Cucidati – Italian Fig Cookies
Cucidati is a traditional Italian cookie, originating in Sicily, that is filled with a mixture of figs and other fruits, nuts, and seasonings. Some recipes vary but the “standard” typically includes figs, dates, raisins, and walnuts and is bound together with honey and orange marmalade. I am actually surprised that my grandma never made these since they are such a popular Italian cookie, but when I asked my mom about it, she said my grandma hates figs, so I guess I have my answer!
It was during a conversation with my Chief Culinary Consultant that I learned about cucidati. I was talking about the walnut pillow cookies that my grandma always made and he said that his grandma made something similar, but with raisins and figs. I stored it away in my memory bank, with intentions to try them at a later date. A few days later I was searching online for walnut pillow recipes because I was unsure if we would be able to find my grandma’s (we did!) and stumbled upon recipes for cucidati. I immediately saved them and decided I would make the cookies sooner rather than later.
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These cookies are slightly time consuming but totally worth the effort. The dough is wonderfully tender and more of a “short” dough, which makes it melt in your mouth. The filling (perhaps not surprisingly) tastes quite similar to a Fig Newton cookie, but with a much deeper and complex flavor. With the addition of dates, raisins, and walnuts to the figs, as well as the cinnamon, honey, and orange marmalade, these cookies pack a huge punch when it comes to flavor and texture.
If you have a food processor, definitely use it for processing both the walnuts as well as the figs/dates/raisins mixture. If you don’t have one, just chop as finely as possible. As far as shaping and filling the cookies, the instructions provided below will yield a short rectangle “pillow” shape, but I experimented with many sizes and shapes, and encourage you to do the same!
Cucidati (Italian Fig Cookies)
Ingredients
Dough
- 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
- 1½ tablespoons (1.5 tablespoons) baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) salt
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- 1 cup (205 g) vegetable shortening
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup (122 ml) milk
Filling
- 1 cup (149 g) dried figs
- 1 cup (147 g) dried dates, pitted
- ¾ cup (108.75 g) raisins
- ½ cup (58.5 g) walnuts, chopped or ground in food processor
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup (84.75 ml) honey
- ¼ cup (80 g) orange marmalade
Icing
- 2 cups (240 g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons milk, approximately
- Colored sprinkles, optional
Instructions
- Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the sugar and combine well.
- Cut in the shortening with a fork or pastry blender and work the mixture until it looks like cornmeal.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the egg, vanilla, and milk.
- Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix with an electric mixer for a full 3 minutes. Dough will be soft.
- Remove the dough from the mixer and knead by hand for 5 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces, wrap each with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.
- To make the filling, grind figs, dates, and raisins in a food processor until coarse.
- Place fig, date, and raisin mixture in a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Mixture will be thick. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 375° and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Work with one piece of dough at a time, leaving the remaining pieces in the refrigerator until needed. On a floured surface roll the dough into a 12-inch square. Cut dough into 2x3-inch rectangles. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of filling into the middle of each rectangle. Carefully fold the short edges over to meet in the center and pinch to seal. Seal the sides as well.
- Place each cookie, seam-side down, on a baking sheet, leaving 1-2 inches between each cookie.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies are golden in color.
- Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Cool completely before icing.
- For the icing, mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and enough milk to achieve the desired consistency. You'll want the icing to be thick enough not to be runny, but still easily spreadable. Ice the tops of the cookies and decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Let the icing set completely before storing in an airtight container.
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This is a great recipe. Because my mom always had Chocolate in her filling I added about 3/4 + cups of milk chocolate chips and she always used Dark Caro syrup instead of honey. Those were the only two changes and it tasted just like hers. Thanks so much for a great recipe. By the way I went through to different steps. For the filling, instead of a food processor I used my Kitchen aid mixer with grinder attachment and ground everything up. Then added Cinnamon, Syrup, Marmalade & lemon and put it through the grinder a second time and used the sausage attachment to extrude long round logs of filling. This way I easily rolled the dough over the logs , cut and baked. I know it sounds like a lot of work but it actually made everything go really easy. Thanks again!
