Connie Coniglio Miller's Page 2

Danville Ice Groupies ~ 2005


Raven ~ 2005	Keith ~ 2005	Andy ~ 1963
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Aiden Steht

.~ September 2006 ~

~ December 2006 ~

A COOKIE BY ANY OTHER NAME
At Christmastime, my mother kept the old Sicilian tradition of baking special cookies, and now my sisters Mary and Connie continue it. My favorite was, and still is, the Sicilian fig cookie. Not to be confused with the ‘Mericane’ ‘fig newton‘, which is no more than a swipe of fig paste in a tasteless crust, my mother’s fig cookie was a delicate, tasty shell wrapped around a sweet mixture of ground figs, walnuts, dates, raisins, citron, and other delicacies. And it was all topped with a sugary frosting and colored sprinkles. Now, you know what I’m talking about, but what did you call them? There are as many names for this confection as there are dialects in Sicily. Many call them cuccidati (coo-chee-DAH-tee), which could be interpreted as ‘cooked dates’ or ‘date cookies’; some say nucedati (noo-che-DAH-tee), which might mean ‘nuts and dates’. I have heard them called uccidati (ooh-chee-DAH-tee), zuccidati (zoo-chee-DAH-tee), and even purcidati (poor-chee-DAH-tee), which sounds like ‘pig dates’! An on-line reference says they’re bruccedati (brew-che-DAH-tee), because some (my favorite kind) were made in a large ring shape, and ’bruccedati’ means ‘little bracelets’. I've also seen them called, in Italian, buccellati, which, if pronounced as a Sicilian word, would be *bucceddati* (boo-chee-DAH-tee) But to me, they’re what my mother used to call them: puccidati (pooh-chee-DAH-tee). She always made a few of the big, ring-shaped ones and kept them aside for me, her ‘baby’. Now my sister Mary, still spoiling the (70-year-old) baby brother, makes a few just for me. Connie would, too, but living in Illinois, she’s too far away to spoil me! I don’t know what puccidati really means, if anything. But to me, it means one thing: delicious! ~ *Ange Coniglio*

Rosa Coniglio’s Recipe: Sicilian Fig Cookies (Puccidati) [as interpreted by the “Twins”, Mary Coniglio Denisco Sowa* and Connie Coniglio Miller]* Makes 12 dozen cookies.
Filling:	3 lb. dried figs	1 lb. dates (pitted)
	1 lb. raisins	1 lb. shelled walnuts
	1 cup sugar	2 tsp. ground black pepper
	3 tbsp. orange extract, or orange zest, or rind of one orange, toasted and ground.
	Water, as below.
Grind all ingredients together in food grinder. Then warm filling over low heat, adding water until mixture is pliable.
Dough:	2¹/₂ lb. (10 cups) flour	2 cups sugar
	2 cups shortening	1 stick (¹/₄ lb.) margarine
	4 tsp. baking powder	2 tsp. baking soda
	1¹/₂ tsp. salt	5 large eggs
	1 tbsp. vanilla extract	²/₃ cup buttermilk
	(To make buttermilk, stir 1 tbsp. white vinegar into 2/3 cup whole milk.)
Cut shortening and margarine into flour. Add sugar and other dry ingredients. Beat eggs with vanilla extract and buttermilk and to flour mixture. Mix by hand and shape: roll dough by hand into “snakes” about 16” long, 1 inch in diameter. With rolling pin, flatten snake to form strips about 3” wide and 1/8” thick. Place filling along center of strip. Fold one long edge of dough over filling, and roll once more to form a long, filled tube. Cut tube on a slant to make cookies about 11/2” long. Some can be cut about 8” long and the tube is curled in a circle to make a “bracelet".
Bake:	on a greased cookie tin, at 350^o till lightly browned. (10-15 minutes)
Icing:	1 lb. confectioner’s sugar
	water
	orange extract
Add water to get glaze consistency, and add orange extract to taste. Brush icing on cookies, add sprinkles. Try not to eat them all before company comes.


-*Connie at 309 Myrtle Avenue, Palm Sunday, 1943, holding palms woven by Gaetano. In the background is the box- makers plant, F.N. Burts.*		Mary, Connie and Millie ~ 1946


Jackie Miller and Dennis Denisco ~ 1952


Alessi Miller ~ 2004	Kylie Miller ~ 2004	Gianna Knight ~ 2005
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Savannah Miller ~ 2005	Donaven Anthony Wilson-Miller ~ 2005 ~
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	Nicholas and Adam Steht Clint, Morgan and Tara Wright