When I was growing up, holiday baking started in early December with the shelling of nuts: walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts. Piles of them. This was a chore for my sister and me and we did it, somewhat grudgingly, as we sat at the kitchen table in our suburban New Jersey home. Our mom, who was born and raised in Chieti, Abruzzo, was convinced that whole nuts were fresher than the pre-shelled ones sold in bags. She toasted and skinned the hazelnuts and used them to make buttery crescents, dipped in confectioners’ sugar. The almonds and walnuts were for her calcionelli—fried pastry pockets. Classic calcionelli have a filling of pureed chickpea, nuts and cocoa, but our mom filled hers with ground nuts, honey and citrus zest. She would fry them early on Christmas morning so we could enjoy them while we opened gifts. Along with her homemade panettone and cicerchiata (the Abruzzese version of struffoli), those cookies were the sweets of my childhood Christmases.
Eventually, my Italian mom started incorporating non-Italian cookies from her adopted home into her holiday baking. She used the classic Betty Crocker Cookbook as her guide for gingerbread and sugar cookies. She would make the dough, and my sister and I would cut out the shapes and decorate them with icing and sprinkles. As the years went by, our Christmas baking rituals continued to evolve. My sister and I would flip through the pages of Gourmet magazine’s annual cookie issue and choose which ones to add to our collection. All three of us—my mom, my sister and I—would bake together late into the night. As we mixed and rolled and decorated until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., we would watch old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies on TV—Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, The Gay Divorcee, Swing Time. The charm of those inky black and white films, of Ginger Rogers in an exquisite, ostrich feather-trimmed gown, twirling in the arms of Astaire, made those nights of spiced dough, honey and nuts, icing, and glittery sprinkles even more magical.
Over the decades, I have baked thousands upon thousands of holiday cookies. But increasingly I find myself drawn back to those traditional cookies my mom taught me to make, especially the calcionelli. I’ve come to realize that for her, those fried honey-and-nut cookies were a way to conjure the sweet flavors of an Abruzzese Christmas in her American kitchen. That’s what they’ve become for me.
Calcionelli: Fried pastry pockets stuffed with nuts and honey by Domenica Marchetti
Makes about 5 dozen (60) calcionelli
Each batch of filling makes enough to fill one batch of cookies. Choose walnut or almond, or make a batch of each.
Ingredients:
For the dough
3 cups (390 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup (100 g) sugar
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
½ cup (115 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon Punch Abruzzo or other sweet liqueur (see NOTE below)
For the almond filling
2 cups (225 g) blanched almonds
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
½ cup (125 ml) wildflower honey
For the walnut filling
2 cups (225 g) walnut halves or pieces
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
½ cup (125 ml) wildflower honey
Vegetable oil for deep frying
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Method:
Make the dough
Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and lemon and orange zests in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade; pulse briefly. Distribute the butter in the work bowl and pulse until it is incorporated and the mixture is crumbly. Add the eggs and pulse until they are just incorporated. With the motor running drizzle in the liqueur and process just until the mixture clumps together.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until a smooth ball forms. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
Make the filling
Pulse the almonds in a food processor fitted with the metal blade until coarsely ground. Add the lemon and orange zests and process until the mixture is finely ground.
Pour the honey into a nonstick frying pan and warm it over medium heat. As soon as the honey is loose, stir in the ground almonds. Use a silicone spatula to thoroughly combine the nuts and honey. Remove from the heat and scrape the mixture into a bowl. Let cool.
Make the calcionelli
Dust a rimmed baking sheet or a clean tablecloth with flour. Have on hand a 2 3/4″ round cookie cutter, a small bowl of water, and a fork, for cutting, shaping, and sealing. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut in half. Rewrap and refrigerate one half. Roll the other half out on a lightly floured work surface into a large thin circle (between 1/16″ and 1/8″ thick. Cut out as many circles as possible with the cookie cutter. Mound a teaspoon of the filling in the center of each circle. Dip a finger in the water and moisten the edges of the circle. Fold each circle into a half-moon. Press the tines of the fork along the edges to seal.
Transfer the calcionelli to the baking sheet or tablecloth. Reroll the scraps to cut out more circles; fill, shape, and seal. Repeat the process with the remaining half of the dough. You should end up with 55 to 60 calcionelli.
Pour oil to a depth of 1″ (2.5 cm) in a high-sided saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat to about 375° F (190° C) on a deep-frying thermometer. Or test by dropping a scrap of dough into the hot oil; if it sizzles and float to the surface the oil is ready.
Place a baking sheet or tray lined with paper towels near the stove. Carefully add 6 to 8 calcionelli to the hot oil. They will sizzle and begin to brown almost immediately so keep an eye on them. Fry for about 30 seconds, using a skimmer to turn them over and move them about. Transfer them to the paper towel-lined tray. Continue to fry the calcionelli a few at a time until you have fried them all. Transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. To serve, dust lightly with confectioners’ sugar.
Calcionelli will keep in a tightly lidded container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
NOTE: Punch Abruzzo is a sweet liqueur made from caramelized sugar and the zest of lemons and oranges. It is sometimes available online. If you can’t find it, substitute Cointreau, Grand Marnier, or dark rum; or substitute 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract.