When I saw these cookies last year, suggested on Pinterest by a super creative French friend of mine for the Feast of St. Francis (HT: Mattie Nelson), I knew they would be a perfect addition to Catholic Cuisine ideas. These specialty shaped cookies go by various names. Known as Dents de loup in France or Wolfszähne in Germany, they are Wolf's Teeth Cookies. One of the most famous stories of St. Francis of Assisi is that of his coming to the aid of the town of Gubbio, when it was terrorized by the ferocious wolf. These fun cookies can remind us of the Wolf of Gubbio on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
Wolf's Teeth Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1 cup butter, room temp or slightly softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 3/4 cups flour + 2 tablespoons
2 teaspoons vanilla (+ optional 2 teaspoons Cognac, brandy, etc.)
Cream the butter and sugar with hand mixer until light colored, fluffy. Add flavoring, mix. Add eggs one at a time and mix. Mix in flour, a little at a time, about 1/4 cup of the flour each time.
Butter/grease the pan* ridges. Drop a walnut sized balls of dough off a spoon into the ridged form. Keep well spaced so they don't run together. I cut the recipe to one third when I made them and it made 20 cookies.
Bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown on top.
*Special Note in the Spirit of St. Francis - Make your own baking pan
I didn't have a Dents de loup or Wolfszähne pan, and didn't want to buy one as it is not likely something I would use very often. So in the austere spirit of St. Francis, I decided I could improvise with a simple disposable and inexpensive option. Using a large, flat-ish disposable aluminum pan, I made a modified baking pan.
I cut off the ridged edges all around, clipped the corners to flatten and spread flat. I rolled a rolling pin over it to take out the indentations and get it as flat and smooth as possible. Then I folded over approximately 1 1/2 inch, flipped and folded again (fan fold style) until I had a makeshift "dents de loup" pan.
As I figure most of you don't have a specialty pan like this or the desire to purchase one, I hope this is helpful and manageable alternative.
Mary, is your printed recipe here the full recipe or the 1/3 recipe that you made? I only want to make about 20 cookies too.
ReplyDeleteThe printed recipe is full amount - it was the general one I was seeing around the internet, but I could tell it would be way more cookies than I wanted. What I made was 1/3 cup butter, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 egg, just under 1 cup flour and a bit of vanilla. Good luck. They were fun to make and they have been gobbled up today by my sons.
ReplyDeleteHow long do you bake them for?
DeleteNevermind, I just saw it. We've got ours in the oven right now and my daughter, who's Confirmation saint is St. Francis, helped me make them! Thank you. These look like fun, although... your makeshift pan turned out much nicer looking than ours! ;)
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