Easter means Ganetti

Easter is approaching quickly and all Carbone's know what that means - Ganetti (aka Janettie or Italian
Angel Cookies). 

Ganetti are certainly one of my favorites of the Italian cookies Grandma makes.  In addition to Easter, they were present at every graduation, wedding, major anniversary or other extra-special occassion.  I'm going to post all 3 recipes (not in a single entry) from Grandma (Josephine) Carbone's notebook over the next several days so you can try them out and decide which is your favorite.  For anyone who is not familiar with her notebook, it's a spiral-bound notebook where Grandma not only noted the extra-special recipes like Ganetti or Scalili, but she also made notes whenever she made a batch that included the date, any changes she made to the recipe and typically also notes about anyone who helped her make them.  Sometimes we'd get together as a family to make batches of traditional cookies.  My sister, Cathy, my Aunt Wendy (Bill, aka: Frank Carbone's wife) and my parents (Gary & Suzanne), have all been involved with keeping this tradition alive. 

These cookies freeze well, if you're going to freeze them, freeze them prior to frosting them.  I didn't find Grandma's frosting recipe in the notebook but a simple mixture of butter, powdered sugar & milk work just fine, Grandma usually added a little anise extract to the frosting too, but you can add vanilla if you're not a fan of anise.

Janetti

6 Large Eggs
1 3/4 C Sugar
3/4 C Oil
2 tsp. Anise
6-7 C Flour
3 Heaping tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt

Beat eggs until creamy with sugar - add oil.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Knead until smooth.  Bake 8-10 min. at 375 degrees.  Frost with Butter Icing.

What Grandma's recipe doesn't say:  Form balls of dough into long ropes, cut in approx. 1 1/2 inch sections and form into doughnut shapes, logs or twists.  If you make your frosting thin enough, you can simply dip the cookies into the icing then use a knife (Grandma used to use her finger :) ) to smooth it out. 

There was also a notation about 1/2 c canned milk (on the same line of the recipe as the oil), but no mention of the milk in the instructions, so I left it out.  Neither of the remaining recipes (to come on future entries) included canned milk.