I’ve looked for this recipe for years. My Nana made these cookies for Christmas when I was a little girl and, after she died, no one in our family continued the tradition. If you like figs, you will love this cookie. It’s a time consuming recipe but worth it. Instead of rolling out rectangles, I rolled out and, using a 4″ round cookie cutter, cut out circles. I put a tsp of the filling in the center and folded it in half like a turnover. I then took a fork and pressed the edge to seal the turnover. I cooked them for 15 minutes and they were perfect. The extra filling can be frozen. You can also freeze the cookies before frosting. Take them out of the freezer and allow them to come to room temperature and then frost. Great recipe! Thank you.
I made these cookies in 2013 and gave them away for Christmas, people named them orgasm cookies. Last year we had a water even at our house and we were living in a hotel over the holidays, this year I am making 20 dozen of them. I use this recipe as a base and add some of my grandmother’s traditions, they taste exactly like the ones I grew up with. Thanks for posting them.
Thank you Michelle For The Reply Take Care :-)
I Have A Question My Wife Is Allergic To Nuts When I I Do Make These Cucidati”s
Can I Omit The Walnuts !
Thank You
Hi Jon, Yes, you can omit the nuts.
I followed the recipe and my dough just crumbles and is too dry to roll or pinch together. Any idea what went wrong? :(
Just A Thought Add A Little Bit More Butter I’m Not An Expert !!!
Good Luck
my recipe is similar..i don’t use the rasins or dates…and I don’t use orange marmalade…I cover the figs in a sauce pan with orange juice some sugar cinnamon and vanilla and simmer …when they are tender I drain them and finish in the food processor with walnuts and that’s it…taste and add more sugar or spices…it sets perfect …
I have a recipe that is very similiar except for the amount of sugar &eggs. Mine calls for 11/2c sugar & 3 eggs. Just checking the quantities in your recipe
Another great recipe. I made a small batch tonight and they are delicious. I forgot to get dates so I didn’t put any in my recipe. I didn’t have orange marmalade on hand so I used apricot preserves instead. I ate two just now and they are just right. Tomorrow I will finish baking my Italian cookies and put on the icing and sprinkles. Keep putting on your great recipes. A very grateful baker who loves to try new recipes.
The modern form of the “cicidata” is “wicidata” a similar cookie made with 3 kinds of nuts, orange marm, grape jelly, honey and the rind of a orange and a tangerine, powered cloves and cin. The dough is a cream and butter dough, very light and fluffy. Each bite is a bite of Christmas or whatever other joyous occasion you want to lable it! Oh, there is no icing or candy dots just powered sugar.
My husband has been asking me to make these
for two years. I made a batch today and they like them without the frosting! what to do?
i copied a link to your recipe and the one i got was way different than this one and i cant find it now ‘
it calls to use
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 tblsp of butter
1/3 sugar
1/4 tsp of baking powder
1 egg beaten
1 tsp of vanilla
i am not sure it is right says to divide in two and put in frig for 2 hours but it is not forming a ball is that normal?
Hi Helen, Unfortunately, I’m not sure what recipe you’re referring to. This is the only cucidati recipe I have made. I would go with what is written above.
I make these every year because they are a tradition for my family and my dad’s favorite cookie. He prefers his without any decoration/icing, so I always set aside several undecorated ones for him. I also make mine with buttermilk and only figs/walnuts in the filling. I make one large line and then cut them on a diagonal. This year my sister wants to do a gender reveal for her baby, so we’re coloring the icing and then giving them to people in little boxes. I love your blog!
My grandmother made these when I was growing up and I never loved them, mainly because of the way they looked. l recently tried them again and loved them! You can cut down on the prep time by making logs, the cutting them up. My grandma used to cut them on the diagonal. She’d sometimes make other shapes, like a Christmas wreath, which now I realize is a circle shaped log, with slashes on the outside to allow the log to be shaped into a circle. There are lots of options!
