December 15, 2017

We called them “Colored Cookies.”

I’ve never seen them anywhere but in my hometown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania though I can’t believe they are unique to there.

Truth be told, I don’t think I’ve ever had them made by anyone besides Aunt Margie until I made them from her recipe.

Many of the Italian and Italian-American cookies that I grew up with were cake-like. A stiff batter of flour, sugar, eggs, and fat (lard and butter were the most common), leavened with baking powder, flavored in some way (vanilla, lemon, chocolate and spice, sesame, and so forth), rolled or shaped and baked, and usually iced with a thin powdered sugar-milk icing that would harden to a glaze.

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Totos are a perfect example of the chocolate and spice variety.

Anginetti (Genets, as we called them in Italian-American-dialect-slang) also referred to as Lemon Knots, are lemon flavored. Although I’m devoting most of December to posting Italian-American pastry recipes, Anginetti won’t appear until next year.

Sesame Seed Cookies (which certain members of my family like to dip in wine) have no flavoring other than the sesame seeds they are rolled in before baking. These are coming next December, too.

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Colored Cookies are flavored with vanilla despite the riot of color that might suggest otherwise. There was a brief period of time, however, when Aunt Margie got creative (read iconoclastic) and used coconut extract instead of vanilla. Coconut and almond are my two favorite flavors when it comes to sweets, leagues beyond chocolate and vanilla as far as I’m concerned, but coconut-flavored colored cookies strayed too far from tradition for my taste. It didn’t keep me from eating them, however!

This is Aunt Margie’s original recipe. And if you flavor them with anything other than vanilla, please don’t tell me…just kidding!

If you have a favorite family recipe and a bit of a story to tell, please email me at santafecook@villasentieri.com and we can discuss it. I am expanding the scope of my blog to include traditional recipes from around the country and around the world. If you haven’t seen Bertha’s Flan, it will give you an idea of what I’m looking for.

I don’t use a lot of food coloring.  The only other exception in recent memory (other than these cookies) was Jim’s Hawaiian Guava Cake.  Take a look at my box of food coloring.  The number 39 is the price:  39 cents!  I’ve had it a long time, though I used up the red making the Guava Cake.

Print Recipe

Aunt Margie's Colored Cookies

Use a very good quality vanilla extract, not artificial vanilla flavoring, as that is the predominant flavor. The best way to mix these is using your hand. If you don’t start there, you’ll end up there so just use your hand from the beginning. Although Aunt Margie’s original instructions were to ice the cookies while still warm, that is very difficult to accomplish without assistance. You can ice them after you have baked all of them with no noticeable difference. It is best to use medium-weight shiny aluminum cookie sheets. Dark metal makes the bottoms too dark before the cookies have completely cooked. You can divide the dough into five parts and color the last one yellow. If you do so, you will need to use slightly less of each dough to make a cookie.

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Course

Desserts and Sweets

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

2 hours

Servings

dozen MetricUS Imperial

Ingredients

Cookies

• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 1 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 large pinch salt
• 10 teaspoons baking powder (3 tablespoons plus one teaspoon)
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 8 2/3 cups flour

Icing

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons milk plus additional if needed

Course Desserts and Sweets Cuisine Italian Prep Time 1 hour Cook Time 2 hours Servings dozen MetricUS Imperial Ingredients Cookies 1 pound unsalted butter 1 2/3 cup sugar 1 large pinch salt 10 teaspoons baking powder (3 tablespoons plus one teaspoon) 1 1/3 cups milk 4 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 large eggs 8 2/3 cups flour Icing 2 cups powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 tablespoons milk plus additional if needed

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Instructions

Cookies

1. Measure all the ingredients.

   
2. Combine butter and sugar.

   
3. Mix well using your hands.

   
4. 
5. Add eggs one at a time mixing after each.

   
6. Mix in salt and baking powder then add milk and vanilla.

   
7. Combine well.

   
8. Add flour and mix until a dough forms.

   
9. 
10. Divide dough into four parts.
11. Leave one part of dough white.
12. Color the others pink, blue, and green.

    
13. 
14. 
15. 
16. Take approximately 1 teaspoon of each dough and roll into a ball the “size of a walnut” according to Aunt Margie’s recipe. You will need to apply a bit of pressure, without smashing the colors together, to be sure that the different colored doughs have joined into one cookie. If not, the cookies will split during baking.

    
17. 
18. Bake 350°F for 17-20 minutes until very light brown on the bottom and the top does not depress when touched lightly.

    
19. Remove cookies from cookie sheet and put on a cooling rack.

    
20. Using your finger, ice with powdered sugar icing while still warm.

    

Icing

1. Combine powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Stir to combine.

   
2. Stir to combine.

   
3. Thin with a small amount of milk if needed. The icing should be of a spreading consistency.

Recipe Notes

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