Some foods are so irrevocably linked to certain holidays that the events would be incomplete without them – the baked yams with their silly marshmallow toppings at Thanksgiving, for instance, or the ham at Easter.
In the case of Brandii Magliulo, a graphic artist at the Sonoma Valley Sun, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without her grandmother’s Italian cookies, which she made with recipes handed down through generations, like heirlooms.
“Every Christmas, she would bake piles and piles and piles of cookies,” Magliulo said. “Grandma started baking well before Christmas, and always had a couple of shelves in her pantry devoted to them.”
There were 14 grandkids (later to become 16), all of whom visited their grandmother’s house in Santa Rosa as often as possible. “She was an incredible cook,” said Magliulo, “especially her lasagna. She made all her pastas and sauces from scratch and made great meatballs, too.
“We’re good Italians. All we do is eat and drink. Eating was always a really big deal. Christmas dinners were extravagant multi-course meals. The eating would go on for hours.”
Every year as far back as Magliulo can remember, her grandfather would play the violin and dress up as Santa Claus to hand out presents to all the kids. “One year he couldn’t find his beard,” Magliulo said, “so he taped one of my cousin’s baby diapers across his chin and that was his beard for that year.”
Born in San Angelo in Campo, Lucca, Italy, in 1921, Grandmother Elia immigrated to the United States at the age of 2. After the family settled in northern California, she met James Magliulo, whom Brandii Magliulo describes as a “full-blooded Italian” born in the U.S. Elia and James were married and had five children, including Brandii’s father.
Elia died in the summer of 2007 but her recipes are carried on by the younger generations who still make the cookies, said Magliulo, whose favorite has always been the biscotti. “They’re not like the crunchy, dried-out things you get in the store. Even though they were twice-baked, they never tasted stale.
”The spritz cookies originally came from grandpa’s mom, my great grandma Jenny Magliulo,” she said. “And the biscotti came from grandma’s mom, my great grandma Gemma DeLuca.”
Depending on the size of the cookies, each of these recipes should make several dozen.
Spritz Cookies
Ingredients
4 cubes butter or margarine (softened)
1 package of brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
a pinch of salt
8 cups flour
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, cream softened butter with a beater. Add brown and granulated sugars. Beat until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add baking soda, salt and flour, 2 cups at a time. Beat. Press through a cookie press (any shape) onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake, rotating sheet for even browning until light golden brown (15-20 minutes for star shape, 10 to 13 minutes for teeth shape).
Biscotti
Ingredients
1 cup melted butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons bourbon or white wine
1 tablespoon vanilla
6 eggs, beaten
2-4 cups chopped walnuts
5 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 F In large bowl combine melted butter and sugar. Add bourbon, vanilla and eggs. Blend all. Add walnuts and blend well. In separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Add flour mixture to the first mixture, forming a large ball of cookie dough. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or more. Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Roll out each piece into standard cookie sheet length, 3 per sheet. Bake rolls or loaves at 350 F for 20 to 25 minutes or until very light brown. Cool slightly (about 10 minutes). Transfer loaves to bread board and cut diagonally with serrated knife. The angle you cut will determine the length of the biscuit. Re-bake at 350 on cookie sheet, cut side down, until lightly toasted, about 15 minutes. Turn them over once, if necessary, halfway through the baking time to ensure even toasting. When completely cool, store in covered glass container, air-tight is best.
