Italian Chocolate Cookies (Tu Tu)
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. ground allspice
- 1 cup coffee (liquid)
- 1/2 cup melted Crisco
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 cup grape jelly
- 1 Tbsp. baking powder
- 4 cups flour
Instructions
- Mix sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, salt, and allspice together in a large bowl.
- Add lukewarm coffee and melted Crisco.
- Add vanilla, walnuts, and jelly.
- Add 1 cup of flour and baking powder. Keep on adding flour, 1 cup at a time, until dough is formed. The dough should be stiff, but sticky.
- Take by tablespoons and roll to form a ball in your hand. place on slightly greased cookie sheets.
- Bake in 4000F oven for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Frost when completely cool.
- Frosting: Make a runny glaze with the confectionery sugar and milk. Toss cookies in the bowl of frosting, remove and dry on wax paper. Store in an airtight container.
Notes
Recipe found by Melanie on Sulekha.com
Peter Scortino's Bakery in Milwaukee has always has these fantastic cookies called "Tu Tu's" and my Mom loves them. I found this recipe and decided to give them a try! Fantastic!
Woah! I believe 1/8 cup is not correct!
This recipe is similar to my nonna`s. The original one with modern additions of chocolate chips, raisins, and maybe other additions to the cookie and orange extract in the glaze, I have lost. Sure wish I had, along with correct measurements as they not only smelled like Christmas, it wasn’t Christmas without them. They were the best cookie, ever! Everyone loved them, asked for the recipe … which made dozens and dozens.
She used much more flour,sugar, cocoa, spices along salt she used pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg,. allspice, cloves, ginger?, and liquids (2Tbs vanilla I remember along with 2 cups total of a combination of honey, strong coffee-expresso, oj from a large orange,milk. She did use grape jelly, but I don’t remember how much, a whole orange after being juiced, she finely ground up the fruit, grated the rind, using some in the glaze
I’ve made these a couple of times according to the recipe and while I’m sure there are different variations it has turned out good both times!