This brings back fond childhood memories. Thanks for posting these.
Is it possible to freeze the filling prior to using it? My Mom has to go out of town for a few weeks and I wasn’t sure if she should freeze the fig filling she just made or just put it in an air tight bag in the fridge? Thanks for any assistance!
Hi Dot, While I have not done so, I think you could freeze this filling without a problem. Enjoy the cookies!
We just made our family’s version last weekend…..I store them in an airtight bucket in my garage….they stay well. Once it starts to get warm, we then put them in the freezer and they are great. We made fig cookies and our recipe does not have dates, but does have chocolate chips. My husband favorite thing in the world.
I tried the recipe,it’s very delicious little cookies thnx to share it
I’ve recently come across your blog and was browsing around. I was pleasantly surprised to see this post! Like Vince (previous commenter) I’m from New Orleans…these are popular down here because there’s so many Sicilians. I used to help my grandma and aunts make these every year for St. Joseph’s Day. They have all passed away, unfortunately, but now my sisters, my mother, and I bake them for Christmas, along with sesame seed cookies. Smelling and eating them always takes me back to wonderful memories.
Our recipe is very similar to yours. We use orange zest/juice rather than marmalade. We always made such huge batches that we used a very heavy, very old meat grinder to process the filling (my grandparents owned a grocery). My sister broke her Magic Bullet attempting to make this filling in her apartment…lol!
Hi Jenny, I love that your family would make these for St. Joseph’s Day, what a great tradition! I may start doing that myself! :) I have yet to make sesame seed cookies, but they are on my list for the holidays this year.
I lived in New Orleans most of my life, and I come from an Italian background. When my aunt died, she took the recipe for these cookies with her. There are many places to buy cookies similar to these, but most are overbaked and hard. There was one place on the West Bank, DeSalvo’s Bakery, where I could find this wonderful cookie just the way I like it. They have since closed down and, of course, they wouldn’t give away their recipe.
When I discovered this recipe, I went home and made a batch. WOW!!!!! This is the one! It tastes and looks like the ones my aunt made and the ones from DeSalvo’s. The first batch went in minutes around my house. My family dragged me back to the kitchen and demanded more, more, more.
Thank you for a fabulous recipe.
This recipe is very similar to the one I’ve been making for the past several years, and cuccidati have become a regular part of my family’s holidays again! We are Sicilian and Calabrese, and my mom’s mom used to get a big box of cookies from the Italian bakery every Christmas. The cuccidati were so distinctive that they’re the only ones I remember being in that box, but I have nut allergies so I could never eat them. I make mine nut-free by leaving out the walnuts and almonds in the original recipe, and just increasing the amount of dried fruit. I’ve also considered toasting some sunflower seeds and using those in place of the nuts. I put dried figs, dates, prunes and raisins in my cuccidati, use fresh orange zest (I have an orange tree in the back yard) instead of the marmalade, and just enough orange blossom honey to loosen the texture just the smallest bit. My mom says she doesn’t notice that the nuts aren’t there!
As for the fat in the dough, I do use butter instead of shortening in mine, and it makes a softer dough, but if you chill it, or let it sit in the fridge wrapped in plastic for 24 hours, it firms up just fine. The filling can also be made a day or so ahead of time. In fact, the recipe I use specifically says to make the filling and dough at least a day before you bake them, and then keep the baked cookies (cooled, wrapped, at room temperature) for another day before you put the icing on! You can do it on the same day, but the cookies are softer if you mix, bake and ice them on the same day. It helps to spread the work out over a few days.
As for storing them, cookie tins lined with waxed paper have been fine for me. I just put waxed paper in between each layer of cookies (with the icing and sprinkles on and hardened) until the tin is full, make sure there’s a piece of waxed paper between the top layer of cookies and the lid, put the lid on tightly and leave the filled tin on the kitchen counter. We always eat the cookies within the month, but they have always kept perfectly well in the tin on the counter.
