Traditional Italian Christmas Cookies
Nothing makes the holidays feel more special than home baked cookies to share with friends and family. Growing up in Italy, my mom would make these Italian Christmas cookies for us to enjoy and now I make them for my kids.
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Servings: 30 cookies
Calories: 80kcal
Ingredients
For cookie dough:
- 6 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 tsp anise almond or vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
For sweet sugar glaze and decoration:
- 3-4 Tbsp cream or milk
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp almond extract or vanilla extract
- Sprinkles in Christmas colors as desired
Instructions
- For the cookies, start by putting the oil, eggs, white sugar and extract of your choice into a large mixing bowl and stir together until combined with a spoon by hand or in a stand mixer with paddle attachment. Now stir in the salt, baking powder and flour, adding the last in slowly until all combined. Do not over mix.
- Use a tablespoon-size scoop to remove roughly one tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball in your hands and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Continue to roll dough balls until all the dough has been used.
- Chill balls in the freezer for 20 minutes or in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Put the cookies straight into the hot oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cookies have puffed up but are still white on top and slightly browned underneath.
- Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before moving the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the glaze, heat the milk or cream in a small saucepan until warm, do not boil. Combine all the other ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together, then slowly add the warm milk or cream to the bowl and whisk in until you get a smooth and creamy consistency. It will be thin, but it shouldn't be completely runny.
- Dip the tops of the cookies into the glaze and then sprinkle them with a generous amount of Christmas-colored sprinkles right away and put back on the wire rack for the glaze to harden.
Serving: 80g | Calories: 80kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 0.4g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Trans Fat: 0.001g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 8mg | Potassium: 44mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 18IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 0.5mg
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