Regina Cookies: a favorite Italian biscuit
a one bowl, small batch recipe
There’s a list of essentials I stock up on when I go back to Brooklyn. Big surprise, they all revolve around food. There’s lard bread from Caputo’s Bakery, and walnut danishes if they have any left when I get there. The danishes sell out fast, so afternoon visits usually have me leaving empty handed on the danish front.
A stop at Caputo’s Fine Foods for mozzarella, cacciatorini, Sicilian salami, olives, and so much more is also required. If I get there early enough, seeing Frank, the owner, is a bonus. His sons decided to take over the business about two years ago, which means Frank doesn’t have to work until closing every day.
His sons both went off to college, one became a lawyer, the other went to Georgetown and then got an MFA from Columbia, but in the end they realized keeping the family business going, one their grandparents started, is what they wanted to do professionally. I was thrilled the day they told me, fearing the store would close once Frank decided to retire. Thankfully they own the building, which is the only way any family business can stay open in all of New York City these days thanks to greedy landlords and LLCs with deep pockets.
My last stop is always Court Pastry. Growing up we went to Cammareri Bros. Bakery on Henry and Sackett Street for bread, and Court Pastry for cookies and pastries. My family held the belief that a bakery could make great bread or great pastries but not both, and I’ve found that to be true for most of my life.
One of my favorite cookies from Court Pastry are their regina cookies, a hard biscuit, generously coated in sesame seeds. You can find them in other shops, but nothing matches the distinctive taste of Court Pastry’s. Until now. The teenagers first comment after eating one of my homemade regina cookies was that it tasted just like Court Pastry’s.
I started out making this recipe with butter, and that version was really good but the butter eclipsed the sesame seeds ever so slightly. The butter version also gets softer with age. Since this is an Italian cookie, I decided to give it a try using olive oil. Halfway through baking, the kitchen started to smell like my childhood. Once cooled, there was no doubt—I had a little taste of Brooklyn made from scratch in my kitchen 100 miles away.
This doesn’t mean my trips to Brooklyn, or desire to move back to NYC one day have vanquished. I’m still counting down the days until Virginia graduates high school, and I can think about our next act. —xo, j.
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Next Week’s Recipe: Thai-Inspired Turkey Larb Bowl