Franklin TOPS MA 463

I won the sampling slap down.  After all our discussion about how to make healthy exchanges in rich ingredient Italian cookies, when it came to putting your money where your mouth is, when the rubber hit the road...nobody brought in their cookies.  No one except me.  Therefore, I won.

Mmmmmmmm.....sometimes when you win, you lose.

Now, I have to make them again to enter the St. Rocco Italian Cookie Contest.  And I'm going to be busy next week, too.  Laurie's wedding is next weekend and it's a weekend event.  That's also the time of St. Rocco's.  Somehow or other, I've got to make time to bake those cookies.  And do a good perfect job of it, too.  After all, the honor of T.O.P.S. is at stake.

Lord, help me.  Is there a patron saint of baking?  St. Rocco will have to do.

St. Rocco intercede with prayers for me since I'll be extremely busy.  If possible, a miracle would be appreciated.  You know I'm not the world's best cook, and I'm up against some really fantastic Italian bakers.  Please see what you can do for me.

Amaretti Lite

Amaretti Lite, like it?  That's what I'm going to call my Italian cookie.  (See this morning's posting.)  I went shopping after work for the ingredients.  If T.O.P.S. choses my recipe, I plan to make some alterations.  First, I'm adding Amaretto.  The mixture was too dry, anyway.

I wouldn't form the dough into balls.  Actually, I thought they'd melt down, but they didn't.  The result was that they took too long to brown, and the bottoms got too brown.  They just don't look that good.  Next time, I'll flatten the dough on the cookie sheet.

Even if my T.O.P.S. group doesn't pick my Amaretti Lites, to enter the St. Rocco Italian Cookie Contest,  I'm still making it again.

I  can do better.

Crazy Baking Zest

I'll be crazy for another week.  Ever since I learned of the St. Rocco's Cookie Contest I've been racing around for ideas.  I want my health/diet/support group to enter.  That's TOPS!  Take Off Pounds Sensibly.

I think it's a wicked idea!  TOPS doesn't endorse any one diet plan.  In fact, we've had people in our club that also belong to Weight Watchers, or Jennie Craig.  We're about healthy life styles, rather than diets.  If you must pin us down to a "diet", then we'd say the Exchange Diet.  IOW, we exchange unhealthy food for healthy food.  Heavy cream would be exchanged for low-fat cream.  A slice of pecan pie would be exchanged for an apple.  Get the idea.  TOPS is about changing your life style.

So there I am reading my church bulletin and I see "St. Rocco's Cookie Contest."  How's that for Pastoral Reflection!  I immediately began to salivate think what cookie to make.  Gradually, I tried to think of "exchanges" I should use to make a cookie healthy.  Another thought:  I don't have any Italian cookie recipes. My mother is Lithuanian.

The biggest stumbling block is the fact that the parish, St. Mary's, is saturated with wonderful Italian cooks.  What was I thinking!

But I couldn't let go of the thought.  So I brought the contest to my TOPS meeting.  They latched onto the idea like a shy child on to his mother's skirt.  The recipes morphed into culinary baking concepts.  (Although Gen Gen, a purist, was horrified at the very idea of exchanging her Italian recipes.  Some just don't get the concept.)

I've been marauding Italian cookbooks and learning all about blanching, icing, piping, meringue, etc., because the club is having a sampling at the next meeting.  We will all bring our cookies to the meeting and we'll vote for the most tasty.  That's the one, TOPS 463 will enter in the St. Rocco's Italian Cookie Contest.

As for me, I asked my favorite priest, Father Aniello, who's Italian as you can get, his favorite.  He said,
My favorites are the sfogliatella from Naples and the Paste secche (the dry little cookies made from almond pastry).


Hmmmm.  Maybe I'll make karvojus.