JoJo’s Christmas Cookies

“Who’s Coming For Christmas” was a very sweet, heartfelt movie on Hallmark Channel starring Rhiannon Fish and Jake Foy. Rhiannon’s character, Julie, had always dreamed of hosting a Christmas Eve Dinner party just like her grandmother used to. She was new in town and wanted to create her own group of friends and family with old and new traditions. One of the old traditions was her grandmother’s signature holiday cookies, called “JoJo’s cookies”. They are filled with a rich, fig filling and was always the highlight of her holidays growing up.
It just so happens that these cookies are also a Sicilian Christmas cookie that I am very familiar with, called Cuccidati.

Ingredients:

For dough:

-1 and 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp)

-1 cup sugar

-3 eggs

-1 tsp vanilla

-1/3 cup milk

-4 cups flour

-3 tsp baking powder

For filling:

-2 1/2 cups mission figs

-1 1/2 cups dark raisins

-1 1/2 cups golden raisins

-1 cup walnuts

-zest of one orange

-zest of one lemon

-2 teaspoons red wine

-1/2 cup hot water

-1 teaspoon honey

-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

For icing:

-2 cups sifted sugar

-juice from a lemon

-a bit of water (measure in small increments as you mix)

-non perils rainbow sprinkles

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar first. Add eggs, vanilla and milk while mixing on low speed.

Next, in a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking powder.

Slowly pour it into the wet ingredients while on low speed.

Mix very well until a ball of dough forms. Wrap it up in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.

For the filling, using a food processor, place de-stemmed figs in and pulse until it starts to become a paste.

Add all raisins, walnuts, lemon and orange zests, red wine, hot water, honey and cinnamon. Pulse several more times in the food processor until it is a well-combined paste. Place in airtight container until you are ready to use it.

Once you are ready to roll out the dough, take a quarter of the dough at a time and roll out into a rectangle.

Place a “log” of the filling in the center of the rectangle of dough and roll the dough on each side around the filling. Now you have a dough log with filling inside.

Cut into 1 1/2 inch cookies and place dough side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-17 minutes until golden.

Once they are cooled, put the icing together. First, sift the powdered sugar into a bowl. Add juice of one lemon and gradually add a bit of water as you stir with a fork. Once it is a thin consistency (but not too thin), it’s ready to pour on the cookies. Follow immediately with sprinkles. Let it dry completely before serving. Enjoy!