For those with other food allergies, I worked up a gluten-free, vegan, cane sugar-free version for my aunt and cousin this year. It needs a few tweaks to be perfect, but they loved it! The recipe is on my blog, The Cup That Cheers.
We have made these fig cookies for 50 yrs, and my suggestion to you for storing them weeks before the Christmas season, is simply use a Tupperware that is airtight, lime the carton with wax paper, after the cookies are totally cooled, line them up in rows onto the waxed paper, then lay another sheet over the cookies, and layer till the carton is full. Your cookies will stay fresh and soft this way. Then on the day you want to serve them to family or guests, Ice the cookies with powdered sugar. milk and vanilla or Anise flavor. Top them with colored sprinkles. You will have the most delicious moist cookies you will ever eat. When you ice them after baking and then try to store them for later eating the icing dries out and the cookies are dry as well. Just keep the carton on a shelf in a closet or any cool place. I have stored them successfully for up to a month.
Best ever, I used frozen butter instead of oil. To brown a little I brushed with butter. Now I will make another batch. Thenk you.
The best recipe I ever made, we love it, Thank you
Hi I made the cookies this weekend and they turned out amazing, so yummy! But my icing started to sweat an get sticky. I made the cookies on friday night an frosted saturday the icing seemed fine an hardened, then this morning i went to get one from the container an they were all stuck together. The house isnt hot, just not sure what went wrong… thanx.
Hi Danielle, Sometimes the house doesn’t have to be hot, but extra moisture can get trapped inside.
Hi Danielle. the problem is the container. Need air..I use a brown paper bag. Just plate them when its time to serve. Heck I eat them right outta the bag…lol
i love this recipe, but can the dough be frozen until a later date?
Hi Rita, Yes, I definitely think you could do that. Just thaw in the fridge for a day or so before you plan on using it.
These looks absolutely divine. Glad you did the roundup today or I would have overlooked these. These will be the first cookie I make of the season.
Can anyone comment to how these cookies store? Can I freeze them after making them? Or how long are they good in an air tight container? How far in advance can I make the filing or dough? Its already shaping up the be a busy holiday season and am trying to schedule out all my baking! I have wanted to make these cookies for a year and am finally going to do it. Any help is appreciated.
Hi Kelly, I have never frozen them, but you could keep them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for at least a couple of weeks. You could make the dough a couple of days in advance; not sure about the filling. Hope that helps!
Kelly, The family would divide many pounds of these yummy cookies between several families(depending on the number of people in the family). We were 2 so we would get at least 5-7 pounds. They keep wonderfully. Even if they get a little hard ohhh so good dunked in icy cold milk. In those days it was a brown grocery bag..lol.Now it’s still a grocery bag(because of icing) but at some point I would put the bag into a plastic bag.I always felt that the plastic bag would melt the icing and ruin the cookie.I have never used a cookie tin. But at some point it’s worth a try.
P.S. I have kept these fresh for many weeks without refrigeration.Try a few in an air tight container in the refrigerator and see what the outcome is.
Oh, thank you for this recipe! Great childhood food memories came to me while reading it. A few years back, I tried to make these without a recipe…my attempt at food processing the dried figs and dates was not a success. The fruit kept getting stuck and preventing the food processor blades from turning. Do you have any special tips regarding this?
Hi Julie, No special tips, I just stop and scrape down the sides as needed.
Julie, a meat grinder is the perfect gadget for this. No need to scrape down , take out,put in more.. blah, blah. Just keep on feeding grinder with dry fruit. Works like a charm.
I am so glad that you mentioned a meat grinder. I made these last year and it was such a pain in my food processor. Will be trying the meat grinder this year!
Thank you!
OMG!!! I love these cookies. I grew up eating them as I’m from Sicily. Thanks for sharing.
A coworker shared a similar recipe about 30 years ago. Instead of figs and raisins, hers called for candied fruit. You are correct about these being time consuming, but they are absolutely delicious.