Crescent Moons with Jam and Nuts

Crescent Moons with Jam and Nuts are a mock version of my nonna’s Chinudille.  Just like every other Italian recipe every southern Italian has a different version.  My mom makes chinudille the traditional way with the homemade dough which is much denser than my cheat version.  I use premade pie dough to hold in the sweetness of the nuts and jam.  This dough is fluffy and puffs up more.  I don’t know what my nonna Emilia would think, but I am trying to find ways to entertain with no fuss.

Even the same region of Italy can have a different name for the same dish.  Chinudille are also refereed to as Petrali in some parts of Calabria.  All small towns have their own dialect; therefore, some of my Italian friends may have a different name for these.  Some ice them, while others leave them plain.  An excellent read and recipes for Calabrese : http://www.madeinsouthitalytoday.com/calabria-cookies–baked-goods.php

When I  glaze these crescent moons with a little icing sugar, I use the jam to colour the sugar.  My goal is to replace the food colouring with natural colours; therefore, I take a little jam, dilute it with water, put it through a sieve for natural colour.  I leave some of the Crescent Moons naked because I want to savour the jam and nuts.

Much of our Italian baking is very simple because nonna didn’t have much to choose from during the depression and the war.  Flour, sugar and eggs comprise the base for many sweet treats and and a few nuts, fruits and berries go a long way.

The frozen pie dough makes these cookies easy to prepare.

Cut out little rounds.

The filling consists of nuts and jam.

Place tiny dabs of the mixture in the rounds.  Fold over and crimp.

It’s easy to crimp the rounds together with a fork.

Little bites ready for the oven.  You can make them larger, but this is the perfect size for entertaining.

I will ice some of them, and my natural food colouring is strawberry jam.  Heated with some water and put through a sieve it will colour the icing sugar.  

Out of the oven and you can see that some of the jam oozes out, but it’s ok.

The icing is opaque and clings to the little pockets.  It is not a heavy icing and actually compliments the jam.  

Plated for the table.