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Abracci or Italian Hug Cookies

Mildly sweet Italian ring shaped shortbread cookies that are half vanilla and half chocolate that come together in a "hug".
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Resting Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Course cookies
Cuisine Italian
Servings 1 large batch

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/16 tsp salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 175 gm unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp orange zest
  • 1/3 cup cream I used 25% fat
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 tbsp cream

Instructions
 

  • Mix together the flour salt and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl. In this recipe, the butter-sugar-egg mixture is made and then divided into two equal portions. One is flavoured vanilla and the other chocolate with cocoa.
  • Start by creaming the butter, sugar and vanilla till soft and fluffy. Beat in the egg till well incorporated. Also mix in the honey, vanilla, 1/3 cup cream and orange zest. Add the flour mixture and knead into a slightly soft smooth dough.
  • Divide the mixture into two equal portions. Knead in the cocoa powder and the 2tbsp cream into one portion till uniformly brown, a little soft and smooth. You will now have two balls of dough, one cream and one chocolate. Line baking sheets with parchment.
  • Start with the cream coloured vanilla dough. Pinch off roughly one-inch balls and roll each into a 1 cm thick and 6 cm long rope. Curve each into a half moon and place on the prepared baking sheets. Do the same with the chocolate dough. Attach each half-moon shape to one cream coloured half-moon and pinch the ends together to form a ring. This will create a half vanilla and half chocolate “hug”.
  • Refrigerate the shaped dough for 30 min to ensure the perfect shape when baking. Bake them at 180C (350F) for about 12-15 minutes, or until the white dough starts turning lightly golden in colour. Let them cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes. Then cool them on a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container. These cookies keep for about a week to 10 days.