This delicious Italian anise cookies recipe is a traditional Christmas recipe with tender cookies dipped in a a tasty anise glaze then topped with nonpareils. They’re one of my absolute favorite cookies.
They’re EASY-to-make and a great addition to a holiday cookie tray any time of year but, especially for Christmas and Easter. This recipe is much like my Italian Glazed Lemon Cookies!
Try my Italian Wine Cookies that are flavored with anise too!
Italian Cookie Recipes
Coming from a 100% Italian family, I’m pretty good with Italian cooking as my friends use me as an Italian cooking resource.
My parents were (R.I.P.) Italian immigrants after all and my mother was an excellent Italian home cook… like gourmet level! Luckily and thankfully, I inherited the cooking gene!
Italian cookies are a given in Italian households both in America and in Italy. This Christmas tradition has been passed down through generations.
My family LOVES these cookies, especially my boys. They’re part of our family traditions.
These traditional Italian cookies are so good that we just can’t wait until Christmas to eat them so, we make them at Easter too.
They’re also known as Italian anisette cookies. If you’ve never heard of anisette, you guessed it- It’s a liqueur made with anise.
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links which means, if you make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission but, the price you pay is the same.
Anise Christmas Cookies Recipe
You don’t need anise seeds to make this recipe. you just need a bottle of anise extract to give your cookies good anise flavor. You’ll need a teaspoon anise extract for the cookie dough and another teaspoon for the icing.
By the way, you will not need vanilla extract for this recipe, which may come as a surprise.
Anise Cookies have a somewhat moist cookie center (if not overbaked) and flavored with anise extract in the cookie dough as well as the glaze.
Ingredients
*The full, printable recipe is in the recipe card below where you can adjust the servings.
*Amazon affiliate links are below.
- butter
- sugar
- milk
- anise extract
- eggs
- all purpose flour
- baking powder
- salt
Cookie Decorating Ingredients
- powdered sugar
- anise extract
- milk
- Christmas nonpareils
Summary Instructions
*The full, printable recipe is in the recipe card below where you can adjust the servings.
First, preheat oven to 350F.
Then, make the cookie dough. Roll it into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mats. Bake for 10-11 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the anise glaze. Then, dip a cookie into the glaze and immediately sprinkle with nonpareils so they stick otherwise they will not. Repeat for each cookie. Allow to cool before storing.
Storage
Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to a week for maximum freshness but, they’ll last longer.
Learn how to store, freeze and thaw cookies!
Baking Pro Tips
- Measure ingredients accurately. The flour should not be heaping. Use a knife to spread off excess flour off of the measuring cup.
- Do not overbake your cookies. They’ll come out dry. Monitor them closely.
- Do not use liquid measuring cups for dry ingredients.
- Know your oven. Cookies on the top rack of the oven will brown faster than the bottom rack. Pull them out first and move the bottom rack to the top and set the timer for a bit longer until they’re done.
- Every time you open your oven, heat escapes. Don’t leave it open longer than you need to and add a little extra time for cookies to bake because the oven needs to reach the set temperature again.
- Storing your cookies properly– in air tight containers, keeps them fresher longer.
- Be sure not to add the icing to this cookie recipe until they’ve cooled and reached room temperature.
Substitutions
- Use sprinkles instead of nonpareils or omit them if you wish. This Wilton Holiday Mix contains both and I use it.
- If someone in your family doesn’t like anise, you can substitute lemon or almond extract instead in the same amounts and make two batches. You may also halve this recipe and use 1/2 tsp of lemon or almond extract for half the dough and glaze and 1/2 tsp of anise extract for the other half of the dough and glaze. Hope that’s not confusing.
Italian Anise Cookies are so, so delicious and one of my most popular recipes!! What’s more is they’re easy-to-make! They’re the perfect addition to your holiday cookie tray all year round but, especially for Christmas.
Be sure to try my Italian Glazed Lemon Cookies too! They’re very similar but, with lemon flavoring instead of anise.
Make them for Easter too and use pastel nonpareils!
You may also like
Best Italian Glazed Lemon Cookies Recipe
Easy Italian Wine Cookies (Ciambelline al Vino) (anise flavored)
Italian Easter Bread Pane di Pasqua
Italian Anise Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup softened, butter (one stick)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp anise extract
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp nonpareils (any color desired)
Anise Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp anise extract (or 1/2 tsp if you prefer)
- 2 tbsp milk (or slightly more)
Instructions
- First, preheat oven to 325F.
