A list I saw the other day of all the great Italian sweets.

Cannoli (Sicilian and Calabrese pastry)
Cuccidati (Italian fig cookie)
Cuddureddi (Sicilian pastry)
Biscotti (Italian cookie)
Tiramisu (Italian cake)
Sfogliatella (Italian pastry)
Sfingi (Sicilian donut holes)
Struffoli (Italian honey balls)
Pignoli (Italian cookie)
Crostoli (Italian cookie)
Amaretti (Italian almond cookie)
Ricciarelli (Italian cookie)
Regina (Italian sesame seed cookie)
Pizzelle (Italian waffle cookie)
Panettone (Italian Christmas fruit cake)
Spumoni (Italian fruit and nut ice cream)
Gelati (Italian ice cream)
Pandoro (Italian Christmas cake)
Cassata alla Siciliana (Sicilian cake)
Dolce alla Napoletana (Napolitano layer cake)
Bomboloni (Tuscan pastry)

My daughter bought me the Cake Boss's cookbook, which has recipes for many of these. After reading some of the recipes, I just vowed to get in the car and go buy them.

All of those look so darn good. eeemememememmemmmmm Good thing I am setting here eating my breakfast and having my coffee. I am with you SB , trouble is I am going to have to search and see where I can get some fine items. I might have to order them.

I love Cake Boss, It's a great one.

Recipes drive me nuts, I start to make something and end up with out this with out that. Guess I could take and make a list, duh go to the store and knowing me I would come home and have missed something any way.

So NJB, do you bake and ship and what are your charges hell you may have started a new business.

Tiramisu is my favorite. It's pretty easy to make, too.

I love cannoli. In my family they'd be either cream filled or ricotta. I prefer ricotta. (Very filling. Can never eat more than one at a sitting)

Don't mind Biscotti but really like Pizzelle better. They're not too sweet but very tasty, though flat/thin. Something about them reminds me of the communion host. Go figure. The Ameretti cookies (without anise) are good and along with other cookies mentioned were part of an assortment passed out at Italian weddings back in the day.

Sfingi (Sicilian donut holes): EVERY Christmas my grandmother would make Sfingi. Loved them.

Never real crazy about spumoni though.


TIS

A cannoli without ricotta ain't a cannoli, Tis .

Totally agree PB. One of my aunts who's house we'd stop by to visit on Christmas morning ALWAYS had the cream cannoli. My family only made Ricotta. Don't know where/how/why the cream filling started. I don't even have a recipe for the cream, only the ricotta. Matter of taste I guess.

TIS

I remember my grandmother frying the struffoli and then drizzling them with honey and sprinkles. They were wonderful. My aunt had the pizzelle iron - they were her specialty.

I don't love tiramisu, but I'm not a big fan of coffee-flavored desserts. But give me a cannoli or a sfogliatelle any day (PB, I'm thinking Egidio's).

As for i sfingi, are they something different than the St. Joseph pastries? We call the pastries that you only get in March I Sfingi di San Giuseppe.

SB,

Strange as it might seem, my family didn't really do the St. Joseph day feast. My husbands' grandmother did and I remember going once to see how she had decorated. I don't know why but that wasn't the "event" in my family as it seems to have been with others.

As for Sfinghi, for us it was a Christmas treat. I never have made it but I remember my grandmother making the dough and shaping or "bunching" (for lack of a better word)them and putting in boiling oil for just a few minutes. She then coated it with either sugar or powdered sugar (don't remember which).

TIS

I know it's not the greatest as far as desserts go, but I really love lemon granita, especially in the summer. When I was pregnant, I was craving it so bad, my father-in-law was making it for me by the gallon.

This is what we refer to as Sfingi di San Giuseppe:

I've had those before SB and they are great. I always thought of them more as an Italian cream puff. Didn't know they were sfingi. They're good.


This is more what I knew sfingi to be only I don't remember them being filled with ricotta:



http://angelninascottage.com/2009/04/17/ricotta-puffs-or-sfingi-di-ricotta/


TIS

Just saw a food show yesterday and Pizzelle is Northern Italian. They showed this guy making a pizzelle pressed sandwich with hazel nut and sugar inside. His antique pizzelle press was shipped over to US. Must have cost a small fortune, there were about 10 presses and the equip. looked heavy.

Oh, SB, that is sfingi but a different kind, the one TIS was talking about is plain sfingi and not the Festa di San Giuseppe sfingi. TIS has the right one.

Evidently there are many kinds of sfingi. Here are images from which I found the picture and SB's is also there. Wow!


TIS


http://www.google.com/search?q=sfingi&am...249&bih=535

Mine, too, by far!

I don't hate them, but I'm just not a huge sweet cookie/cake fan in general (except cold ones like tiramisu, mousse, ice cream cake, etc).

My great-aunt (we called her zizi (pronounced similar to the Tsetse fly), but as kids pronounced it "titsy" lol) used to make wonderful anise/anisette cookies kind of like this but without the sprinkles. Every now and then I might find some that vaguely remind me, but I haven't found "them" yet. I'm not much of a baker, but I'm gonna try that recipe...

I never cared for the anise flavoring myself but it seemed everyone else in my family did. I do like many of the other Italian cookies though.



TIS

As far as Italian cookies go, pignoli are my favorites.

I agree!!