Fave dei Morti Cookies

There's a lovely story behind these small cookies, sometimes referred to as little cakes.  Though the translation, Beans of the Dead, sounds a bit macabre, these cookies are wonderful treats with coffee, tea, or a dessert wine.  The liturgical story explaining the history of these treats balances remembering past lives with the promise of future relationships.  The cookies are eaten on November 2, or All Soul's Day.

I have to say that I looked twice at this recipe before deciding to try it.  Perhaps I should have looked one more time (see below).  Not anywhere near renouncing my love of sweets, I was nevertheless piqued by how healthy-on-paper these little 'beans of the dead' looked.  Hardly any butter (replaced by nut fat, I'm sure), the substantial quantity of almond meal (this has to be more nutritious than using all white flour), and the relatively low load of sugar (hmmm...likely supplemented by the sugar in the shot of rum)... for a yield of 5 dozen cookies?  Remarkable!

I made these in October and was pleasantly surprised at how lovely they turned out.  They were delicately soft and almond-y.  Pictures were taken, uploaded, and an All Soul's Day posting was my goal.  But there was something about the taste and coloring of the cookies that was missing.

Carefully scanning the recipe once more, I knew that I had left out the cinnamon!  It's taken me until now to remake the cookies, retake additional pics, and confess.  I give you both:  faded and flushed.

Notes

I used a mixer to combine all the ingredients, but I am sure you could use a wooden spoon and/or spatula to mix everything together.  

I melted the butter on my first making and softened the butter the second time.  No difference!

I chilled (30 minutes or so)  the dough on both occasions before rolling because I didn't have the time to bake off.  The mentor recipe does not say to do this.

The mentor recipe suggests adding a very little bit of water if the dough is crumbly.  This never happened with my two productions, but it's good to know.

The dough is sticky, but surprisingly the rolling is not affected.   Hand-rolling goes quickly. 

The dough does not spread much while baking, so spacing can be an inch between cookies.

Fave dei Morti Cookies

Mentor Recipe

7 ounces (200 grams) almond meal

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 medium-large egg

2 tablespoons butter, softened or melted

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 shot rum (1.5 oz. or 45 ml)

Directions

1.  In a mixer, combine all the ingredients until the dough has gathered together fully.

2.  Wrap dough in saran and chill for 30 minutes or so.

3.  Hand roll walnut-sized pieces of dough into balls and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Each ball was about 3/4 - 1 inch in diameter.

4.  Use a spoon or your finger to dimple each cookie.  Notice that the cookies on the left are paler.  That's because they had no cinnamon!  The ones on the left are the corrected batch.

5.  Bake at 350º F for 10-15 minutes or until dry to the touch and a bit golden.  Turn sheet 1/2 way around midway through the baking.  Again, left without cinnamon.  Right with cinnamon.

6.  Once cooled, place into ziplock bags for air tight storage.  These freeze well too!