Day Two – Mostaccioli (or Italian Chocolate Holiday Balls) Recipe
RETURN TO AUDUBON SPRINGS is in its THIRD DAY of being featured for FREE exclusively on Amazon Kindle! If you have not purchased this emotionally charged Romantic Comedy, now is your chance to grab it for FREE! As promised here is another Italian Specialty Cookie Recipe right from Mama Iuliano’s cookbook. I encourage you to grab the Mostaccioli Cookie recipe before browsing through the listings of sites where Return to Audubon Springs is being featured. I think you will find some fabulous blogs worth following, plus, here you’ll have a chance to enter in the $25 Amazon Gift Card Raffle!
Mostaccioli Cookies Grandma Mangione’s “Italian chocolate ball holiday cookies” (Originally started with 5lbs. of flour like all her other cookie recipes) Bake 350 degrees 10-12 min Dough 4 cups flour 2¼ Tbsp. baking powder ½ cup cocoa ¼ tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. nutmeg 4oz. dark raisins ½ cup chopped walnuts 1 cup shortening (melted) 1¼ cup granulated sugar Juice of: ¼ of an orange ¼ of a lemon ¾ tsp. vanilla 1 cup BREWED coffee (Don’t make the same mistake Aunt Toni made and use GROUND coffee. Grandma brewed the coffee in the way she called cowboy style. She boiled the water and added some coffee grounds. When she felt it was dark enough she put it through a strainer) ¼ bottle of anise oil. ½ cup grape jelly or jam Mix together flour, baking powder, cocoa and spices. Add raisin and nuts. Make sure you break apart raisins so they don’t clump together. Melt shortening on low heat. Add sugar, juices, vanilla, BREWED coffee, anise oil and blend. Work in jam. Pour all into flour mixture and mix well. Dough will be soft. Cook until cookies crack a little on top but don’t over bake or cookies will be dry. Cookies should be on the soft side when done. Transfer to cooling racks when done baking. Frosting Confectionery sugar, water, vanilla and a couple drops of anise oil. Mix well and add enough water to make a thinner frosting. Place 6-8 cookies in a bowl. Drizzle frosting lightly on cookies. Toss them to completely disperse frosting. Dry on wax paper. Repeat until all are frosted (OR ELSE!). YUM!
“These cookies are so good we often ate them warm just out of the oven” – Mama Iuliano
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It’s amazing how great food can bring you back to great memories. These cookies were a piece of the Christmases of past at Grandma’s house. Welcomed smells of pasta, spaghetti sauce, holiday cookies and people scurrying for gifts to open made for one heck of a time. We had little to give but somehow managed to be so very happy. Thank you for bringing the past forward. I will make these cookies this year and share my stories with my family and guests as you shared this vintage recipe. And, I will share the story of Rafe and Emma, too! Can’t wait for the next book.
I often think of those long Christmas Eve’s of old as well. So glad that this series of recipes recalls great times for you. Have a good time sharing Emma and Rafe. They were a really fun couple to write!
Oh, my goodness, this sounds delicious. Looking forward to the next book!
Thanks, Barbara! You will not have to wait for long! Secondhand Romance is just around the corner.
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