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Soft Italian Cookies are dipped in a creamy glaze and topped with colorful sprinkles. They are perfect for holidays and special occasions!!
These tasty Italian Cookies are easy to make, make a ton, and are the cutest little cookie for special occasions or to give out as gifts! For more giftable cookies try Spritz Cookies, No Roll Sugar Cookies, or Turtle Thumbprint Cookies.
Italian Wedding Cookies
Have you ever tried Italian Wedding Cookies before?
Italian Cookies are traditionally flavored with anise, but no one in my family likes the taste of black licorice, so I used almond instead.
Almond is a common substitute for a more Americanized Italian Cookie version. If you don’t like anise or almond, you can also just use vanilla.
We love that these Italian Butter Cookies are not only simple, but they are tasty and pretty! They’re a great dessert to serve at parties or even holiday functions. And who can deny a cookie covered in glaze and sprinkles?
How to make Italian Cookies
COOKIE DOUGH. Whisk together eggs, oil, sugar, and extract in a mixing bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt.
CHILL. Roll dough by tablespoonfuls into balls. Chill balls of dough for at least an hour, or freeze for 15-20 minutes. Place cold dough balls on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
BAKE. Bake in the oven at 350°F for about 9 minutes, or till the tops are set. Bottoms will be lightly browned, but tops should still be white. Remove cookies to cooling racks and cool completely.
GLAZE. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk till smooth, adding enough warm cream to get a thin but creamy consistency.
Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze, then top with sprinkles.
The cookies are best eaten within a day or two after they are glazed. After that, the color from the sprinkles starts to bleed. Pastel colors bleed less.
Recipe Tips
Italian Sprinkle Cookies are an easy treat, but here are a few tips and variations to help!
Flavor. The vanilla extract can be substituted with almond extract, lemon extract, or anise extract which has a black licorice-like taste.
Flat cookies. If cookies end up being flat it is probably because the levitating ingredients weren’t sufficient. Try using less flour next time, the dough may have been too heavy for the egg, oil, and baking powder to lift.
Glaze. Make sure to let the glaze dry/harden a little bit before adding the sprinkles on top. Having the glaze be kind of “tacky” will help the sprinkles stick to the cookies better, rather than just having the glaze and the sprinkles fall off the cookies.
Nuts. Mix in up to 1 cup of chopped nuts (almond or walnuts) or mini chocolate chips.
Different shapes. These cookies should hold their shape pretty well.
- Round: Roll the dough into balls and they bake up with a nice, rounded top.
- Flat: Place the dough balls on the baking tray and use a glass cup dipped in flour or powdered sugar to gently press the tops of the balls a bit flat.
- Shape: Roll the dough balls into a short rope and form it into a squat “s” shape or tie it into a knot.
Sprinkles. I love the classic nonpareils sprinkles but you can use any type of sprinkles, including holiday shapes or sugar crystals, making them a perfect cookie to serve year-round.
Chrismas Version
We sure do love these Italian cookies, and especially love that you can change up the colors of sprinkles to match any holiday or celebration. The kids love that they also taste great!
Since Christmas is just around the corner, I sprinkled a few of my cookies with green and red nonpareils. Be sure to check out our Italian Christmas Cookies recipe for more holiday specific tips there. 😉
If you don’t like the crunch that comes with nonpareils, you can also use jimmies (softer and longer sprinkles) too.
SToring Info
STORE baked Italian Cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
FREEZE. Make these cookies ahead of time then freeze them without the glaze. Thaw before glazing.
Make the glaze up to 5 days ahead of time. Bring the glaze to room temperature before trying to dip the cookies.
STORE the dough. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
FREEZE the dough in a large ball by wrapping it with plastic and again with aluminum foil. Or form the dough into balls and place them on a baking tray and into the freezer.
Once the dough balls are solid, transfer them to a freezer-safe Ziploc. The dough can keep in the freezer for 2-3 months. Thaw before baking.
For more Christmas cookies:
- Crazy Christmas Cookies
- Snowball Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Christmas Cookie Bars
- Christmas Sugar Cookies
Italian Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 6 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp almond, anise, or vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp almond extract, or vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 3-4 Tbsp cream or milk, warmed
Instructions
- Whisk together eggs, oil, sugar, and extract in a mixing bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Roll dough by tablespoonfuls into balls. Chill balls of dough for at least an hour, or freeze for 15-20 minutes. Place cold dough balls on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Bake at 350° for about 9 minutes, or till the tops are set. Bottoms will be lightly browned, but tops should still be white. Remove cookies to cooling racks and cool completely.
- For the glaze, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk till smooth, adding enough warm cream to get a thin but creamy consistency.
- Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze, then top with sprinkles.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I think this is an excellent recipe. Easy to follow, and quick to make. I just made them for Christmas dessert and I’ve already eaten six of them.
What’s the best way to store them?
It’s different. I used butter instead of oil, almond for both the batter and sugar glaze. My dad hated it, according to him it taste like perfume.
I have made these cookies using this recipe 3 years in a row now for my holiday cookie assortment and they are so simple and so perfect every time!
3rd time making these this month! Absolutely amazing, these are my go to. So quick and easy to make 🙂
On the Italian Wedding Cookies, can I use lemon extract and lemon zest instead of any of the others?
I don’t understand all the positive ratings on this recipe. I followed it to the letter and ended up with a ball of gooey unmanageable dough that ended up in the garbage disposal. Found another recipe that used butter instead of oil and 3 cups of flour instead of 2 and the cookies turned out great.
You definitely did something incorrectly. This recipe makes amazing, light, perfect cookies. I make them often using anise extract, brings me back to my childhood and my Italian grandmother.
I am also sitting here with a pile of unmanageable goo….. I followes this recipe exactly.
My dough was also goopy. I just did drop cookies instead of rolled balls. Followed recipe to the letter.
If the cookies are too wet to work with, you can add a little more flour (1 Tbsp at a time) until you get a manageable consistency. You don’t want to add too much or else they won’t be light and fluffy, but if the dough is gloopy, you can add a bit more until it’s a workable texture.
Found the receipt easy to follow and the Italian cookies were delicious.
I am so disappointed in these cookies! I wasted time and ingredients. They tasted like a ball of flour and I even added almond extract!
Probably an awesome recipe, but can’t use it, because it won’t let me print it out, even though there is a PRINT button above the recipe !!!!!!
Maybe write it down? I just wrote it, I prefer to do it this way, it took about 3 minutes to write. I do this while having my coffee and save the recipes for my kids 🙂
Sorry to hear you are having trouble printing it. Clicking on that printer button should take you to a new tab with a printer-friendly version. From there you should be able to download and send it to your printer.
Can you make these with gluten free flour?