Frizzalines

No matter when we went to Grandma’s, you knew that you would get something good to eat. Our Grandma always had four things in her freezer: frizzalines, pizza roll, taralli, and chocolate chip cookies.

Flour, eggs, Crisco, sugar. These ingredients come together to make another family tradition—Frizzalines. Every Italian family has a variation of this traditional recipe, and they taste fantastic.

This is another recipe that I made with my Grandma.

Another recipe made from memory, never written down. Passed down from generation to generation.

I wanted to make them. To share the tradition with my family. So I went to Grandma’s, I sat in her kitchen, and watched her. I had to take notes since there was no recipe. She filled the bowl with flour, sugar, adding a pinch of salt, beating in the eggs, adding yeast and water—never looking at a recipe. But it didn’t matter. Everything she made always tasted the same, fantastic.

I have been making this frizzaline recipe for decades. No matter how many times I make it, to me, it never tastes as good as Grandma’s.

This is a two part baking recipe, similar to making biscotti. The you make the fingers (what we call them before the second bake). They are light and airy, and taste great wrapped in your favorite Italian lunch meat. Or you can butter them. Either way, they melt in your mouth.

I got started early Saturday morning before anyone was awake and moving. It’s easier that way. Hours later, the smell of fresh baked fingers wafted from the kitchen throughout the house. My mouth was watering just waiting for that first taste. I wrapped mine in capicola. Yum.

Now we wait. Yes, they need to be completely cooled before we take the fingers and cut them to make the frizzalines.

Thirty minutes later my fingers were ready to be cut to make frizzalines.
Click here for the recipe.

After baking a second time they were ready for the family. We dunk them in coffee, eat them with butter, cream cheese, or peanut butter, we even wrap them with our favorite Italian lunch meat. 

Did I mention that frizzalines freeze well? Yes, once cooled, you can freeze them easily. I put a Ziplock bag into a coffee can and fill it up, then freeze it. When I crave them, I just go to the freezer and pull some out.