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Italian Fig Cookies (Cuccidati)

Italian Fig Cookies (Cuccidati)

Italian Fig Cookies (Cuccidati)

0 from 0 votes
Italian Fig Cookies (Cuccidati)
4.8 rating based on 12,345 ratings
4.8/5 (6)
Course: Filled CookiesCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Difficult
Servings

120

cookies
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An Italian cookie stuffed with a fig, orange, apple, nut and spice mixture. Like a homemade Fig Newton. This makes a large recipe…it can easily be halved.

Ingredients

  • For the dough:
  • 2 cups solid vegetable shortening

  • 3 cups granulated sugar

  • 6 large eggs

  • 8 cups all-purpose flour

  • 7 teaspoons baking powder

  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract

  • pinch salt

  • milk

  • For the filling:
  • 2 pounds figs

  • 1/2 pound raisins

  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar

  • half of an orange (with peel)

  • half of a small apple

  • 3/4 cups chopped pecans

  • For decorations
  • 1 recipe Powdered Sugar Icing (optional)

  • sprinkles (optional)

Directions

  • Make the dough:
  • To make dough, cream sugar and shortening: add eggs, vanilla, and salt. Blend in flour and baking powder by hand. Knead dough until smooth and workable. If this seems dry, add one tablespoon of milk at a time until you have a workable consistency.
  • Make the filling:
  • Cut up figs, orange with its peel, and apple into small pieces, mix well with the raisins, then pass through a food mill or meat grinder (if you don’t have a food mill, use a food processor in small batches). Mix in the cinnamon and chopped nuts by hand.
  • Assemble and bake:
  • Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C). On a floured board or between two sheets of waxed paper, roll out portions of dough a little more than 1/8 inch thickness. Top with a line of fig mixture. Wrap dough over mixture, sealing figs inside dough, to make a long flat tube of uniform width and uniform thickness. Slice this log into the desired cookie size. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes or until golden. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. If desired, when cool, prepare Powdered Sugar Icing, ice the cookies and top with sprinkles

Notes

  • Also sometimes referred to as Buccellati (although this word is also used for a larger fig-stuffed pastry), Turtigliuna (the same word is also sometimes used for a type of pasta) or Sicilian Fig Cookies. Common misspellings: cucidati, cuccidatti, cucidatti.

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Reviews

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(example: Sue in LA)
Rating
Review

★★★★★
I made these for the first time last year and I loved them! They were a bit time consuming but a labor of love to be sure. I made them with my friend who is Italian and she said that they were just like the ones her grandmother used to make.
- M.C.
I am 80% Italian and I have had real Italian cooking and cookies and this is pretty good in comparison--overall-its was a good recipe-I wanted to try a new one and it was a good expierience I do not think that I would make this certain recipe again. I think that I will stick to the original italian one in my family.
- Angis Di Risio in NY 
Good but Mom's was better. Leave out the nuts and apple add 1 lemon, rest of recipe remains the same except add 1/4 cup red wine and 1/2 tsp black pepper.
- Tom Cordaro in ,ny 14616 
I have tried this fig cookie and it is the closest cookie to my grandmothers fig pocket cookie that I have tasted. My family immigrated from the southern part of Italy, Bari to be exact and this cookie is the best. Enjoy!
- Ann M. in NJ 
I would make this recipe again because they taste so good. It is the same one my mom and grandmother and aunts made when I was young and they split the cookies between themselves. They put in a little whiskie and they added dates, which is fine without dates. It is fairly easy to make and you could also use a food processor. It is the best Christmas cookie recipe ever!!
- Marianne Jensen in Colorado Springs
Have made these for years and has become a family favorite! Is fairly time consuming (we triple the batch)but delicious.
- Keri in Louisiana
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