Italian wedding cookies have been served in my house since I was a very little kid. Tender, crumbly, delicious, little powdered sugar covered gems that are perfectly flavored with almond. Six ingredients, less than an hour to make, and you, too, can join our family tradition and whip these up.
We serve these cookies year-round. Nonna made them all the time and everyone loved them. It wouldn’t be a family gathering without them. They’re especially popular at Christmastime. Christmas cookie recipes are big in our family.
I love to serve these on trays with my Italian Christmas cookies (a huge reader favorite!), Italian fig cookies (aka cucidati), and amaretti cookies (my personal fav’s)! Listen, I make a lot, I mean a lot of Christmas cookies but Nonna’s recipes are always the absolute best!
Let’s bake these cookies!
What I Love About This Italian Wedding Cookies Recipe
- Perfect with coffee
- They’re tenderness
- They’re buttery-ness
- One Of Nonna’s Best!!!
Recipe Notes
- Almonds: The perfectly balanced almond flavor in these cookies not from extract, but from almonds themselves! While you are more than welcome to grind your own almonds, you can also use almond flour to get the same chewy, nutty texture and taste!
- Vanilla: Since there are so few ingredients in these cookies, it’s important to use the best of each. Go for pure vanilla extract in this recipe — “pure” vanilla extract is still a solution of vanilla bean extract and fillers like alcohol, but it has a higher percentage of bean extract.
- Flour: Yes, this Italian wedding cookies recipe uses both almonds and flour! But be sure to use all-purpose flour.
- Why? All-purpose flour has a higher protein content than, say, cake flour, which means it will help give your cookies a firmer structure. Very necessary to stand up to the butter!
- Butter: Did you forget to leave your butter out to soften? No worries! There are many ways to avoid clunking around a hunk of solid butter in your mixing bowl.
- My favorite is to actually grate the butter — yes, like in a cheese grater! It helps distribute butter throughout the dough evenly.
- Confectioner’s Sugar: The finely powdered relative of standard sugar, confectioner’s sugar is used when you want smooth treats. We use it in this recipe to help play against the denseness of the butter and the coarseness of the almond flour.
How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge?
Generally, homemade cookies can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 months.
Can You Freeze This?
Yes! Cookies freeze so well, and this Italian wedding cookies recipe is no exception. Toss your cookies into a Ziploc bag or airtight container and freeze for 6 to 12 months.
I love eating these straight out of the freezer! Something about the cold temps mixes so well with confectioner’s sugar. They make for excellent midnight snacks!
Make Ahead Tips
This Italian wedding cookies recipe comes together very quickly once you start! And the butter’s consistency is necessary to the final product, so alas, there isn’t much you can do in the way of prepping ahead of time.
But! The full prep only takes thirty minutes, with the final baking stretch capping off at fifteen, so you’ll be completely done in less than an hour. Promise!
Serving Recommendations
Imagine eating these cookies in front of the fireplace while you’re sipping a cup of spiked hot chocolate or a glass of pumpkin pie martini. That’s the perfect winter scenario for me!
More Perfectly Italian Cookies
- Almond Biscotti Recipe
- Chocolate Biscotti Recipe
- Lemon Ricotta Cookies
- Ricotta Cookies
- Anise Cookies
Italian Wedding Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups almond, finely ground
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cups confectioners sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in salt, almonds, and vanilla. Gradually mix in flour and combine well.
- Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart and bake for 15-20 minutes. The cookies will remain pale. If they brown they will be dry.
- Cool cookies for a couple of minutes then roll warm cookies in remaining confectioners' sugar and place on a wire rack to cool completely. When cool, dust with extra powdered sugar.
Fans Also Made:
Can I make the dough ahead of time and bake the next day?
Hi Lynn. I don’t think the texture will be the same making the dough ahead then baking the next day.
If I use almond flour instead of ground almomds, do I still use the all purpose flour?
Hi, Brenda. I haven’t tried this without all-purpose flour, so I can’t advise.
Can you freeze these cookies?
Hi, Estella. Yes! This freezes well. Toss your cookies into a Ziploc bag or airtight container and freeze for 6 to 12 months. Enjoy baking!
I just finished making a batch and am very disappointed! They crumble so easily. What did I do wrong?
Hi Marion. Gosh, I’m sorry to hear that. I can only guess. Are you sure all the measuring was correct and the baking time as well!!
These cookies are made without eggs??
Yes! <3
Hi kathleen!
I use ground pecans all the time with this recipe & I love them.
Thank you, Dina! 🙂
Hi Kathleen, would I be able to substitute pecans for the ground almond? Looking forward to trying these!
Hi, Bianca! I haven’t tried using ground pecans for this. From what I read, ground hazelnuts (blanched and skinless) work best as ground almond substitute.
Here are the articles for other alternatives:
1. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/eatwell/food-news/ask-peter-alternatives-to-ground-almond/7RTEO43D736MLC6WO6EDQCMV2M/
2. https://valuablekitchen.com/ground-almonds-alternative/
Hi Kathleen, thanks for the response. I actually meant using chopped walnuts or pecans.
Please let me know if you think that would work😊 thanks!
Hey Bianca, I think it will work just fine!
these cookies taste like a expensive cookie a tasty special treat .easy to make.thanks for the recipe.happy holidays
Yay! Thank you, Nina. Happy holidays too! 🙂 <3
Looking great!! Gotta make these soon <3 <3
Sound easy and delicious. Going to make them with walnuts instead of almonds since I don’t have almonds.
Hope they come out ok.
You can do it, Beth!
I love to use Pecans instead…..