Cucciddati, and also known variously as buccellati,
Italian fig
The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...
cookies or
Sicilian fig cookies, are fig-stuffed
cookie
A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, n ...
s traditionally served at
Christmas time.
The outer cookie is
pastry dough, covered with icing and typically topped with rainbow
sprinkles. The filling generally consists of some combination of walnuts, dates, figs, honey, spices and orange or apricot jam.
[Joannie Zisk]
“Cuccidati - Sicilian Fig Cookies”
The Today Show, 9 November 2015 The pastry is rolled around the filling, and rolls are either cut into short tubes, or curved around to form a "bracelet".
The modern recipe of the cookie originated during
the Muslim Rule of Sicily. However an older version of the cookie recipe was recorded as far back as the
Roman occupation of Sicily.
Variations
When ring-shaped, these may be known as buccellati, meaning "little bracelets," and are a diminutive form of
buccellato
A Buccellato is a Sicilian circular cake. Buccellato contains figs and nuts.Gillian Riley, ''The Oxford Companion to Italian Food'' (Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford ...
, a larger fig-filled ring cake. The ingredients are as varied as the names the cookies are called by, apparently a function of the town or region in which they are made. Other towns call them "nucciddati" (nut cookies), "zucciddati", "ucciddati", "vucciddati" and as in
Serradifalco, pucciddati. That town's version includes ground figs and dates, nuts, and orange rinds.
See also
*
Fig bar
*
List of cookies
*
List of stuffed dishes
*
References
Cuisine of Sicily
Stuffed desserts
Christmas food
Cookies
Fig dishes
{{Italy-dessert-stub