20+ Italian Christmas Cookie Recipes (2024)

Credit: Randy Mayor; Lydia DeGaris-Pursell

The holidays are a perfect time to bust out one of these Italian Christmas cookie recipes. Whether you're making pizzelle, biscotti, or amaretti, these cookies will spread lots of cheer.

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Pizzelle Cookies Recipe

Despite their intricate appearance, pizzelle cookies are surprisingly easy to make. You’ll just need a special baker (we like the Cucina Pro Piccolo Pizzelle Baker), or at least a pizzelle iron. They’re super crispy and light, much like thin a sugar cone with a hint of vanilla. Pizzelle cookies make a great dessert, but they’re also perfect for holiday snacking.

Orange-Infused Cherry-Almond Biscotti

Orange-Infused Cherry-Almond Biscotti Recipe

You can make these cookies up to a week ahead and store them at room temperature in an airtight container. When buying dried cherries, look for those without added sugar. Serve with coffee or tea.

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Italian Christmas Cookies Recipe

No need to buy a tray of Italian Christmas cookies this year—they’re easy to make and all the ingredients are readily available. The cookie itself is not overly sweet and has a cakey texture, so the sweetness really banks on the icing. We used almond extract in our recipe, but you can also use anise. In order to work with it, you’ll need to chill the dough, so don’t skip that step. Decorate these with the kids for a family-friendly holiday activity.

Amaretti

Amaretti Recipe

Package these crunchy cookies in a gift box with a pound of your favorite coffee beans. Look for almond paste on your supermarket's baking aisle, and for best results, don't substitute marzipan, which is sweeter and more finely textured, in place of the paste.

Coffee-Hazelnut Biscotti

Coffee-Hazelnut Biscotti Recipe

Iced Gingerbread Biscotti

Iced Gingerbread Biscotti Recipe

Be sure to let the cookie logs cool after the first bake so they slice cleanly and don't crumble.

Italian Cheese Cookies

Italian Cheese Cookies Recipe

These delightfully decadent cookies are the perfect sweet treat to finish a zesty main course.

Pine Nut Cookies

Pine Nut Cookies Recipe

Cookies may seem like one of the simplest things to bake, but they offer so many examples of what can go wrong. Lighter cookies can be even trickier because less fat means less moisture. Light cookies require precise measuring of flour—weighing is most accurate. Just a smidge too much turns a perfect cookie into a doorstop! Almond paste is an ingenious way to flavor, tenderize, and sweeten our Pine Nut Cookies because it won't cause spreading like excess sugar or warm butter will. And be sure to pull light cookies from the oven a bit sooner than you would full-fat ones—they tend to go from perfectly toasty to overbrowned quickly.

Apricot-Chocolate-Almond Biscotti

Apricot-Chocolate-Almond Biscotti Recipe

These biscotti are crumbly delivery systems for chewy apricot bits, hunks of dark chocolate, and crunchy almonds. Prep and Cook Time: 1 1/2 hours.

Vanilla Baci di Dama

Vanilla Baci di Dama Recipe

With a translation of “lady kisses,” these vanilla-infused sandwich cookies are rich, sweet and satisfying.

Cardamom-Pistachio Biscotti

Cardamom-Pistachio Biscotti Recipe

Chocolate-Cinnamon Biscotti

Chocolate-Cinnamon Biscotti Recipe

Almond Crescents

Almond Crescents Recipe

The crescent shape of these cookies is a little more trouble, but it makes them unique.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Biscotti

Chocolate-Hazelnut Biscotti Recipe

Prep and Cook Time: about 1 1/2 hours. Notes: To toast the hazelnuts, place whole nuts in a baking pan and bake in a 350° oven until golden brown under skins, 10 to 12 minutes. Pour nuts onto a clean kitchen towel and rub to remove loose skins. Lift nuts from towel (discard skins). You can store these chocolate-coated cookies airtight for up to 3 days.

Italian Lemon Drop Cookies

Italian Lemon Drop Cookies Recipe

Pizzelles

Pizzelles Recipe

At last, the beloved cookie is now gluten-free friendly! You'll need a pizzelle iron to make these delicate Italian waffle cookies. Prepare the recipe using the Cannoli Shell Variation to make delicious cannoli.

Italian Christmas Cookies

Italian Christmas Cookies Recipe

These traditional Italian Christmas Cookies are filled with figs and topped with a sweet white icing. You'll often see these popular cookies covered in festive holiday sprinkles or colored sugars, so add sprinkles if you like. We used red, green and white sprinkles which are certainly Christmas colors and also the colors of the Italian flag.

Coconut Biscotti

Coconut Biscotti Recipe

Standing the cookies eliminates the traditional step of flipping them halfway through baking. Chocolate lovers can stir 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips into the batter or dip half of each cookie into melted chocolate.

Pine Nut Biscotti

Pine Nut Biscotti Recipe

Crunchy and lightly sweet, these are great with espresso or French roast coffee after dinner. Though any nuts will work, pine nuts offer sophisticated taste.

Amaretti Cookies

Amaretti Cookies Recipe

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Sicilian Dried Fruit and Nut Bars (Cuccidati) Recipe

Instead of making traditional, individually shaped cuccidati, Sunset reader Marilyn Perata Berg came up with a simplified bar cookie technique to fill and shape her recipe.

Chocolate-Cherry Biscotti

Chocolate-Cherry Biscotti Recipe

Our Test Kitchens staffers found that using a serrated knife works best for cutting the rolls after the first bake time. If you're a fan of dried cranberries, they make a great substitute for dried cherries.