Zaleti – Cornmeal Cookies from Venice

Sweetened with raisins soaked in Grappa and textured with yellow cornmeal

Servings: 20 cookies

Author:

Prep Time
20 minutes

Cook Time
12 minutes

Dessert Sweets dolce

Italian

Venice

Instructions

1 Preheat oven to 350 ° F
2 In a small bowl or jar, soak raisins in Grappa or wine and set aside.
3 In a large bowl, add sugar and butter and beat for 4 minutes until creamy and
light. Beat in eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla extract.
4 In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients: flour, polenta, baking powder, and
salt.
5 Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just to combine. Drain the Grappa or
wine from the raisins. Do not squeeze the Grappa or wine out of the raisins. Let
them retain the moisture so the flavor of the Grappa or wine will infuse the
dough.
6 Dump dough out onto a lightly floured board. Knead once or twice to finish
combining the raisins into a uniform dough.

Using a rolling pin, roll out to ¼-inch thickness. The dough might be a bit
moist and sticky, so dust with flour as needed.
7 Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut diagonally to form diamond shapes Each
cookie should be 3-inches long from tip to tip. (Watch the video below for
visual instructions.)
8 Lay cookies on a large, parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes
until slightly golden and yellow. For even cooking, turn the cookie sheet around
after the first 6 minutes of baking.
9 Store cookies in an airtight container. Best eaten within one week.