Easy and quick, this is the best Italian wedding Cookies recipe ever. Loaded with walnuts and hazelnuts and coated in fluffy powder sugar like a snowball, these Italian cookies melt in your mouth and are sure to steal everybody’s heart!
Italian Wedding Cookies
I know this is random you guys, and tough I have made and photographed more than 5 seasonal recipes this week, today I bring you the best Christmas Cookies, otherwise known as butterball or Russian Tea Cakes!
Last night I started craving cookies, so weird, so random, but couldn’t help it. And then I remembered I stocked up on organic butter at the market last week because it was something like 50% off. Clearly the cookies were begging to be made!
So here I am, cleaning little cookie crumbs out of my keyboard while I rush to share this easy recipe with you.
Let me be more specific: stupidly easy Italian wedding cookies recipe, you just can’t fail at this:
- Basically I make everything in the bowl of my kitchen aid, just whisk all ingredients together, one by one until combined.
- Then I shape the dough into golfball size balls and bake them for 20 minutes, no need to chill the dough.
- Coat your cookies like crazy in tons of powder sugar and indulge.
I make about 45 cookies out of one batch of dough, I suspect you could shape them even smaller and end up with about 55. Patience was not my virtue yesterday. See what you can master friends!
What makes this the best Italian Wedding Cookies recipe is all that butter.
- Good organic butter from pasture raised cows, and the magic of walnuts and hazelnuts mixed together in the perfect ratio for that je ne sais quoi deliciousness.
- Vegan – You can make them totally vegan by using cultured plant based butter!
- If there are 3 cookie recipes one must master and have in their life is this one, the Ricciarelli and of course the fluffy ricotta cookies.
Recipe Tips:
- Do not grease the cookie sheet before baking, these are butter cookies and are perfectly coated and won’t stick. You can use parchment paper to line the baking sheet if desired.
- Texture – If grinding the nuts yourself use a food processor, make sure to leave a little bit of texture, you don’t want nut flour, just ground nuts with a little rustic texture.
- Nuts – Feel free to replace the walnuts and hazelnuts in the recipe with an equal amount of ground pistachios or almonds.
- Extract – For a strong almond flavor replace the vanilla extract with almond extract.
- Powder Sugar – make sure to coat your cookies while still warm so the sugar sticks nicely.
- Storage – store your cookies at room temperature on the kitchen counter loosely covered with aluminum foil or in airtight containers. You could freeze the dough balls if desired to bake at a later time. No need to thaw them out.
Italian Wedding Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup salted butter organic
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup ground walnuts
- 3/4 cup ground hazelnuts
- 3 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup powder sugar
- 1/2 cup powder sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325”F.
- In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and 3/4 c of the powder sugar until fluffy.
- Add the vanilla extract and little by little the ground walnuts and hazelnuts. Mix until combined.
- Start adding in the flour little by little until mixed in.
- Prepare your largest cookie sheet and using a small spoon (or small ice-cream scoop) form the cookies into balls, the size of a golfball or smaller. You should have about 45 cookies.
- Arrange all the cookies on the baking sheet without touching each other.
- Bake the cookies in the preheated 325”F oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove the wedding cookies from the oven and allow them to cool off just for a few minutes before rolling them over the reserved powder sugar. It's best that they are still a little warm so the sugar coating sticks nicely.
- Arrange the cookies on a platter and dust with more powder sugar on top before serving.
Notes
- Do not grease the cookie sheet before baking, these are butter cookies and are perfectly coated and won't stick.
- Texture - If grinding the nuts yourself use a food processor, make sure to leave a little bit of texture, you don’t want nut flour, just ground nuts with a little rustic texture.
- Nuts - Feel free to replace the walnuts and hazelnuts in the recipe with an equal amount of ground pistachios or almonds.
- Extract - For a strong almond flavor replace the vanilla extract with almond extract.
- Powder Sugar - make sure to coat your cookies while still warm so the sugar sticks nicely.
- Storage - store your cookies at room temperature on the kitchen counter loosely covered with aluminum foil or in airtight containers. You could freeze the dough balls if desired to bake at a later time. No need to thaw them out.
- Vegan - the cookies can be made totally vegan by swapping the dairy butter with cultured plant based butter. You'll never know the difference!
Nutrition
You’ll Also Love:
Blueberry Ricotta Muffins
Ricotta Lemon Muffins
Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Best Lemon Bars
Where have these been all my life?! Seriously, they are my kind of cookie! I also had a cookie craving last night and decided to whip up a batch (because that is how I roll!)
You and me, we roll the same, and i love it! heheheh
Seriously, one of my favorite cookies!
Aahhh these are my favorite cookies, but I’ve never made them at home! Looks like now is a great time to try! Great recipe!
Love these buttery little gems! <3
Now I need a wedding to attend!
haha, for sure 😉
I love Italian wedding cookies, but have never thought to make them myself. Love this.
Anything with that much butter has to be good!! Love how easy these are!
Right?! Butter makes things happen!
So much yum! I love these cookies and always crave them at Christmastime, but they might have to make an appearance sooner.
An easy recipe and this delicious classic? Yummy! You know I love to bake so I’m really gonna try these!
Just so you know, You won’t be able to stop at one. Wedding cookies are everything lol
Those cookies look so delicate and so fantastic! I’ve never, ever tried my hand at Italian wedding cookies…..I’m going to have to now! I’ve been buying Amish butter from my local Harris Teeter….I bet it’d be awesome in this recipe.
These cookies look absolutely gorgeous. I would love some with a cup of tea
These used to be a classic MUST in our family during the holidays! Haven’t been able to have them in years though! Haha!
Oh you must make some now!
Hello, have made these for so many yr. but tried your recipe this time and had a bit of a issues, they flattened out and where way to fragil to roll in surgery. Thought ?
Hi Therese, not sure what went wrong there, they are crumbly melt in your mouth cookies from all that butter. You do need to allow them to cool some before rolling in the powdered sugar. So maybe just give them a little extra time…It is normal for them to flatten a bit as there is no baking powder or soda in the recipe, so you will have a flat bottom and a little bit of a dome shape on top. I would also suggest to make sure you are using a light all purpose fresh flour. ~ Florentina
Made your cookies they were a success with everyone! will be a tradition from now on..thks for sharing..
That’s so wonderful! Enjoy!
Do these cookies freeze well? Probably eat them up to quickly to have tried?
I cant wait to try these im so excited! My neighbour sent some over and im obsessed, thank you for sharing!!
Made these with vegan butter sticks and they turned out incredible. This is the winner Christmas cookie recipe I’ll be gifting this year as everyone raves about them long after they were gone. Thank you for this lovely recipe!