We had a snow day today and traditionally on a snow day, I bake cookies. Originally, I wanted to make Lemon Semolina cookies from Gina DePalma’s book, Dolce Italiano and while I ensured that I had semolina in the house, I forgot to make sure I had lemons (and limoncello!). So instead I decided on Zalleti, these polenta cookies from Veneto, Italy.
One problem, well, two, I still didn’t have lemons for the needed lemon zest, nor did I have currants!
I did however have dried blueberries and oranges – so I decided to make some substitutions which I think came out pretty darn good.
Ingredients
- 3/4C dried blueberries (original recipe was currants)
- 1/4C boiling water
- 5T brandy, divided (the original recipe uses grappa but I didn’t think Chris would appreciate me using his brand new Nonino grappa)
- 1 3/4C flour
- 1C instant or fine polenta
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (plus more for sprinkling on – which I totally forgot to do on the first batch)
- 1t salt
- 1t baking powder
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 stick (1/2C) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- finely grated zest of 1 orange
- 2T milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 325F. Mix blueberries, boiling water and 3T brandy. Let them sit until the blueberries plump a bit and cool off.
Mix the flour, polenta, sugar, salt and baking powder with the paddle attachment of your electric stand mixer until combined.
Whisk egg and egg yolk. Add melted butter and orange zest. Mix this into dry ingredients and beat at medium speed until blended (it may be a bit crumbly).
Now here’s where I ran into a snag. You see, using blueberries rather than the currants, resulted in the soaking liquid turning blue. And I needed to incorporate that liquid into the dough. So my fear was that it would turn the dough a funky shade of purple/blue. So here’s what I did instead:
Add 2T grappa and 2T milk to dough, mix until incorporated on medium (dough will be less crumbly), about a minute. Drain and stir in blueberries.
Form dough into a disk, wrap in saran wrap and stick in the fridge for an hour until it’s easy to work with.
When the dough is ready, break off pieces about the size of a tablespoon and roll into a log between your palms, then flatten. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper 1 inch apart and pinch the ends to give them that diamond look.
Bake in oven for 15 minutes, turning halfway through for even cooking. Let stand on cookie sheet for a few minutes to cool and then transfer to wire rack with a spatula.
Really good with a cup of coffee!