Roquettes in the Kitchen

Nick remembered a wine-dipped sugar-crusted cookie from his childhood Christmases at Grandma's, and wanted to learn how to make them. So Grandma brought Abuelita's recipe for Spanish roquettes, which of course, varies from sister to sister even though it's their mother's recipe. Aunt Rita makes it one way, Aunt Nonnie another, all the others have their own version and even some cousins too, but Grandma told Nick her recipe is the best. And there it was, handwritten on the back of a Christmas card, with lines and arrows, scratched out words and missing steps.  Jeff was adamant that he and Nick make the dough and form, bake, dip and roll the roquettes on their own, with his mother watching and advising from outside the boundaries of the kitchen. There was plenty of chatter back and forth as Jeff and Nick tried to make sense of the steps and dough ingredients, which included both anisette and moscato wine. The final step was dipping the baked cookies in more moscato, then rolling in sugar. Sooo how many of these did Nick eat as a kid? 

When the bowls were washed and the cookies set out to dry, Jeff spend more hours rewriting the recipe longhand while it was fresh in his mind, then typing it out in a slightly longer, better organized more detailed version that would make the roquettes easier to make but not as much fun.

Mixing the dough

Testing

Rolling

Tasting

Sugared roquettes 

Fresh of the oven

That one little card turned into three legal size hand-written sheets 

For all the world to see