I'm back.....With Pepper Cookies

It's been awhile and I know some of you are thinking....."What are pepper cookies?"
I've been waiting to get this recipes from my relatives. By the time they finally e-mailed the recipe, my daughter went on line and found a recipe and they were pretty similar.

Pepper cookies. My daughter and I kept eating the dough and talking about the memories these cookies brought back. I know most people have memories of their grandmothers baking sweet cookies. Their round sweet faces aglow from the heat of the oven and handing the children the yummy delectables loaded with things like chocolate chips and raisins and nuts.

These cookies are a bit different. You see, both of my grandmothers didn't have sweet cookies in their houses because they watched their weight closely. Mimi, in Endicott, every night would eat her weight in watermelon. Grandma Civ never had alot of money. The thing I remember the most from her was her zucchini and tomatoes. Her cavatellis and pizza. But niether of them were into sweets.

There were the pepper cookies, however, that sat on Mimi's table and greeted us each time we arrived from Ohio to her kitchen in New York. They were always in a bowl with no lid on them and we would sit at the table and munch them. For me they were addicting. They are NOT a sweet treat. They are more of a.....savory snack.

Instead of being loaded with chocolate chipes, raisins, and nuts, these are loaded with ground black pepper and fennel.

Before you turn your nose up at them, let me tell you, I don't care for fresh fennel, but these have fennel seeds. They are crunchy and crumble easily. But I love them. They are more for eating with beer or ice tea than a cup of coffee or milk.

The recipe my cousin Marsha sent me is something to behold. I was amazed that I was able to understand it. It seemed rather vague to me. It calls for, among other things, 2 1/2 pounds of flour. Not cups.....no...that would be easy. POUNDS! Thank God for the internet. Olivia went on line and came back announcing that 4 cups of flour equals 1 pound. We took it from there. Okay....ten cups of flour.

But then the recipe called for 2 cups of oil....10% of which should be olive oil. Huh.....what the heck. I made so many mistakes trying to figure this out, I just kept adding more and more oil. And since the dough was dry, I even added more.

Anyway, Thank you Marsha for your recipes. Don't stop sending them. It just proves I need to spend more time in Endicott and bake with all of you. So here's Marsha's recipe for Black pepper cookies. Use a good coarse black pepper for the bite.

PEPPERS COOKIES!
2 1/2lb flour
1 1/2 cup hot oil(10% olive oil)
3 tsp fennel seeds (Luann grinds these up fine because nobody likes them whole)
2 cups warm wine(Rhine)
2 tbls black pepper(according to taste)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbls baking powder(heaping)
warm oil ,when hot enough Mimi would "fry" fennel seeds in the oil
measure flour ,make a well in the middle of the table
add oil a little at a time to the flour ,mixing it with a knife until all flour added
mix well by hand
make another well on table and add wine
work and knead flour mixture
Mimi used to make a large "ball "of the mix and put it under a bowl
make a snake out of a small amt of dough(thin roll)then circle and criss cross and pinch ends
bake ungreased cookie sheet at 350? maybe I don't have it written down and can't find anybody to ask
I think they take about 10 min.or until they start to brown

****It took us about 25 minutes on 350. Maybe the temperature should be 375? Experiment, but keep your eye on them. They should be just golden brown on the bottom and the tips of points.****