These Ligurian cookies, called canestrelli, are traditionally made with hard-boiled egg yolks. They’re a holdover from the days when convents produced cookies made with yolks – leftover after nuns used the whites for starching their habits – to help stabilize the dough and make it crumbly. The name of these cookies seems to refer to any type of shortbread-like cookie in Italy, though now it mostly refers to a version made with a flower-shaped cutter (but this will vary depending on where you are in Italy). Though the cookies are often not flavoured, many modern versions include lemon zest, vanilla or almond extract and/or rum. – Ben Mims
Canestrelli Italian Butter Cookies
A classically-inspired recipe for crumbly, flower-shaped shortbread cookies – a festive staple in Italy.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup potato starch or cornstarch see note
- ¾ tsp fine sea salt
- 2 hard-cooked egg yolks
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup icing sugar plus more for dusting
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or almond extract
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Position racks in top and bottom thirds of oven, and preheat to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In bowl, whisk together flour, potato starch and salt.
- Place a fine-mesh sieve over a large bowl. Using a rubber spatula, press egg yolks through, scraping the sieve. Add butter and sugar. Using a hand mixer, beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla and lemon zest. Stir in flour mixture until a dough forms and no patches of dry flour remain. Form the dough into a ball.
- On lightly floured surface, roll out dough to scant ½-in (1-cm) thickness. Using 2½ in. (6½ cm) flower-shaped cookie cutter, cut out shapes, rerolling scraps. Place cookies 1 in (2½ cm) apart on prepared pans.
- Using ½ in (1 cm) round piping tip, cut centre out of each cookie.
- Bake cookies in top and bottom thirds of oven, rotating and switching pans halfway through, until edges are golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Let cool on pans for 1 minute. While they’re still hot, dust cookies with icing sugar, then transfer to rack to cool completely.
Notes
To make these cookies castagne (Italian for “chestnut”) style, substitute the potato starch with the same weight of chestnut flour.
