SUN CITY — It’s difficult to keep up with the cousins as they deftly fold, cut, fill, bake, glaze and sprinkle each and every cookie.
When the behind-the-scenes work of making the dough and filling is taken into account, the whole process seems even more intimidating.
The family of bakers (left to right: Rosemary Orlando, Denyse Thillen, Carol Bonafede, Judy Bonafede, Marge Hammersmith, and Sharon Leibach) work on an assembly line to make Cucidati, a traditional Italian cookie. (Photo by Rebecca Vasquez/Sun Day)
This being the tenth year of their tradition, the six women, who are each part of the Bonafedi family, gathered at the home of Sharon Leibach, N. 36, and began their baking marathon early in the morning on Nov. 30. Their mission: to make hundreds of a specialty cookie and family favorite: the cucidati.
A popular “old country” recipe still made in many Italian homes come Christmastime, the cucidati is a cookie made with light dough and filled with a sweet fig filling. The filling, which often contains orange zest, raisins, and nuts, has a fruity flavor. After baking, the cookies are glazed and sprinkled with sugar.
“This recipe has got to be over 100 years old,” Rosemary Orlando, N.17, said.
Orlando arrives at that estimate based on the fact she can remember her parents and grandparents enjoying the very same cookie in their day.
Upon watching the cousins work, it became clear they have a well-established system to produce cudiati. Each manned their own station and took care of their specialized tasks. This was no mechanical cookie factory, however; lively chatter and hearty laughs carried on through the long day.
The cousins’ day ended at around 8:30 p.m. and yielded 900 cookies, a new record for the family.
The cucidati cool on a tray before being glazed and sprinkled. (Photo by Rebecca Vasquez/Sun Day)
While some prefer fresh-baked cookies, the cucidati is made to last, with some fans preferring the aged variety.
“These can be frozen, so this you make first then let it gel,” Carol Bonafedi said of the cucidati.
Freezing, of course, comes after the final step, which consists of frosting the cookies and adding sprinkles. Once in the freezer, some cucidati are withdrawn and thawed come late December, where they are a hit at the Bonafedi Christmas.
Some family members have developed a sort of mental timer that goes off around this time of year, reminding them that the cucidati are coming.
“My son is a fireman in Niles, and I always have to give him at least 50 of them because they’re all waiting already for them,” Leibach said. “He always goes, ‘When’s cucidati day, ma?’”
The cookies don’t just go to family, however. As word spreads, the women now have neighbors asking for the cookies every year.
“They’ve all got their tongues hanging out,” Margaret Hammersmith, N. 14, said of her eager neighbors.
Cookies that don’t make it to the hungry mouths of friends and family stay in a deep freeze indefinitely. They can be given as gifts later in the year or steadily plucked from the freezer by hungry hands. Orlando recalled one year thawing out the Christmas cookies for her shower in June.
The cousins, who all lived in Chicago years ago, were reunited as they each moved to Sun City. For some, the reunion was accidental, as they had no idea the others lived in the community. They often get together for dinners and celebrations and call themselves “the cousin club.”
The year-round appeal of cucidati and the cousins’ dedication to perfecting their art shows that, at least for the Bonafedi family, the tradition is here to stay.
