5.11.13

Torcettini di Saint Vincent # Breast Cancer Awareness Fund Raising Event

Torcettini di Saint Vincent,  meaning small twists of Saint Vincent made their round in the blogosphere a few months back when Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen chose it for April challenge of We Knead to bake. The cookie instantly reminded me of the pink ribbon, the international symbol for breast care awareness and I saved the recipe for October.  I actually had these I had these cookies in mind when I told Anu that I will send an entry for her "BCAM" Breast Cancer Awareness Month - PINK RECIPES EVENT. However the internet connection at home had been acting funny so I could not post it in time. Never the less the Pink Ribbon Cookies are here today to remind you about the BCAM Fund Raising Event at Anu's Healthy Kitchen... that I made mentioned a couple of weeks back.....


As the name suggests, these cookies are originally from the town of Saint Vincent in Valle d'Aosta, a small mountainous region in North-Western Italy. They are however well known through out the Piedmont region. The Torcettinis are yeasted cookies that are rolled in granulated sugar(not necessarily pink sugar) for their sweetness. Apparently they have descended from Grissini (or breadsticks) and hence have a very similar texture. They are crunchy outside and have bread-like texture inside. Their texture however changes radically with the absorption of moisture. Though we enjoyed them later, we thought the freshly baked ones with their distinct citrusy fragrance tasted the best.

Now the recipe... I followed the recipe for the cookie dough from My Diverse Kitchen and found this video helpful for coloring the sugar pink. Though you do not need to color the sugar for this particular cookie, it might be helpful to know that coloring sugar at home is actually quite simple and inexpensive. All you need is gel coloring and your regular sugar...  Just put the required amount of sugar in a ziplock bag. Using a toothpick stain the wall of the ziplock bag with gel coloring of your choice. Then zip the bag and roll the sugar over the gel stains till the sugar in the bag is uniformly colored. The whole process takes only a few minutes but saves quite a bit of money.  Also coloring your own sugar give you the freedom to mix and match and create a riot of colored sugar.. Anyway that is how I colored the sugar for these Pink Ribbon Cookies.... 

Torcettini di Saint Vincent (Bread Machine)
Recipe Source : My Diverse Kitchen
Preparation Time : minimum 2 hours 15 minutes                               Cooking Time: 25 minutes                      Yeilds: 24 
 Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 2 1/2 tbsps unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp lime/lemon zest or crushes anise seeds
  • 1 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar (pink color is not mandatory )
 Instructions
  1. Put all the ingredients other than the granulated sugar in the bread machine pan in the other specified by the manufacturer and program it for the dough cycle.
  2. Stop the machine in 7-10 minutes, when the ingredients come together to form a soft dough.
  3. Now place the dough in a well greased bowl, cover with a greased plastic cling wrap and let it double over the next one hour.
  4. Once the dough has doubled punch it down, cover it with greased cling wrap and chill the dough for at least one hour or up to 24 hours.
  5. When ready to make the cookies, preheat the oven to 325 degress F, line two cookies trays with parchment paper, pour the sugar in a flat surface and start working on the chilled dough.
  6. Roll out the dough into a 6 inch square. Using a pizza wheel cut the dough into 4 strips of equal width. Then cut each strip into 6 equal pieces thereby making 24 pieces of the dough.
  7. Now roll each piece into a pencil thick rope about 5-6 inches long. Uniformly coat the ropes with sugar by rolling them over the granulated sugar. Then twist them into a loop resembling a ribbon and let them rest on the prepared baking tray for about 20 minutes. 
  8. Once they have noticeably puffed, bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Then cool them on the racks, munch a few and store the rest in air-tight containers at room-temperature.

 These cookies are being  yeast-spotted. 

 I shall be sharing this at the following parties.


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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 5, 2013 at 10:08 PM

    I'm visiting from Tasty Tuesdays. These look delicious and I'm always looking for Italian sweets recipes. Pinned.
    Annamaria

    ReplyDelete
  2. Javelin WarriorNovember 6, 2013 at 2:49 AM

    These little cookies really do remind me of the ribbon and it's a great cause to support. These would also make lovely holiday cookies!

    ReplyDelete
  3. SwathiNovember 6, 2013 at 4:52 AM

    Beautiful pink torcettini love them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Miz HelenNovember 9, 2013 at 5:32 AM

    What a special cookie for a very special cause, thank you for that! Hope you are having a great day and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday!
    Come Back Soon,
    Miz Helen

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by. It was nice having you here. Have a good day.

Take care and come back soon.
Best, Tanusree

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