Roman Chocolate Cookies will remind you of gingerbread in texture and in taste. Olive oil subs in for butter.
A cookie Using Olive Oil
Roman Chocolate Cookies decorated with chocolate and colored sprinkles Years ago, while I was busy researching and collecting recipes for my cookbook, “A Baker’s Odyssey,” (Wiley, 2007), Catherine Cavallaro Goodman, a second generation Italian American, presented me with a couple of Italian cookie recipes she felt might work in my book. One of the recipes, Roman Chocolate Cookies, caught my attention immediately because olive oil is in it. I’ve made many cakes with olive oil, and seeing it in a cookie intrigued me. Catherine told me she learned how to bake from her mother and aunts, and their sweet recipes often contained olive oil. This particular cookie tastes similar to gingerbread because it’s spiced up with a little cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. It’s also soft like gingerbread. The cookie itself is not all that sweet. Just 1/2 cup of sugar goes into 36 cookies. The icing adds just the right amount of added sweetness. The chocolate comes from unsweetened cocoa powder and semi-sweet chocolate morsels, the latter an addition of Catherine’s.
These cookies are quite easy to make, and the recipe is a bit unusual in its method. You start by beating eggs until they’re quite foamy. This step prepares them to receive the sugar, which you beat in well and continue beating for a few minutes until the eggs have thickened and are almost white in color. Next you drizzle in the olive oil very slowly, just as though you were making a mayonnaise. After that you beat in some milk and vanilla, then stir in the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon to make a very thick dough. After a 30-minute hiatus in the covered mixing bowl, you shape the cookies into small balls by rolling gobs of the dough between your palms. The olive oil in the dough keeps the cookies from sticking to your hands. This is a wonderful recipe to make with kids. They can help shape the dough, ice the cookies, and sprinkle on the decorations. Happy baking!