Cookies Around the World 3 of 5

Submitted by CoolMonday

"This is a great recipe for variety (English, French, Greek, German, Finnish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Turkish, Mexican. I have split them, two to a recipe but if you want them all, there are 5 separate recipes. They are made from one basic cookie dough. I think some of them may be posted individually, but at Christmas I make the entire variety. Each batch of basic dough makes a batch of two of the cookies with the ingredients I have listed. Time does not include chilling time."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 16
• Serves: 20

ingredients

• BASIC COOKIE DOUGH

• 1 cup butter or 1 cup margarine, softened
• 1 1⁄2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour

• FINNISH ALMOND BRITTLE

• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1⁄2 - 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 -3 drops food coloring (optional)
• 1⁄3 cup blanched almond, finely chopped

• ITALIAN SPUMONI BARS

• 1 (1 ounce) envelope premelted chocolate
• 1⁄4 cup chopped pistachio nuts or 1/4 cup walnuts
• 2 -3 drops green food coloring
• 1 teaspoon rum flavoring
• 2 -3 drops red food coloring

directions

1. BASIC COOKIE DOUGH.
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Beat in egg and vanilla.
4. Add flour slowly and mix well.
5. FINNISH ALMOND BRITTLE.
6. Add almond extract to 1/2 cookie dough.
7. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.
8. Heat oven to 375.
9. Roll dough 1/4 inch on lightly-floured cloth-coverd board.
10. Cut into strips 2 1/2 by 3/4 inch.
11. Bake on ungreased baking sheet 10-12 minutes, until very light brown.
12. Cool.
13. For frosting, blend confectioners sugar, vanilla, milk, food color.
14. Frost cookies.
15. Sprinkle with almonds.
16. ITALIAN SPUMONI BARS.
17. Divide 1/2 cookie dough into 3 parts.
18. Part 1- mix in premelted chocolate.
19. Part 2- mix in pistachio nuts and green food color.
20. Part 3- mix in rum flavoring and red food color.
21. shape each part into rectangle, 8 by 3 inches.
22. Layer rectangles, placing green dough in center.
23. Press together.
24. Wrap and chill at least 2 hours.
25. Heat oven to 375.
26. Cut dough crosswise into 1/8 inch slices.
27. bake on ungreased backing sheet 5-7 minutes, until no imprint remains when touched lightly.

Reviews

[persi]

I added the spumoni bars to my Christmas trays and they went over well, I'd give them 4 stars. The dough was a little tricky to shape but I found that molding the middle and then putting in the freezer for a bit helped a lot. I then pulled it out and could shape the other doughs on either side and put it all in the freezer before slicing. We also discovered that we loved the pistachio layer. It was such a hit while making the cookies that we actually made a full recipe of just pistachio and used a small cookie scoop to portion it. The pistachio were the only cookies that I held back from goodie trays and went only to our nearest and dearest in their goodie baskets. The pistachio cookies were a full 5 stars!

 

[justcallmetoni]

I danced all over trying several of the options from this wonderful collection of recipes. From this recipe I made the spumoni bars which were delicious. I was a little nervous about the combination of flavors but they work well here juast as in the favorite the cookies mimic. I will miss you my friend.

 

[Susie D]

I used the dough to make the Almond Brittle Cookies. They turned out so pretty and tasted good too!

 

[Karen=^..^=]

I made the Italian Spumoni Bars and they were fabulous. I made one recipe of the basic cookie dough and instead of dividing it in half, I used all of it to make the Spumoni Bars and doubled the ingredients listed for them (I didn't double the rum extract though; I was afraid it would be too strong). They were very easy to make but you'd never know it to look at them. I made my rectangle 8 x 6 and then cut it into three sections lengthwise for shorter cookies (2 inches instead of 3). I didn't slice them 1/8 inch...I have a problem cutting cookies that thin. ;) I did about 1/4 inch and still ended up with lots of cookies! Every time I make these (& your Kolacky) I will think of you, CoolMonday...we miss you!