Italian Wedding Cookies are delicious little, powdered sugar-coated, butter cookie bites with almonds.
Italian Wedding Cookies are also known as Italian Butter Balls.
They are very similar to Mexican Wedding Cookies, except this recipe uses granulated sugar in the cookie dough rather than powdered sugar.
Today’s recipe is a guest post from Erica!
She shares with us today her secrets for success and shortcuts she uses and tells us how to make Italian Wedding Cookies.
Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and water all at once.
I do this all in one step because I’m usually baking these cookies last minute for different functions, and I’m trying to get things done pretty quickly.
Next, I add flour to the butter and sugar mixture. I add both cups of flour at the same time for speediness.
Once the cookie has come together, I add the almonds. I prefer to use sliced almonds, and as I am adding them to the dough, I crushed them with my hands.
I like to be able to see the nuts.
It also leaves some crunch in these otherwise soft and melt-in-your-mouth cookies.
Mix everything together one last time, and voila – you have Italian Wedding Cookie dough!
This next part is the secret to success with this cookie.
The dough must be chilled for a few hours PRIOR to baking them off.
Since I have broken my fair share of cookie scoops trying to scoop out chilled cookie dough, I form my dough balls BEFORE I refrigerate them.
I typically leave the dough in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours, but I’ve been known to leave them overnight, or even a few days (cover them up though, otherwise they will take in any other flavors/smells floating around in there).
When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F, and place your chilled cookie dough on a baking sheet, evenly spaced.
They don’t tend to spread out, so they don’t need a ton of space in between each cookie and bake for 15-20 minutes.
The cookie tops will not brown, but the bottoms will turn a nice honey color.
In general, I bake mine for about 18 minutes, but there will be some time variations with different ovens.
Just don’t cook them until the tops of the cookie balls start to turn brown, they are overbaked by then.
Remove cookies from the baking sheet, and place them on a cooling rack.
I just recently purchased my first cooling rack, so if you don’t have one, no worries, just set them on the counter to cool.
Honestly, you could probably leave them on the baking sheet too, but I only have one, so I pull them off the cookie sheet and continue my baking adventure.
The other secret is when to roll the cookies in powdered sugar. I don’t do that when the cookies are hot or it makes a hot mess!
Once the cookies have cooled, roll them around in powdered sugar.
Put them onto a serving plate and get ready to eat more Italian Wedding Cookies than should be allowed!
These cookies can also be shaped into crescents or any other shape you would like.
Just remember to form them into shapes before refrigerating.
More Cookie Recipes from Pear Tree Kitchen:
Pumpkin Cookies with Caramel Frosting
DoubleTree Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Italian Wedding Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie Scoop
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons water
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sliced almonds crushed by hand
- 1 cup powdered sugar for rolling
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl cream together butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, and water.
- Add flour, all at once, and mixed until all of the flour has been incorporated.
- Once the dough has come together, crush the almonds with your hands and add to the dough.
- Mix just until the almonds are evenly distributed.
- Roll cookie dough into 1 to 1 ½-inch balls and place onto a cookie sheet.
- Place cookie balls into the refrigerator and allow to chill for at least 2 hours.
- Cookie dough can be left in the refrigerator overnight, but make sure to cover them for any amount of time longer than 3 hours.
- After cookies have been chilled, preheat an oven to 325 Degrees F.
- Bake cookies in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies have turned a honey brown.
- Allow the cookies to sit for 1 minute and the cookie remove to a cooling rack.
- Once cookies have been completely cooled, roll in powdered sugar.
Pamela
How long would these hold up in an air tight container?
Beth Mueller
Hi Pamela!
These will be at their best in the first 5 days, they will start to dry out a bit after that. If you need to keep them for longer than a week I would freeze them before coating with powdered sugar. Let them thaw and then roll them in sugar. Hope this helps!
Cheers!
Teresa
Can these be made with almond flour instead?
Beth Mueller
Hi Teresa!
I have not personally used almond flour in these cookies but I suspect that the recipe would need some kind of structure for holding together after baking. You might try a blend of almond four and a gluten-free flour blend.
Hope this helps!
Laura
These look so good!
Maria
Can the dough be frozen and then baked at a later date???
Beth Mueller
Hi Maria!
Thanks for stopping by!
I don’t know why it couldn’t be frozen and baked later. We have left them in the refrigerator for up to a week before making them!
I would probably thaw them in the refrigerator for a bit before baking though to make sure they are baked al the way through.