Canestrelli are Italian butter cookies that are light, airy, delicate and deliciously buttery. They're flavored with vanilla and lemon zest and are a wonderful melt in your mouth shortbread style cookie.
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 16 minutesminutes
Chill time 35 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 hourhour11 minutesminutes
Servings 32cookies - 2 inch (5 centimeter) diameter
3largeegg yolks, hard boiled(cooking instructions included)
135grams (1 cup + 2 Tablespoons)all purpose flour
96grams (¾ cup)corn starch, sifted
75grams (½ cup + 2 Tablespoons)powdered sugar, sifted
zest of 1 lemon
2grams (½ teaspoon)kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal)
156grams (⅔ cup; 11 Tablespoons)unsalted butter
1teaspoonvanilla extract
Instructions
Place 3 large eggs in a medium sized sauce pot. Fill with water to 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) above eggs. Cover pot and bring to a boil. As soon as water boils, turn off burner and remove pot from heat (leave covered.) Set timer for 12 minutes. When timer goes off, drain eggs and place in cold water (or an ice bath) to stop cooking. Once cooled, peel eggs, separate white from yolks, and reserve yolks.
To the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, corn starch, powdered sugar, lemon zest and salt. Pulse briefly until dry ingredients are combined.
135 grams (1 cup + 2 Tablespoons) all purpose flour, 96 grams (¾ cup) corn starch, sifted, 75 grams (½ cup + 2 Tablespoons) powdered sugar, sifted, zest of 1 lemon, 2 grams (½ teaspoon) kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal)
Add butter and vanilla and pulse a few times until dough resembles coarse sand. Using a spoon, push the egg yolks through a fine mesh sieve into the dough. Once finished, be sure to scrape the bottom of the sieve to loosen any yolk that remains stuck.
156 grams (⅔ cup; 11 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, zest of 1 lemon, 3 large egg yolks, hard boiled
Pulse briefly just until ingredients come together and begin to form clumps of dough.
Gather dough into a ball and turn out onto a rectangle of parchment paper. Briefly knead in any loose bits of flour. Place an additional piece of parchment paper on top, and roll the dough to a thickness of a bit less than ½ inch (to be annoyingly precise, it's ⅜ inch / 1 centimeter).
Place rolled out, parchment covered dough on a baking sheet in refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177° Celsius, Gas mark 4). Place rack in center of oven.
Peel back top sheet of parchment paper. Place back onto dough and flip dough over. Remove the (now) top sheet. Cut out cookies using 2 inch (5 centimeter) flower shaped cookie cutter. Use a wide straw (I used the small end of a Wilton 1A piping tip) to cut out the center circle. It measures ½ inch (1.5 centimeters) in diameter.)
Place cookies ½ inch apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet (I placed 20 cookies on a sheet in 4 rows of 5. They don't spread much). Roll scraps and cut out additional cookies as needed to make use of all dough. Chill cookies in freezer for 5 minutes (or refrigerator for 30 minutes) prior to baking.
Bake for 16-18 minutes, until cookies are set and barely turning golden on the foot. Don't touch them when they come out - they're very fragile when warm. They will firm up as they cool. Once fully cool, dust tops with a generous amount of powdered sugar.
Notes
When cutting out the flower shapes, press the cookie out of the cutter from the base so that you don't leave fingerprints or indentations on the top of the cookie. Flip onto parchment lined baking sheet and gently press flat to remove any curve from the cookie.If you plan to stack the cookies in a container prior to serving (for transport, or if making in advance), don't add the powdered sugar yet. Sprinkle the cookies with powdered sugar just prior to placing them out on a platter.I highly recommend you use a digital scale to weigh your flour (and other ingredients!) When testing this recipe, just 15 grams (2 Tablespoons) too much flour was the difference between these cookies turning out dense and floury versus light and buttery.