For the Holiday Cookie Exchange, I was paired up with Jess! She sent along her recipe for Italian Chocolate Meatball Cookies.
I made a few changes to accomodate what I had on hand along with adjusting to suit our tastes.
Below is the original recipe from Jess:
Italian Chocolate Meatball Cookiesfrom Dianna Petrella’s recipe (a family friend)Ingredients
- 1 cup shortening (yes, you have to use shortening or something like Earth Balance – unfortunately butter just doesn’t work right)
- 1.5 cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup warm milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 5 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder (Hershey’s, Ghirardelli, or Scharffen Berger are good)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cloves
- 1 cup walnuts (finely chopped)
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup chocolate chips
InstructionsMix all ingredients in a large bowl (ideally you would do this in a stand mixer if you have one; I wouldn’t recommend a hand mixer unless you’ve got an industrial strength one). Roll into balls. Bake at 350º for 10-15 minutes. Cool and dip tops into confectionary sugar frosting and sprinkle tops with confetti. Freeze for up to three months. Yields 4-5 dozen.For frosting, mix 3 cups confectionary sugar, 2 Tbsp milk, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
My adapations are as follows:- I didn’t have shortening, so I used 1/2C coconut oil as a sub.
- I also don’t have milk, so I subbed in 1C of warm unsweetened coconut milk.
- I used 2C Unbleached All Purpose Flour and 3C White Whole Wheat Flour
- Used 1/2C Cane Sugar
- And I didn’t have any raisins so I had to leave that ingredient out.
I did end up adding just a splash more liquid, since I used whole wheat flour that requires a touch more liquid to the recipe. No more than 1/4C though I could have gone up to a 1/2C and been fine.
The dough for this recipe is a tight stiff dough and I thought these cookies were going to turn out very dense. However they are light little cookies with a great chocolatey taste! We are not much fans of icing which is why I didn’t ice these cookies but if you do like icing then I highly suggest adding that as well! Or sprinkling with a little powdered sugar on top.
Great little cookies to have on your holiday table! Thanks for participating Jess!
These look yummy, chocolate, nuts, and spices, mmmmm.
Diana, They were pretty tasty!
My recipe I use one cup of shortening and one cup of butter and no substituting for the butter
2 cups of sugar. Eight eggs 3 teaspoons of vanilla one 8 ounce jar of jelly of your choice
8 cups of flour 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 1 teaspoon of nutmeg 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon of allspice 1 teaspoon of baking powder 1 1/2 cup of Hershey’s cocoa one cup of raisins
1 cup chopped nuts fine Great orange rind one or two orange rinds optional half a cup of coffee
I mix butter and shortening and sugar together add eggs one at a time to mixture mix the rest of liquid ingredients
And mix well The dry ingredients like flour salt baking powder spice together mix well
Next Gordon raisins and nuts preheat oven to 350 chill dough for an hour or even better overnight role of them into little balls and place them on cookie sheet
Cook for 8 to 10 minutes
Making a glaze to roll the cookies into it one at a time repeat two or more time if needed
Glaze recipe in a small bowl combine 1 cup of confectionary sugar and add 1 teaspoon of water at a time for them out until glaze thin
thank you so much for sharing… i have missed this recipe for so long… it has been in our family forever and i am so excited that i have found it! Happy Holidays to you!