Name: Italian Wedding Cookies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 45 min
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

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!

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