Italian Walnut Black Pepper Cookies

Walnut Black Pepper Cookies... this is yet another one from  Cooking with Italian Grandmothers and it is by grandmother Carluccia. I tell you, if not for all the other healthy recipes, for t``he  desserts alone you should get yourself a copy of the book. They all sound fantastic and are generally pretty easy to put together.... 

Now a little about the moment when I finally decided to share these sweeties with you... 

It was pretty late that night. My husband had a skype interview in India . He returned at 3:00 in the morning and before I could ask him how the interview went, 

he asked, "Are those cookies still there ?" 

"Ah... yes.. how was your interview ?" 

"We'll see..." he replied, then taking a bite said, "... these cookies are delicious.... can I have some more..."

I knew immediately that the first thing I needed to do next day was to take their photographs.. I suspected that they wouldn't survive another day in the shelf . And they didn't. The whole batch vanished between breakfast, tea and dessert.  With all its buttery-sugary goodness and hint of black pepper, these cookies kept calling us(by which I mostly mean my husband) all-day-long.....

Walnut Black Pepper Cookies

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Recipe by Cooking with Italian Grandmothers

Prep time: 10 minutes                          Bake time: 25 minutes                                  Yield: 24

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3 tbsps cane sugar
• ¾ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• pinch of salt
• 3 tbsps honey(darker honey like wildflower or chestnut is preferable)
• 1 cup raw walnuts, pounded or coarsely ground
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• extra granulated sugar. for sprinkling

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 °F.
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and keep aside.
3. Put the softened butter and sugar in a bowl and beat them till the mixture is smooth and creamy.
4. Add the black pepper, salt and honey and beat some more.
5. Finally add the pounded walnuts and all purpose flour and mix well.
6. Divide the mixture into 24 similar balls, each approximately a heaped 1½ - 2 tablespoons in size.
7. Place the balls on the prepared baking tray about 1 inch or so apart, flatten them and using a tines of the fork make a criss-cross pattern on top.
8. Bake them in preheated oven for 25 minutes. The base will look golden brown by then. (I had centered the rack and so back the cookies in 2 batches.)
9. Let the baked cookies cool on the hot baking trays before serving or storing them.

Note: I had wrapped the cookies in plastic cling wrap and stored them. So they were perfect until consumed. I believe they would stay well in an air-tight container too.

Here are two other Italian recipes from the same book...

Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage

Lentil Soup with Turnip and Pounded Nuts