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I often joke with my husband that he must have been Asian in a previous life (read more here) based on his love of Asian cuisine. So if the same holds true for me – based on the foods that I absolutely love – I must have been Italian in a previous life!
In particular, I love Italian desserts – like these Crispy Zaletti Cookies. Zaletti are a rustic, crunchy corn meal cookie from the Veneto region in northeastern Italy. The word zaletti is said to come from the word gialletti which means “little yellow things” in Italian, and the cookies definitely have a yellow color from the corn meal in the batter.
These crispy zaletti cookies are also studded with currants that were soaked first in rum (in Italy, it’s likely that the currants are soaked in grappa instead of rum) – and the rum gives these cookies a fantastic subtle but distinctive flavor that is really unlike any other cookie we’ve had! (Some versions of zaletti also include pine nuts – but our version does not.)
One other thing to mention – our crispy zaletti cookies are thinner and crispier than a more traditional version of zaletti which are thicker and similar to a shortbread cookie or biscuit. Our lighter, thinner and crispier version came about because I adapted this recipe which was written in grams instead of cups or tablespoons – and I’m pretty sure that I miscalculated the amount of butter to use in the batter when I made the conversion! But – as luck would have it – we absolutely loved how our crispy zaletti cookies came out, and we’ve never made our zaletti any other way since!
We gave these crispy zaletti cookies as gifts this year for Christmas – and everyone loved them!
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Crispy Zaletti Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup currants
- 1/4 cup dark rum
- 14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks), softened to room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup fine yellow corn meal
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine currants and rum. Microwave for 30 seconds on high, then allow the currants to soak in the rum for at least 30 minutes.
- While the currants are soaking, prepare the batter in the bowl of standmixer. Start by creaming together the softened butter and sugar until well combined. Add the egg yolk and mix again to combine.
- Sift together the flour, corn meal, salt and baking powder. Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture and mix well. (The mixture will be yellow and crumbly.)
- Add the currants and rum to the yellow crumb mixture and mix again – completely combining so that the currants are evenly dispersed throughout and the batter is soft and won’t fall apart.
- Divide the dough in half and shape into two logs about an inch and a half in diameter. At this point, you can wrap in plastic and chill until you are ready to bake – or you can bake immediately.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Slice the dough into slices that are just shy of ½ -inch thick and place on your cookie sheet – allowing plenty of space for the cookies to spread while they bake. (I found that 9 cookies per cookie sheet – 3 rows of 3 – worked best).
- Bake for 15 minutes or until outer edges of the cookies are lightly golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper with the cookies still on them onto a cooling rack. Once the cookies have cooled a bit (about 10 minutes) and crisped up, remove from the parchment paper and onto another cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days (if they last that long!)
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I want to try several of your cookie recipes however I weigh my ingredients for accuracy. After all 1 cup of flour is not the same for everyone but 120grams, or ounces of flour is always the same.
Can you make it so we can use US measurements or Metric measurements? It is on some recipe websites.
Thank you.
Hi Catherine – Thanks for the suggestion. I do agree with you that measuring by weight is the most accurate especially when baking. We do have a few recipes where we’ve listed the ingredients in weight measurements but get so many questions from readers asking for cups/volume measurements instead. I’m not sure we’re going to be able to make everyone happy. I will note that when we do measure out our flour for our recipes, rather than scooping it out with the measuring cup, we do spoon the flour into the measuring cup to avoid packing it down – I’ve seen this method mentioned a number of times on other popular websites who use volume measurements vs weight measurement and this seems to strike a happy medium. Thanks for writing to us – we will consider adding both weight and volume measurements in the future.
I’ve never heard of zaletti cookies, but they sure do sound wonderful. The crisp texture looks fantastic and the addition of currants, dark rum and cornmeal makes them extra appealing to me!
These Crispy Zaletti Cookies look like perfection! I’m convinced that my dad was Italian in another life so he’s gonna love these!
Italians are awesome!!!! (Says Mrs. Fasano-Formicola). My grandmother used to make something similar and it is bringing back fond memories.
To have been half Asian and half Italian would have been amazing, wouldn’t it? 🙂 And these look delightful! Merry Christmas. 🙂
I haven’t had a Zaletti but I bet I would like them as I love crispy cookies! Thanks for a new recipe!
Booooozy currants in crispy little cornmeal cookies? YES PLEASE!
I do like Asian food and Italian is my life (I’m Italian!), so I can understand why you’re drawn to its cuisine. So many Italian recipes are simple and wonderful, like these zaletti (we make biscotti di pasta frolla every Christmas;) Merry Christmas to you!:)
I’m Italian all the way, the hubby loves Asian cooking but I’m just partial to Italian everything. These cookies look lovely!
I love Asian food, too! But Italian is my favorite, which is fitting since I am Italian 🙂 What great looking cookies!!