Sweet Italian Red Wine Cookies – A Recipe

Is there anything better than enjoying a tasty glass of Italian red wine?

A gorgeous meal is on the table. You have a bottle that you’ve been saving for months. Finally, you get to crack it open and enjoy the gorgeous flavours that lie within.

It is heaven!

However, drinking your red wine is only one of the ways that you can enjoy the hard work of Italy’s many talented producers. If you’re particularly adventurous, there’s nothing stopping you from using your wine in your cooking activities.

And it makes sense!

After all, wine and food are always linked together. So many of the notes you read about any wine you buy are about the foods that it best complements. It stands to reason that cooking with red wine can produce some tasty treats that you can enjoy.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to share with you here.

In Italy, there is an interesting treat we like to make called sweet Italian red wine cookies. It may sound like cookies and wine are two things that shouldn’t go together. But if you try the recipe we’re about to share with you, you’ll discover that they are the perfect combination.

Let’s jump into the recipe!

The Ingredients

Before we get started, we’d just like to give credit to the brilliant allrecipes.com for this wonderful recipe. Theirs is far from the only recipe available for sweet Italian red wine cookies. But we feel this one is a perfect starting point for beginners, as it offers plenty of room for experimentation once you get comfortable with the basic recipe.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

• A single cup of the dry Italian red wine of your choice.
• A teaspoon of baking powder.
• Three cups of all-purpose flour.
• Half a cup of vegetable oil.
• Three tablespoons of white sugar.
• A third of a cup of granulated sugar, which you will use for decoration and to add a touch of extra sweetness to the cookies.

And that’s it! A short and sweet ingredients list for a batch of 36 cookies! This recipe will provide plenty of cookies for the whole family. And best of all, if you don’t feel like you can make your way through the cookies in a couple of days, these cookies can also be frozen and then thawed for a time when you’re ready to eat them.

The Method

Having seen the ingredients list, you can probably already conclude that this is a simple recipe to follow. There are only a few steps, with most of the time being spent on the baking.

Here’s what you need to do:

Step One

Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius, or 350 degrees Fahrenheit if you’re in the States. 

Step Two

While the over is heating up, grab a large bowl and add the sugar, baking powder, and flour. Combine them well before adding your oil and the cup of Italian red wine. 

Take a large fork and use it to mix everything together. Then, knead the mixture with your hands to ensure it’s combined fully.

Step Three

Scoop up a small piece of dough and roll it between your hands to create a “log” or “sausage shape. Then, shape the long piece of dough into a circle that should be no more than two inches in diameter. Once you’ve rolled the dough, rolls the cookie in some extra sugar and place it on a cookie sheet.

Repeat for the rest of the dough and you should end up with 36 circles. Don’t worry too much if you have a couple fewer than 36. But if you end up with 30 or fewer cookies, this suggests your cookies are too large, which means you might need to adjust your baking time accordingly.

Step Four

Add the cookies to the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. You should notice the cookies turn slightly brown, which is a useful indicator that they’re ready if you went a little overboard on size.

Once baked, remove the cookies from the oven and leave them to cool. You’ll know when they’re done because they’ll be hard and crisp.

And that’s it!

Short, simple, and an easy treat to make whenever you want to try something new. Of course, the use of Italian red wine means these cookies aren’t suitable for the whole family. But that’s okay! They can be a nice secret treat for mom and dad to enjoy when the kids are tucked up in bed.

Some Quick Tips

We’ll wrap things up with some useful little tips that might make the result even tastier for you:

• Always use a dry Italian red wine, such as Chianti. If you’d rather keep your Chianti for drinking, look for a dry Cabernet. Or if you’re feeling especially adventurous, go French and use a Merlot.
• Always store the cookies you’re not eating in an airtight container to ensure they last longer. As mentioned, these cookies are also suitable for freezing. Of course, they will lose some of the flavour, but you can compensate for this with a little extra sugar.
• When making your circles, flour your hands so the dough doesn’t stick to them as you roll.

The Final Word

There you have it!

A huge batch of tasty cookies that will lend a special kind of Italian flair to any meal you create. These cookies are ideal for a little after-lunch dessert. And they are, of course, perfect for those moments where you want to enjoy a sneaky little snack that tastes amazing.

All that’s left now is to try to recipe for yourself and see what you think. Adjust accordingly to suit your personal taste. For example, you could avoid rolling your cookies in sugar if you’d rather go for less sweetness. You can also add a small extra splash of red wine if you want to emphasise those flavours.

So, are you ready to get baking?

Check out the Xtrawine website and you’ll find plenty of dry Italian red wines that are perfect for this recipe.