Italian Wine Cookies (Ciambelline al Vino)
Ciambelline al vino are traditional Italian wine cookies from Lazio, Umbria, and Abruzzo. No butter, no eggs — just flour, sugar, oil, wine, and anise or fennel seeds, baked into crunchy rings meant for dipping in wine.
Ingredients
- ¾ cups sugar
- 1 to 1 ½ cups red or white wine (start with 1 cup, add more as needed)
- ⅓ cup light oil
- 1 Tbsp. whole anise seeds OR whole fennel seeds
- 1 ⅓ tsp. baking powder
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
- Granulated or raw sugar
Instructions
- For deeper flavor, combine the seeds with the wine and let them soak for 30 minutes before you begin.
- Combine flour, sugar, fennel or anise seeds and baking powder on a large cutting board or flat counter.
- Mound flour mix and make a well in the center. Slowly pour in some of the wine and oil and start mixing as you go.
- Continue adding the wine and oil until you've used all the oil and enough of the wine that the dough resembles a stiff bread dough.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Start shaping the cookies by breaking off a small piece and rolling between your palms into a 1 1/2 inch rope. Join the ends of the dough to form a ring. You want the cookies to be about 1 1/2 to 2 inches across.
- Roll the top of the ring in the sugar and place on a baking sheet.
- Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes.
- Cool well before storing in a tightly closed container.
Notes
Anise and fennel are both traditional and both work. Anise is sharper and more licorice-forward; fennel is softer and greener. Use whole seeds — ground won't give you the same effect when you dip the cookies in wine.
Nutrition (per cookie, approximate, based on 24 cookies)
Calories ~120 | Protein ~1.4g | Total Fat ~3.2g | Saturated Fat ~0.4g | Carbohydrates ~19g | Fiber ~0.7g | Sugar ~9g | Sodium ~27mg This makes 24 to 30 cookies depending on how big you roll the rings. Nutrition is approximate, calculated for 24, and depends on how heavily you coat them in sugar. Calculated from USDA FoodData Central.