A Spoonful of Sugar

Lucas had a little friend (T) over to play on Monday so I thought I'd do a little bit of baking for us all. I've been eyeing the cookie chapter in Dolce Italiano since it arrived, so I felt this was a good enough excuse for some full-fat baking.

I want to make every single cookie recipe from Dolce Italiano--from the chocolate kisses, to the zaletti, to the mosaic biscotti, they all just sound so enticing. As much as I love chocolate, lemon is Lucas's favourite flavour in the whole wide world--although beef runs a close second--so I chose the Lemony Semolina Cookies.

The majority of lemons in Italy come from the sun-drenched Amalfi coast—running between Sorrento and Amalfi itself--in the Campagnia region. I particularly liked that this recipe calls for both fresh lemon and limoncello for an added burst of intense lemony goodness. I made some limoncello last summer, and while I'm not 100% happy with it—I think I grated in some pith as it's a bit on the bitter side—I'm always pleased when I get to use my 'own' ingredients, if that makes sense. (I should point out that I used a quarter of the amount of limoncello called for since I planned for the kids to be eating them.) With the distinctly southern additions of semolina and extra-virgin olive oil, I'm quite happy to slot this recipe into the Campagnia region.

If your butter is nice and soft, this is a very quick dough to bring together. As I knew Monday would be a whirlwind of tidying—how does one keep a house vaguely neat with a toddler around?—and lots and lots of fun, I weighed out the dry ingredients and left the butter out to soften the night before. The dough came together really quickly and had a beautiful lemony-yellow colour to it, thanks in part to the extra egg yolk. I rolled the dough into quite small balls as I wanted to have cookies that were just the right size for little hands. It was an additional bonus that they came out looking afternoon tea dainty.

I made a full sheet of cookies and within half an hour there were only three left, which speaks for itself really. Lucas and his friend T kept toddling over and helping themselves, and best of all... actually eating them instead of stuffing them under the sofa or inside toys as children are so fond of doing.

These cookies are deliciously crunchy, lemony enough to suit any lemon-head and not too sweet. They go equally well with tea or coffee and would probably be very nice along with a glass of limoncello after a heavy dinner in place of a more traditional dolce. I love the sparkles from their quick dip into sugar before baking.

Next time I'll make them with the full amount of limoncello called for; maybe splitting the recipe into adult and kid batches would work? While two tablespoons spread over five dozen cookies is practically homeopathic, I didn't feel comfortable serving up boozy cookies to a mum friend and little ones; I think 14 months is a bit early to discover if Lucas is a mean drunk or not!!