This question often sparks an engaging conversation among chocolate tasting program participants.

For me, it brings me back to our kitchen in our second floor flat in San Francisco’s North Beach and visions of my paternal Nana (my namesake) making a Sicilian specialty called Totos di Cioccolata. (The pronunciation of these treats isn’t like Dorothy’s little dog, but with the accent on the second syllable).  

This spicy, iced cookie version not only has cocoa powder in it, but chunks of dark chocolate as well. I fondly recall eating them while they were still warm. Yet after they are cooled and iced, these are still heavenly.  I called my Aunt Melina and Mama Maria and they shared this family recipe with me. As you might imagine, they both had slightly different variations on my grandmother’s recipe.  Big Savina (as opposed to Little Savina) never measured or wrote anything down- always cooking and baking “more or less by heart.”

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

Cookies: 3 cups sifted flour (My family has always used Gold Medal), 1/2 cup chopped walnuts,  1/2 cup tiny raisins,  3 tsp baking powder, 3 tb Crisco, 1 cup sugar,  1 tsp allspice, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, ¼ tsp nutmeg, 1 12 oz package Nestlé’s mini semi-sweet morsels, 1 cup Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder (Nana would have to have this brand or she wouldn’t make them.  Not sure if it was because of the quality or the fact that Domingo was Italian!), 1 big orange for the grated zest and juice, regular milk.

Icing:  Powdered sugar,  regular milk  and lemon juice.
                                                                                                                                                                                              Putting It All Together:  Mix the flour and Crisco with your hands until the shortening is in very fine pieces. Then put in all the additional ingredients.

Carefully mix everything together (“Easy, easy,” as my Aunt emphasized). Slowly add the milk, a little at a time. Work it with your hands and be careful not to make the mixture too wet.  Let it stand for an hour.

Take about a tablespoon of the mixture and roll into a ball. Arrange them on a greased cookie sheet- they don’t expand much during baking, so can be fairly close together. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. Be sure to watch the bottoms to avoid burning. Let the cookies cool completely.

For the glaze, mix powder sugar and milk with a fork. To make the icing shiny and add extra flavor, sprinkle in a tablespoon of lemon juice. Try to make it not too watery and not too thick. You’ll know the right consistency by sight and feel (Think Elmer’s glue). After the cookies have cooled completely, apply the glaze with your finger tips to the top and sides of the cookie. Let them dry overnight. (If you are especially motivated, you could then apply glaze to the bottoms).  Scrape excess icing from the bottom edges with a knife if you find that necessary.

Found a recipe that was similar to this one on the web, only they called them Chocolate Italian Wedding Cookies. I always thought wedding cookies were those powdered sugar-covered shortbread cookies from Mexico, Greece or Russia that just melt in your mouth. Who knows, maybe Italians were more realistic by adding those walnuts and chocolate chunks to symbolize the “rough and bittersweet spots” we encounter along the road of life!

Making these cookies can be tedious, but well worth it. Let me know if you ever try them. Happy chocolate reminiscing-  sharing of your memories is highly encouraged!

Buon Appetito!

There was a stir in the media when last week when Scottish doctors came within 2 votes of passing a tax on chocolate, which many feel contributes greatly to the overweight problem in the British Isles. Fueled by increasing cases of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, the tax would have been similar to that on alcohol and tobacco.  What’s your take on a chocolate tax? Would it make you eat less of your favorite food group?

Yet the positive health benefits of chocolate, such as the antioxidants in dark chocolate which cut risks of cardiovascular disease, have been known for some time now.  Just last month, studies also showed that dark chocolate may also help reduce cancer risks.

So what is a chocolate lover to do?

As far as chocolate goes, it might be helpful to repeat the following “cacao” mantra: More is NOT Better, More is NOT better, More is NOT Better…

Although it is high in antioxidants, chocolate is also unfortunately high in sugar, calories and fat. So it may be useful to consider chocolate  as an “extra” part of one’s diet and one luxury that needs to be eaten in moderation.

One recent study suggests eating 1 ounce every three days. When subjects ate more than this amount, there were no additional reported benefits.

Bummed to hear this news? In the long run, this finding may actually help all us chocolate enthusiasts to more consciously savor each and every morsel.

First,  pick a quality dark chocolate with 60% or higher cacao content. Then when you taste it, try not to chew and just let the chocolate melt on your tongue for a more satisfying experience. Now the harder part- try not to eat more than ONE ounce every three days. How does this break down? That comes to about  9-10 grams per day (A 3 ounce bar is equal to 85 g).

We can think of this as the new One Ounce Dark Rule to live by. It would force us to read the Nutrition Facts on the bars and do a bit of math. So it’s good “brain aerobics,” too! (I think I’ll use this  the next time I cover Measurement and the Metric System with my Third Graders!).

Enjoy! And let me know how this all works for you.