Nutty, Buttery, and Melt in Your Mouth, these Italian Wedding Cookies are a perfect treat to make for holidays, baby shower, or bridal parties.
Looking for more cookies? That you can make at home for festive seasons, here are some of them – Banana Cookies, Almond Cookies, and Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies.
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About This Recipe
I am a big fan when it comes to soft and melt in mouth cookies, and these Italian Wedding Cookies has become my favorite since I have tasted them a few years ago. I bake them very often and love to enjoy it with my evening cup of Beaten Coffee.
Made with Almonds with a beautiful hint of vanilla, these buttery holiday cookies are finely rolled in confectioner’s sugar, which are perfect for the holiday season, birthday parties, bridal parties, baby showers or just to munch on with your favorite cup of the beverage every day.
These Traditional Italian Cookies are also known by the name of Snowballs or Butterballs, due to their appearance and super soft buttery texture. Due to their Snowball appearance, they also make a great delight to make during Christmas.
These are very similar to the Mexican Wedding Cookies and Russian Tea Cookies.
The best part, these cookies don’t require any fancy ingredients, just a few everyday ingredients and are super easy to bake, which makes it even great if you are a new baker.
So, if you want some pretty looking and super easy cookies to serve for a special occasion, do give these nutty, light, and airy Italian Wedding Cookies a try.
These cookies are,
- Tasty & Pretty
- Light & Airy
- Eggless
- Buttery & Soft
- Easy to bake
- Prepared with few ingredients
- Perfect for the festive season
Ingredients
Almonds – The nutty flavor in the cookies comes from Almonds, and not the almond extract. You can grind the almonds on your own to use in the cookies or you can even use almond flour instead.
All-Purpose Flour – The base of these cookies is prepared using all-purpose flour. The use of all-purpose flour along with almonds will give the cookies a firm texture.
Butter – We will use unsalted butter in these cookies. Keep the butter out on the counter, so that it softens until you want to use it. If you forgot to keep it out, I have a trick for you. Grate in the butter in the flour mixture, yes it works too!
Confectioner’s Sugar – Confectioners Sugar is used to get a smooth texture in the cookies. This sugar is also used to coat the cookies, which makes them look so good.
Vanilla Extract – Vanilla Extract gives it that light hint of vanilla which goes really well with the almonds. Make sure you use a high-quality vanilla extract for these cookies because it really makes a difference.
You can even use almond anise or Black Licorice instead of vanilla extract, for a more powering flavor.
Step By Step Recipe
Pre heat the oven to 325 Degrees F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Add almonds in a grinder and pulse to make a coarse powder.
Whisk butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add the almond powder and vanilla extract and mix well.
Add flour and mix until combined.
Make small rounds from the mixture and line them on the baking tray at 1 inch distance.
Bake the cookies for 20 minutes.
Remove the cookies from the oven and cool them for 5 minutes. Roll the cookies on confectioner’s sugar. Cool completely and serve.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, they are the same. Both these sugar are fine granulated sugar ground to make a fine powder and mixed with little cornstarch to prevent caking. Do not use home ground sugar as it will not be smooth and airy like the packaged one.
If you are making it for a big crowd, you can easily double or triple this recipe. The cooking time and ingredients will remain the same, only the quantity of the ingredients will be doubled or tripled. This recipe can be halved too.
You can substitute unsalted butter with vegan butter to make this recipe vegan friendly.
This is the easiest process ever! Just add the almonds in the grinder and pulse them to make a coarse powder. No need to peel the almonds, the skin does add a great texture in the cookies.
The most important thing here is to stop and scrape the sides of the grinder every 10 seconds to make sure that the almonds are ground evenly and the almond flour does not turn into almond butter.
Storage Suggestions
These cookies will last for about a week at room temperature. Store them in an airtight container and keep a parchment paper in between each layer of the cookies, so that they don’t stick to each other.
If you are planning to freeze them. I would recommend freezing before baking and coating in the confectioner’s sugar. Prepare the cookies from the flour mixture, place them in the tray in a single layer and flash freeze them for an hour.
Now shift them in the ziplock storage bags and freeze. While baking it again, you do not have to thaw them, just add an extra minute in the baking time. Once you bake them, roll them in the sugar, cool them down and they are ready to be served.
Variations
Walnuts and Hazelnuts – You can use a combination of walnuts and hazelnuts in the recipe instead of almonds. Just like almonds, grind them before adding in the recipe.
Pistachios – Feel free to even use Ground Pistachios instead of other nuts in this cookies recipe.
Ricotta – You can add in Ricotta Cheese too in this cookie. The texture of the Ricotta Cheese makes them even softer.
Coconut – This is one of my favorite ingredients to add If I am adding a twist in my original Italian Cookies. Just roll these cookies in shredded coconut, before baking for a perfect coconut flavor.
Glazed – To make a glaze, mix powdered sugar, vanilla extract, pinch salt and milk/cream in a bowl and whisk it well until you get a creamy consistency. Dip the top of the cookies in this glaze and add some colorful sprinkles on top.
Recipe Card
Italian Wedding Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1-½ cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup Confectioner's Sugar (+ for rolling the cookies)
- 2 cups Almonds
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour
Instructions
- Pre heat the oven to 325 Degrees F.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Add almonds in a grinder and pulse to make a coarse powder.
- Whisk butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add the almond powder and vanilla extract and mix well.
- Add flour and mix until combined.
- Make small rounds from the mixture and line them on the baking tray at 1 inch distance.
- Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes until slightly browned.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and cool them for 5 minutes.
- Roll the cookies on confectioner’s sugar.
- Cool completely and serve.
Nancy Eckmyre
if using almond flour instead of grinding the almonds, would the measurement still be the same? Thank you
Neha Mathur
Yes, you will need 3 cups of flour.