- Next, cream butter: Add sugar and softened butter to a large mixing bowl and mix until combined.
- Then, add wet ingredients: one teaspoon of the anise extract, milk and eggs one at a time while mixing.
- Next, add about 1/2 cup of flour at a time and mix until combined.
- Then, add baking powder and salt and mix.
- Next, line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Then, make cookie dough balls with one and a half tbsp or so of cookie dough and place them on the cookie sheets in three rows of four. There should be twelve cookies per baking sheet. These cookies do not spread out a lot. Place cookie dough two inches apart.
- Next, bake cookies at 325F for 10-15 minutes. The top of the cookies should not look wet. Insert a toothpick in the middle of some cookies to ensure cookies are fully baked. Toothpick should come out clean.
- Then, cool cookies for 10 minutes before decorating.
Anise Glaze
- In a small mixing bowl add powdered sugar, milk and the other teaspoon (or less if you prefer) of the anise extract. Stir until smooth. You may need to add a little (start with 1/2 tsp) more milk if the mixture is too thick. It's easy to add to much milk. If this happens, add more powdered sugar one tsp at a time until the mixture is thicker.
Cookie Decoration
- First, dip the top of a cooled cookie into anise glaze and twist cookie to cover the top entirely.
- Next, either dip the cookie into a small bowl of nonpareils (or sprinkles if you prefer) or use your fingers to sprinkle the nonpareils on top of you want to limit the number of nonpareils used.
Notes
Storage:
Store cookies in an air tight container in the refrigerator up to 5 days, as icing contains milk and is therefore perishable.Freezer:
While decorated cookies are on the baking/cookie sheets, place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Then, remove from cookie sheets and place in gallon freezer bags for up 6 months.Did You Make This Recipe?
If you made this recipe don’t forget to leave a review!
That’s great. Thanks for the 5-star rating!
Just made these cookies. My husband say they are just like his Nana’s so, there you have it!
That’s great Sue. Thanks for the 5-star rating!
What do the cookies look like? Do they have a glaze on them? If the recipe has a quart of milk for 4 cups of flour, that’s a lot of milk. What did they taste like? Was there anise in them? I need more info but, I may be able to figure it out. This sounds like an Italian American recipe rather than straight from Italy but, I can probably find out with more info.
Looking for help with a recipe. It came from an Italian family and on top of the page it had Dago cookies. It was a large recipe it called for 4# flour, and a quart of milk I know these items for sure. It had a small amount of cocoa powder, cinnamon, eggs . I can’t remember anything else with the recipe . Someone borrowed it and lost it and I been trying for years to try and find someone with the recipe .
Delicious! Tastes just like my grandmom’s cookies!
Hi Lynne. It could be due to a number of reasons. Is your baking powder old? The butter or cookie dough could be too warm. The dough should be cold, not room temperature. The butter shouldn’t be melted or warm. It should be softened. It could be because the flour wasn’t measured properly. Not enough flour could flatten them. Do any of these sound like it could be it?
What did I do wrong. They didn’t stay round balls. They flattened
Hi Barrie. I happen to make these yesterday too and am reminded how much I LOVE them! I’m glad you enjoyed them and thanks for the 5-star rating!
Yes, almond extract will be very nice for this recipe. I also have a lemon version of this recipe.
I really enjoyed making these! This was my first time making anise cookies. The double recipe was easy to follow, and I yielded 60 nice size cookies using a one tablespoon cookie scoop. After decorating , I froze them to use on my cookie platter gifts for my neighbors & friends. My husband loves them and I will definitely be making these again!
Great recipe and your tips were very helpful! Think I might try same recipe with almond extract in place of anise for those that do not like anise.
Hi Lisa. I love this cookie recipe too! Thanks for the 5-star rating.
The cookies turned out great! I froze them to serve in 2 weeks. Thank you for posting this recipe.
Hi Karen. You can try that but, some people don’t like too much anise or not at all so make them to your liking.
You’re welcome Cheryl. Merry Christmas and thanks for the 5-star rating!
My favorite cookie and this is a great recipe! Thank you!
we would like to double the anise amount in both
Hi Cheryl. I’ve never used anise star to make these cookies however, if you want to try it, one anise star is about equivalent to one teaspoon of anise extract. Anise star has a stronger flavor so you may want to dial it back a bit if you don’t like a strong anise flavor. I hope this helps. Come back and let me know how it turns out.
can I use fresh anise star?