Italian Wedding Cookies (Knots)
Why I Love This Recipe
This recipe was handed down to me by my Uncle who does his baking by "feel". It took a few times for me to get it right because too much flour can make the cookies harder than intended. I cut the recipe in half when we had a cookie exchange at work and used butter flavoring for the total batch, then used colored the icing for each flavor, i.e., pink for almond, yellow for total butter or lemon, etc. I also found rather than add the extra flour to the batch, it was easier to add when rolling the dough into ropes to make them come out a softer cookie.
This recipe and many others I have are special because they remind me of the way my parents and grandparents used to cook and bake. They didn't use "traditional" measuring cups or spoons, they just "felt" the texture. I'm not quite that brave yet, so I stick to the set amounts, but do make little tweaks to enhance wherever I can.
Ingredients You'll Need
6 lg eggs
1 stick margarine, melted & cooled
1 cup sugar
6 teaspoons baking powder (must be fresh)
4 -5 cups of flour
Salt to taste
6 teaspoons flavoring - (anise, almond,vanilla,butter)
NOTE: You can use vanilla for the entire batch and flavor the different icings for variety.
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a large bowl, beat the eggs until pale yellow. Add flavoring, sugar and melted margarine. Beat until well blended. Mix four cups of flour with the baking powder and salt and add to the egg mixture. If dough is sticky, add remaining flour as necessary until soft dough forms. Measure dough by the teaspoon, roll in your hands to form a rope, wrap around your finger to form a knot.
Place on lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool completely before frosting.
