Cooking With Clara: Sicilian Fig Cookies

Great Depression Cooking with Clara on Youtube is one of my favorite channels to watch. Clara, now 94 years old, and her siblings grew up during the Great Depression in the late 1920’s and 1930’s, and like many families they made do with what they had, which included some creative family meals. You can see some of her previous videos here, here, and here.

In this video, Clara shows how to prepare Sicilian Fig Cookies, a treat that her family only made once a year around the holidays. She mentions that it was pretty much something they only did after the Depression ended, since the ingredients were so expensive!

Using flour, sugar, lard, milk, baking powder, eggs, powdered sugar, vanilla, hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans, candied fruit, raisins, dates, oranges, tangerine peel and figs, Clara recreates a truly mouthwatering cookie that’s sure to get anyone in the holiday spirit.

During the preparation process, Clara talks with her granddaughters about Christmas during the Great Depression, and how they would celebrate and the gifts the children would receive. She also talks about how food was stored and how they used a genuine ice box, with an ice man who would come down the street to deliver blocks of ice.

Clara then toasts the nuts together, and boils water and sugar on the stove. She then combines all the fruits and nuts together and puts them through a food processor in batches to make a dense, crumbly dough. Whiskey is then added (optional, of course!) along with a cup of the sugar water, and then it’s all stored overnight in the refrigerator.

Stay tuned for part two!