Tender, light as a cloud, 6-ingredient Italian wedding cookies made from scratch. This is my master recipe: use it to make variations with almonds, walnuts and pistachios – whatever you love. Makes 40-42 cookies.
Good-quality salted butter and powdered sugar collide with toasted pecans, vanilla, and a hint of almond extract (my secret ingredient). No egg. These are my special Italian wedding cookies.
Once baked, the cookies are twice dusted in a wintery blanket of powdered sugar creating adorable, melt-in-your mouth snowballs. Similar to shortbread, they’re buttery, tender, and flawlessly sweet.
This is one of my preferred Italian cookie recipes to bake during the holidays (nestled alongside my anise biscotti, chewy pignoli cookies, and Italian sesame cookies on the cookie platter!) but they’re highly acceptable with a steaming cup of coffee all year round. Let me show you how to make them, step-by-step.
Notes From My Test Kitchen:
Try Kerry Gold butter (salted). I use it for everything from baking, to cooking, to tasting and spreading; the quality is superior. I use the block butter (not the sticks), and opt for salted butter because of its hard-to-replicate depth of flavor. Cold butter is key: it keeps the cookie dough from spreading when baked.
Why powdered sugar matters. It makes the cookies more tender and melt-in-your mouth. Granulated sugar makes them sandy and crisp. Both are good, just different.
Try Trader Joe’s or Costco organic all purpose flour. When testing this recipe, I found that both brands worked well. Why is this important? How flour absorbs liquid and fat will determine the texture of your cookie dough (i.e. sticky, dry or just right: soft and workable without clinging to your fingers).
For the nuts: Use whatever nuts you’d like- walnuts, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts etc. If you swap, keep in mind that I’ve developed the flavor profile of these cookies around pecans. If almonds were used instead, I might have added more almond extract to level up the taste. You’ll need a food processor to finely ground the nuts.
How To Make Italian Wedding Cookies {Step-By-Step Recipe}
Step 1: Grind The Pecans
Pulse the pecans in a food processor until finely ground. Note: you can lightly toast the pecans first, if you’d like. This will give the cookies a stronger, nutty flavor (I don’t always do this). And yes, you can finely chop the pecans by hand.
Step 2: Cream The Butter & Sugar
You’ll need a stand mixer for this. Cream the butter and powdered sugar for ~1-2 minutes. Then add the vanilla and almond extract. I love the way this aromatic combo smells!
Step 3: Add The Dry Ingredients
Now pour in the flour and ground nuts. This is easy…
Step 4: Shape The Cookies
Do this with a cookie scoop. I never bake cookies without this handy little tool (I use it to shape the meatballs for my Italian Wedding Soup too). Or, use a rounded tablespoonful and roll the dough with your hands to create little balls.
Step 5: Bake
I’ve found that baking the cookies one tray at a time works best @ 350 F for 13-15 minutes, or until the underside is light golden brown. The tops will be slightly pale which will seem odd, but it’s correct.
Step 6: Cool The Cookies
Set aside at least 20 minutes for the cookies to cool before dusting with powdered sugar. Otherwise the cookies will absorb too much of the sugar when warm, and won’t look very snowy.
Step 7: Coat With Powdered Sugar
Dust with a generous amount of powdered sugar using a fine mesh sieve or shaker. Then toss gently to coat with a large spoon. Place on a wire rack and dust again, as needed to cover.
What I did wrong: try not to use your hands to coat the cookies! The minute they come into contact with slightly warm cookies, the powdered sugar will melt.
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Melt-In-Your-Mouth Italian Wedding Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 40–42 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven-Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Tender, light as a cloud, 6-ingredient Italian wedding cookies made from scratch. Ingredients include: pecans, salted butter, powdered sugar, flour, vanilla & almond extract. This is my master recipe. Use it to make inspired variations with almonds, walnuts, pistachios and more.
Ingredients
- 120 g (1 heaping cup) pecan halves
- 227 g (16 tbsp.) salted Kerry Gold butter, cold, cut into cubes
- 80 g (~ 3/4 cup) powdered sugar
- 250 g (2 cups, lightly spooned and leveled) Trader Joe’s Organic all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. almond extract
Notes & Tips:
- Weigh your ingredients using a digital kitchen scale for best results.
- If swapping nuts, go by the weight amount (not measuring cups). For example, swap 100 g of pecans for 100 g of walnuts. Nuts are different sizes and weights, and will measure differently!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line (2x) baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- Pulse the pecans in a food processor until finely ground. Note: you can lightly toast the pecans first, if you’d like. This will give the cookies a stronger, nutty flavor (I don’t always do this).
- In a stand mixer, cream the butter and powdered sugar, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and almond extract.
- Add the flour and ground nuts.
- Using a cookie scoop, portion the dough onto your baking sheet. Alternatively, use a rounded tablespoonful to scoop, and roll the dough in between your palms to create little balls.
- Bake, one tray at a time, for 13-15 minutes until the underside is light golden brown. The tops will be slightly pale.
- Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for at least 15-20 minutes more before dusting with powdered sugar.
- To finish: place a small handful of cookies in a large bowl. Dust with a generous amount of powdered sugar using a fine mesh sieve or shaker. With a large serving spoon, toss gently to coat. Tip: try not to use your hands too much to coat; the minute they come into contact with slightly warm cookies, the powdered sugar will melt.
- Return to the wire rack, and repeat to finish coating the rest of the cookies.
- To finish, dust with more powdered sugar as needed.
Comments
Nancy says
Can I make ahead? What is the tip?
Amanda says
Hello! I am looking forward to trying this recipe! But just a little clarification. It says “227 g (8 tbsp.) salted Kerry Gold butter, cold, cut into cubes”
But 227g is 16 tbsp. So what is needed for the recipe, one stick or 2 sticks of butter? Thanks!!
Emilie Raffa says
Oh my goodness, good eye! It’s 16 tbsp butter (227 g). Fixed. And thank you 🥰