tarallo cookie from Italy
Easter is still celebrated with many traditional religious ceremonies in Catholic Italy. And, as with all important events, there is always enough tasty food to go with the festivities. On Easter Monday friends often share a meal of lamb and the first fresh spring vegetables. Chocolate eggs – often filled with a surprise: anything from a small present for a child to an engagement ring for a lover– are exchanged as gifts. This tarallo cookie is a popular Easter treat. Taralli are made in the whole of Italy and there are many variations. These Easter taralli from Calabria are a luxurious version made with a generous number of eggs. They are usually glazed and sprinkled with decorations like hundreds-and-thousands. I chose Easter-yellow lemon sugar to decorate my tarallo cookie from Italy. If you like this cookie try my own variation: Easter egg cookie with aniseeds.
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Tarallo cookie from Italy
for about 30 cookies
all the ingredients
for the dough
250 grams flour + extra to sprinkle
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
50 grams softened unsalted butter
2 small eggs
1 small egg yolk
90 grams sugar
grated rind of 1/2 organic lemon (unwaxed)
for the glaze
200 grams icing sugar
about 1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar
grated rind of 1/2 organic lemon (unwaxed)
flour and butter mixture
Mix the flour with the sugar, the salt, and the baking powder. Add the butter and blitz in the food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
add eggs and sugar
Mix in the eggs, the egg yolks and the grated lemon rind and quickly bring together into a ball.
a nice ball of dough
Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for about 30 mins.
forming the knots
Preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F. Sprinkle your work surface with some flour and divide the dough into pieces of about 12 grams. Roll them into ropes of about 15 cm/6 inches. Form the tarallo cookie into a knot and put on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper.
ready for the oven
Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for about 20 mins. until light brown.
glaze and lemon sugar
Take out of the oven and leave to cool on the cookie sheet. Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice and stir to make the icing. Use some extra lemon juice if the icing is too thick to brush on.
brush and sprinkle
Mix the sugar with the grated lemon rind. Brush the cookies with the icing and sprinkle with the lemon sugar.
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