Italian Christmas Cookies Recipe

MAKE THE PASTA FROLLA

1. Place the flour on a work surface and make a hole in the center. Pour the sugar, baking powder, salt and eggs at room temperature.
2. pasta frolla recipe step 2
3. Add the cold butter. Knead quickly until the dough is homogeneous and non-sticky.
4. Form a loaf, cover it with cling film and let it cool in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

CUT OUT THE COOKIES

1. After about one hour, remove the dough of Pasta Frolla from the refrigerator and place it on a floured work surface, preferably made of marble (marble keep pasta frolla cold for longer). Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin until you have a thickness of about 6 mm (¼ inch).
2. With the special molds, cut out the cookies, pressing hard on the pasta frolla dough.
3. Remove gently the cookies and place them on a baking sheet, covered with non-stick baking paper. This step must be done quickly enough. If the pasta frolla becomes too warm and soft, it's impossible to work it and you can't form the cookies properly.
4. knead the remaining scraps of dough again, form a new loaf and place it in the refrigerator for about 10/15 minutes. Then roll it out and make more cookies.
5. Put the raw cookies in the refrigerator. After about 5 minutes, take the pan from the refrigerator and bake them at 180°C (350 F) for about 10 minutes. Pasta frolla cookies will be ready when they are just a little golden.

DECORATIONS

1. Snowy Cookies: First of all, you can simply sprinkle your Italian Christmas cookies with icing sugar. The snow effect is always beautiful especially with the Christmas atmosphere! Use cinnamon powder for a particular Christmas scent.
2. Chocolate Dipped Cookies: Melt the dark chocolate in a bain-marie. When it's completely melted, dip the biscuits halfway in. Drain the excess chocolate and let it cool on a sheet of non-stick paper. Cooling, the chocolate will harden again.
3. Or you can decorate them drawing lines of melted chocolate onto the cookies with a teaspoon.
4. Rainbow Sprinkles: For a more cheerful and child-friendly decoration, you can sprinkle the biscuits with rainbow sprinkles on the chocolate before it cools and hardens. So the little sugars will stick to the cookies.
5. You can achieve the same effect using a little honey instead of chocolate.
6. Pomegranate Grains: The pomegranate is symbol of luck and prosperity and is auspicious for the future. It's also very beautiful and decorative. Serve your Italian Christmas cookies in a Christmas serving plate with a few pomegranate grains scattered here and there.