Fried Cookies

Deep-frying is not what you think of when you think of making cookies, though it produces some delicate and interesting ones. Fried pastries and cookies were originally the only type made at home, because until well into the twentieth century, most homes in Europe and many in America did not have ovens. Ovens were at the local bakery or belonged to a business. When you needed baking done, you brought the food to be baked to the oven and paid a fee to use it.

When I first visited my cousins in southern Italy in the early seventies, there was still a communal oven down the street from their house. I had a chance to visit once or twice, then unfortunately it was destroyed in a disastrous 1980 earthquake.