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Italian Christmas Cookies are soft, buttery, fluffy, and melt in your mouth delicious. Flavored with a hint of vanilla and a sweet glaze, these tasty treats are a perfect holiday treat. Take them to your next cookie exchange, party, or just for a fun occasion!
These will be perfect on a plate, along with some Christmas Gooey Butter Cookies, Christmas Crack, and Snow Kiss Cookies for a festive dessert platter. Everyone will love these, and you’ll love how easy they are to make!
Easy Italian Christmas Cookies
These Italian cookies are often made with anise, which is a licorice flavor. Not everyone loves that flavor, so I swapped it out for vanilla and topped it with an amazing almond glaze. They are fluffy, decadent, and very festive. They are a great cookie for kids to help with.
This recipe makes quite a big batch, which is perfect for gift-giving and having enough to eat, too. Plate them with these classic Linzer Cookies, these Peppermint Meltaways, or these Eggnog Cookies, and you will have the most delicious cookie plate that is perfect for Christmas!
Ingredients in Italian Christmas Cookies
Ricotta cheese is the secret ingredient for moist and tender cookies. Check out all of the ingredients at the bottom of the post for all of the exact measurements!
Cookies
- Butter: Soften the butter, but don’t melt it.
- Granulated Sugar: Gives the cookies the right amount of sugary sweetness.
- Eggs: The eggs bind all of the ingredients together.
- Extracts: Use both Vanilla extract and Almond extract for that extra-warm sweetness.
- Ricotta cheese: Ricotta cheese is the secret ingredient that makes these cookies nice and soft.
- Flour: I used all-purpose flour in this recipe.
- Baking Soda and Baking Powder: These leavening agents help make the cookies soft and fluffy.
- Salt: To enhance all the flavors.
Almond Glaze
- Powdered Sugar: This is the base of the glaze
- Milk: Add this slowly so you don’t make the glaze too runny.
- Almond Extract: This gives the Italian Christmas cookies an almond taste.
- Sprinkles: I use red and green for Christmas but feel free to change those up and serve these all year round.
How to Make Italian Christmas Cookies
These cookies are simple to make, and I love adding on different sprinkles. In fact, change up the sprinkles with different colors, and you can use them all year long!
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the eggs, vanilla, and ricotta and mix until fully incorporated.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt before slowly adding to the sugar mixture until all the flour is fully incorporated.
- Scoop teaspoons of dough and roll them into uniform balls before placing them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2-inches between them.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes before removing from the oven. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Almond Glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, milk, and almond extract together until smooth.
- Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze and immediately sprinkle with Christmas sprinkles. Set the cookies aside until the glaze has dried before serving.
Tips and Variations
These Italian Christmas cookies are sure to please any crowd. Here are some tips so yours turn out perfectly every time.
- Add the milk to the glaze slowly: Add a tablespoon of milk one at a time to get the desired consistency instead of all at once. You can make it thick or thin, depending on what you like.
- Sprinkles: Change the color of the sprinkles for the holiday or occasion. You could use black and orange for Halloween or pink or blue for a baby shower. You can serve these cookies any time of the year despite their title!
- Flavoring: These are very flexible cookies. Change out the vanilla extract for peppermint, almond, coconut, or any other flavoring, and add a complimentary flavoring in the icing, orange, cocoa, etc.
- Don’t overbake: These shouldn’t be brown on top. If you overbake them, they will turn out to be dry.
- How to glaze the cookies: If you glaze these Italian Christmas cookies while they are slightly warm, the glaze can seep into the cookie! Always decorate with your sprinkles right after you glaze so that they’ll stick.
- Scoop: If you have one, use a cookie scoop so they are the same size; they’ll cook easier that way.
Storing Leftovers
These Italian Christmas cookies are so delicious you won’t be able to stop at one! This recipe makes a lot, so this is how you can store leftovers:
- At Room Temperature: Let the cookies set for up to 24 hours before transferring to an airtight container. Letting them set up will keep the glaze from becoming wet and slimy. They will last for about 5-7 days when stored at room temperature.
- In the Freezer: Once the cookies are cooled and before you add the glaze, place them in an airtight container or ziplock bag (label it with the date), and they will last for about 2 months. Glaze the frozen cookies after they are thawed.
More Festive Christmas Cookies
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Italian Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup whole milk ricotta drained for about an hour
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Almond Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- Christmas sprinkles for topping
Instructions
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the eggs, vanilla, and ricotta and mix until fully incorporated.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt before slowly adding to the sugar mixture until all the flour is fully incorporated.
- Scoop teaspoons of dough and roll them into uniform balls before placing them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2-inches between them.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes before removing from the oven. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Almond Glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, milk, and almond extract together until smooth.
- Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze and immediately sprinkle with Christmas sprinkles. Set the cookies aside until the glaze has dried before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Why are my cookies coming out flat? I roll them as stated and then bake on middle rack. They keep flattening out!
Hi Carrie, did you drain your ricotta? If the ricotta has too much moisture it will flatten out the cookies.
Hi! Can you use almond flour instead of all purpose flour. If so, would I need to adjust any of the other ingredients? Thank you
I am a seasoned baker and cook. I was excited to make these for my after-Christmas Party. I made two batches because I wanted a lot of cookies. I had a lot of cookies that I thought had zero taste! The dough was not easy to work with either. I would not recommend these cookies and will never make them again. Very disappointed. I will stick to my tried and true recipes like spritz, Mexican wedding cakes, and sugar cookies. I wasted a lot of product and I threw every single cookie out!!!!
This will be my third Xmas making them and they’re always a hit!!
May I make this dough a head of time and put it in the fridge to bake the next day?
Yes you can!
I plan on making this recipe during the holidays. My concern is the cookie yield. A similar recipe with same ingredients, had a yield of 8 dozen. Your recipe calls for 2 dozen. Does it then come down to the size of your rolled drops? Walnut sized vs. teaspoon. Either way, I plan on using my smaller scoop.
Yes, it depends on the cookie size.
Has anyone ever used cottage cheese in place of ricotta? Several times in other recipes I have replaced ricotta with c.c. ,& worked out ok. Thanks. S.S.