"Chitalian" Cruelers

One of Madalene's most cherished cookies were her Italian Cruelers.  My mom, aunt and uncle would gather in the kitchen and watch her roll out the dough perfectly thin so that you could see light coming through it!  But since then, my family has put a different spin on the original recipe that turned out to be better than my Great Grandma's cookies.  I hope she's not looking down from above reading this confession...  But, because they're fried, my Uncle Jim thought the dough was a bit on the greasy side, and frankly nobody in the family has the strength to roll out the dough as thin as Madalene used to do.  So, one day the idea of using egg roll wrappers instead of dough popped into his head!  The once slightly dense cookie turned into a light and crispy wanton-like sweet delight!  And for the last 30 years, we've taken on the new and improved family recipe that I've decided to call Chitalian (Chinese/Italian) Cruelers.  Try these cookies out for the Holiday.  The powdered sugar gives them a festive snowy look!

What you'll need:

1 pack of egg roll wrappers

1/2 in. canola oil filled frying pan

honey for drizzling

powdered sugar for dusting

ravioli cutter

 With your ravioli cutter, cut each egg roll sheet into 4 strips.  Cut a 2 in. slit in the middle of each strip.  Loop one end of the strip into the hole you just created and pull through once to form a twist.  Once the oil in your pan is hot, place four strips at a time into the oil.  After about 30 secs. or until slightly golden brown, flip over for another 30 secs.  Drain the cookies onto a paper bag to get rid of any excess oil.  Let cool.  Right before serving, drizzle these puppies with warm honey and dust them with some powder sugar.  They're so light I can't just eat one... But don't laugh while you're eating these because whoever you're talking to at the time will be covered in sugar!