Canestrelli – Italian Egg Yolk Cookies

When I spotted this recipe for shortbread-like cookies which call for a cooked egg yolk as an ingredient, I had to try them!

Ingredients

200 grams (7 oz) flour
100 grams (3.5 oz) butter, softened and chopped
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cooked egg yolk (hard boil an egg, and use the yolk!)
80 grams (2.8 oz) sugar
1 pinch salt
1 pinch baking powder
icing sugar, to sprinkle on top

Directions

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and knead in (by hand or with an electric mixer) the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, cooked egg yolk, lemon zest, salt, and baking powder.
Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in clingfilm, and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. (Note: You can also make the dough a day or two ahead of time, just bring the dough back to room temperature before rolling it out.)

When ready to bake the cookies, roll the dough out into a 5 mm (0.2 inch) thick sheet. Use a cookie cutter to cut into flower shapes, with a small hole in the middle. (Sometimes a bottle cap helps with this.)

Bake the cookies on a baking paper covered tray, in an oven preheated to 190C / 375F for 10 minutes, until they are a light golden colour. Remove from oven and allow to cool on the tray. When cooled, give them a generous dusting with icing sugar.

My Notes

I didn’t have flower-shaped cookie cutters, so I used a lid of a jar. I didn’t have a fresh lemon in the house for zest, so added 1 teaspoon cinnamon instead. I rarely use icing sugar, so didn’t have that in the house, either. 🙄

The dough was a bit too dry so I added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to get it to a rollable consistency.
I would definitely make these again, and instead of dusting with icing sugar, I might drizzle melted chocolate on top to make them look nicer. 🤔