Torcettini di Saint Vincent (Sugar Crusted Twisted Cookies from the Valle d’Aosta)

We Knead to Bake,of course we need to :) I have never tried cookies with yeast and this challenge taught me how to.One can get a lil skeptical when you see this cookie recipe where yeast is used unlike baking powder which is the norm......make to it believe it- it is simple and sweet.

Adapated from A Baker’s Tour by Nick Malgieri

Ingredients:

 1/2 cup warm water, about 

 1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 tsp instant yeast)

 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

 2 tbsp cocoa powder (if making chocolate torcettini)

 1/4 tsp salt

 1 tsp lime/ lemon zest (replace with orange zest for the chocolate version)

 40gm unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces

 about 1/3 cup sugar for rolling the cookies

Method:

1.  Dissolve the yeast in a bowl of warm water,set aside until it foams up.
2. In a food processor- add the flour,salt and give it a quick pulse.Add cold butter cut in cubes one by one and let it all blend well to a bread crumb structure.
3. Now add lemon zest and the yeast mixture.Do not over beat....just stop while the mixture comes together into a ball of dough.
4. Remove the dough, do not knead instead wrap it up in cling film and let it rise in the refrigerator for an hour.The dough does not double in size ,would puff up slightly instead.
5. Roll out the dough into a square shape in a even thickness. Cut them into squares. Take each square, and roll it within your palms into a rope like strip,thickness could be roughly finger like.
6. Twist the dough rope forming a loop overlapping one end over the other.
7. Dip it in sugar and place it on the baking tray.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 160C for about 20 - 25 minutes.Let it cool and munch away.

There is a short information about these cookies and how the name came along.Thank you Aparna for this wonderful challenge .Linking this post to................