La Cucina Viola

Italian Knot Cookies or Anginetti are a staple around the holidays for Italian families. These cookies have a delicious notes of citrus and vanilla that pair perfectly with a hot cup of coffee on Christmas morning. Though I prefer these around the holidays they’re the perfect cookie to have at any time of the year.

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Ingredients

Cookies

• 2 sticks of softened butter
• 8 oz of softened cream cheese
• 1 cup of sugar
• The zest of 1 lemon
• The zest of 1 orange
• 5 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 cups of all purpose flour plus an extra 1/2 cup for rolling
• 5 tsps baking powder

Icing

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 cup lemon & orange juice mix
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• Nonpareils

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Zest the lemon and oranges and put the zest to the side.
3. Roll the orange and lemon, then cut each in half and squeeze the juices, save 1/4 cup for the icing and discard or use the rest for something else.
4. Cream together the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and zests on medium fully combined and creamy.
5. Add the eggs and vanilla, beat on low, this mixture will become very liquidy very fast so be careful it doesn’t splash.
6. Add the flour and baking powder, mix on low to prevent a mess.
7. A very tacky dough will form, this is how it is supposed to be.
8. Sprinkle flour on a clean surface.
9. Add the dough to the surface.
10. Take small sections of the dough and roll into 4-5 inch logs in the flour (see video for reference).
11. Tie each log into basic knots and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
12. Bake for around 15 minutes the bottom of the cookies should start to look golden while the top is still a pale color.
13. Once the cookies have cooled completely, start the icing.
14. Whisk egg whites until frothy.
15. Add citrus juices and powdered sugar, whisk until a thin paste like icing forms.
16. Take the completely cooled cookies and dip the tops in the icing.
17. Place on a drying rack, don’t give the icing time to dry before adding the nonpareils, or they won’t stick to the cookies.
18. Serve with coffee, cocoa, or eggnog and enjoy!