Cucidati (Italian fig cookies)

plate of cucidati cookies with coffee cups to side

4.82 from 11 votes

These delicious cookies are a tasty mix of sweet, fruity filling, buttery cookie outside and a lovely lemon frosting on top.

Prep Time40

Cook Time15

Total Time55

Course: Snack

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: (approx)

Calories: 153kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

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Ingredients

For cookie dough

1 cup all purpose flour plain flour
3 tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 oz unsalted butter (2oz is ½ stick)
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

For filling

½ cup dried figs (½ cup is approx 3 ½oz)
¼ cup dates
¼ cup raisins
2 tablespoon blanched almonds (I used slivered, but whole, chopped/flaked also good)
1 tablespoon chocolate chips
1 ½ tablespoon honey
2 tablespoon marmalade or apricot preserves
1 tablespoon brandy or whiskey, marsala
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

To top

¼ cup confectioner's sugar icing sugar
½ tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon nonpareils hundreds and thousands (small round sprinkles)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preparing the cookie dough (do ahead)

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly to mix. Add the butter, in small cubes, the vanilla and egg and pulse to form crumbs. Add the milk and pulse a couple times to bring the mixture together.
Remove the blade from the food processor and take out the dough. Knead it briefly (just once or twice) and bring the dough together in a ball. Wrap it in cling wrap/film and chill for at least an hour or two until firm or leave overnight. If you leave overnight, you may need to take it out 20 minutes or so before rolling so it is not too cold.

Making the filling

Remove the tough stem from the figs then chop them into roughly quarters. Roughly chop the dates, if not already chopped.
Place the figs, dates, raisins, almonds, chocolate, honey, marmalade/jam, brandy/whisky and cinnamon in the food processor and blend until a relatively smooth paste forms, scraping down and pulsing slightly more as needed.

Forming and cooking cookies

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. Line a baking sheet/tray with parchment or a silicone mat.
Unwrap the cookie dough and roll it on a floured surface into a rectangle roughly 10in x 8in (25cm x 20cm). Neaten off the edges so they are relatively straight.
Cut the piece of dough in half the long way (ie so you have two pieces around 10 x 4in, 25 x 10cm). Separate the pieces of dough slightly to make them easier to work with and to make sure they are not stuck to the work surface.
Divide the filling in two and use half to make a log the length of one of the pieces of dough, in the middle. Make sure it goes right to the end and is relatively even all along.
Roll over one side of the dough and keep rolling so it goes all the way round and the join is on the bottom. It is fine if it overlaps slightly. Cut the log into slices roughly 1 -1 ½in (3-4cm ) in length. Transfer them to the lined baking sheet and then repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.
Bake the cookies for approximately 15 minutes until the dough looks slightly dry and they are just starting to brown at the edges and underneath. They may feel slightly soft on top but they should feel dry. Allow to cool a couple minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To finish

Once the cookies have completely cooled, Place the cooling rack with the cookies over a baking sheet (to collect any dropped sprinkles).
Sift the confectioner's sugar into a small bowl. Add the lemon juice and mix until smooth. Drizzle/spoon a little of the glaze on top of around 3-4 cookies at a time then sprinkle on some sprinkles on top. Repeat with the rest. (Alternatively, you can turn the cookie over and dip them in the frosting, but it will likely run slightly and be a bit thicker. You will also need more glaze - I'd suggest making around double to have enough to dip in.)
Allow the glaze to dry before transferring to a container. The cookies will keep well for a good few days or more, the sprinkles may just bleed a little color.

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Notes

You will likely get between 12 and 16 cookies, depending on exactly how long your piece of dough is, the size you cut them etc. You don't need to be too precise but they will look better to be relatively even in size. Make sure the knife you use to cut them is sharp and, if needed, clean as you go to save getting too much filling on the dough.

Nutrition