mom wasn't a big baker, but she'd make these cookies every Christmas, when she felt she needed to have cookies to offer Christmas visitors. My sister and I would help her roll out the dough on the counter into long snakes, and we'd cut them into bite-sized, and sometimes not so bite-sized, pieces. Grandma Vincie's way of making the cookies was thin and the length of your index finger from tip to knuckle, but you can make them as thick and as large as you want. If you want a crisper cookie, the way my mom likes them, cook them a bit longer.

These cookies can be found in most bakeries in Sicily by different names. But regardless of what they're called, they're an authentic Italian holiday treat. The recipe below makes approximately 150 small, thin cookies - nobody has as much energy as Grandma Vincie.

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

4 cups flour

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1 cup Crisco

2 eggs

4-6 tablespoons water

Sesame Seeds

Preheat oven to 375F.

Place all dry ingredients in large bowl and mix until combined. Work in Crisco, then add eggs. Add water a tablespoon at a time, until dough comes together. It should be not too soft, not too hard. Roll out and cut into desired shapes and sizes. Roll cut cookies in sesame seeds and bake for 10 - 12 minutes for softer cookies, 12-14 minutes if you want them crunchy.

Place all dry ingredients in large bowl and mix until combined. Work in Crisco, then add eggs. Add water a tablespoon at a time, until dough comes together. It should be not too soft, not too hard. Roll out and cut into desired shapes and sizes. Roll cut cookies in sesame seeds and bake for 10 - 12 minutes for softer cookies, 12-14 minutes if you want them crunchy.