Italian s Cookies

These nostalgic Italian S cookies are tender with a lovely gritty texture from the addition of fine yellow cornmeal. They carry an unmistakable lemon scent and are deliciously simple to make!

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Italian S cookies

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 15

Servings cookies (4 1/2 dozen))

Calories 97kcal

Author Marisa

Equipment

Baking Sheets
Mixer
Food Processor (for lemon sugar)

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal fine grind
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
lemon zest from 2 lemons
2 large eggs plus 4 egg yolks reserve the remaining egg whites for brushing over the cookies before baking
1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Turbinado sugar to sprinkle over the cookies

For Topping The Cookies (decrease the amount of chocolate and nuts if you want half the recipe plain)

1 cup white chocolate chips approximately
vegetable oil to thin out the chocolate for drizzling
1 cup pistachios finely chopped, approximately

Instructions

Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside while you prepare the cookie dough.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt then set aside.
Place the sugar and lemon zest in a food processor and pulse together for about 20 seconds to make a quick lemon sugar, then set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held mixer, beat the 2 whole eggs, 4 egg yolks, and lemon sugar on medium-high speed for 5 minutes till thickened.
Mix in the melted butter, lemon juice and vanilla extract until combined.
Stir in the flour and cornmeal mixture until thoroughly combined.
The dough will be soft but manageable to work with.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F while you start rolling and shaping the S cookies.
Scoop up the cookie dough using a small ice cream scoop, approximately one and a quarter inch round.
Dust hands with flour and roll the cookie dough into a rope approximately 3¾ to 4 inches long.
Transfer the rolled dough to a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bend it into an S shape while spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart.
Beat the reserved egg whites with a fork and brush lightly over the S-shaped cookies.
Sprinkle the cookies with the turbinado sugar and bake for about 13 to 15 minutes.
When they're done, the cookies should have a lovely golden colour.
Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.
Allow the cookies to cool before drizzling them with the melted white chocolate and topping them with finely chopped pistachios.

Melting Chocolate

Place the chocolate and one teaspoon of vegetable oil in a microwave-safe bowl, heat on high for about 1 minute, and stir.
Continue heating and stirring in 15-second intervals until the chocolate has melted to a drizzling consistency.
Use a teaspoon to drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies and top them with the chopped pistachios before the chocolate sets.
Enjoy with your favourite hot beverage or a tall glass of milk.

Notes

NOTE: Updated May 1, 23

Since the nutrition calculator can only represent values on plain cookies or ones with melted chocolate and pistachios and not both, I've tweaked the amounts of chocolate and nuts that you'll need for the whole batch of cookies.

Therefore, nutrition is now based on the whole recipe with chocolate and nuts.

Please note you'll need to halve the chocolate and pistachio amounts if you want half the batch of cookies plain.

Nutrition