Christmas has already come and gone and I hope everyone got to take some time off, spend the holiday relaxing, and enjoying the company of loved ones.  Although the season is officially waning my cookie consumption is still in full effect and therefore the baked goods posts will continue on. We all still have a few more days until feeling like we should have followed the new years resolution diet trend… right?

Sambuca cookies are another annual tradition in my home as well as one of my favorites to make. Sambuca is an anise-flavored italian liqueur and is used in this recipe. I didn’t happen to have any Sambuca on hand, however I did have the perfect amount of Anisette. Also an anise-flavored liqueur it worked just the same for this recipe. 

Melting a good amount of chocolate and a touch of butter is the first step **finger licking is not reserved for children only**

While the chocolate mixture cooled for a few minutes i put together the liqueur, eggs and sugar. Also blended a handful of almonds to as fine as a texture as I could get them without making straight up almond flour. 

Then I mixed in the chocolate, all-purpose flour, and almonds to get this luscious batter. It’s supper sticky! Overnight refrigeration is prime, but to save myself some time I stuck mine in the freezer for an hour and called it good :) 

With lightly floured hands I rolled the chilled batter into balls and tossed them in a bowl with a combination of granulated and powdered sugar. And bake!

Messy, but oh-so good! And pretty, I think :) I like the crackled look

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Even though I didn’t make all of these wonderfully delicious cookies myself I wanted to snap a few photos of a couple more just for the sake for sharing. I won’t be posting the process that goes into them, but the final product to worth a look! So here’s a few from this years holiday season by my mother and father.

These I actually did make and shared with you last week — fig cookies

These don’t officially have name, but my grandmother called them ‘biscotti’ for lack of a better name. They are not at all the hard biscuit you pair with your coffee, but thats what we have always called them — they are made from the leftover dough from the fig cookie recipe. We always have extra dough, so we make a simple confectioners sugar icing with a little lemon juice and top them with these colorful sprinkles. Traditionally, the sicilian fig cookies are sometimes decorated with these colored sprinkles. My family has never really done this, but we usually add them to these little dough cookies.

This is a new recipe my mom tried this christmas! Its a super chocolatey, espresso cookie. Two of my favorite things in one cookie — SO GOOD

Lemon Knots or Anginetti cookies — another italian recipe from my grandmother! Citrus flavors are common in southern italian cooking and this is no exception! SUPER lemony flavor and SUPER good! It’s an egg heavy batter, so it’s a dense cookie packed with citrus flavor. Also sometimes decorated with rainbow colored sprinkles :)

Sand Tart cookies — this is a special cookie for me because both sides of my family grew up making this recipe!  

My mom seriously makes the most amazing fudge! 

And that’s that! I can’t promise that this is my last cookie post of the season… I apologize for those in need of a sugar strike… I just can’t resist ;)