This traditional Italian Butter Cookies recipe is perfect for your Christmas cookie tray. The homemade butter cookies are somewhat moist (not hard and dry,) buttery and crumbly with three varieties of decorating that’s easy and fun to make with basic ingredients. Some are raspberry jam-filled sandwich cookies dipped in chocolate with rainbow sprinkles and others have candied cherries.
It’s that time of year when the weather is cooler, Christmas music is playing in stores, and there’s a feeling in the air that the holiday season is here. Soon, you’ll get out your baking supplies and start making delicious Christmas cookies.
Nothing beats fresh, homemade cookies made with quality ingredients and hand picked decorations in the color of your choosing. This recipe is made with a buttery dough similar to my Best and Easy Christmas Butter Cookie Recipe. Plus, they’re just as fun to make as eat.
I’d call these bakery style cookies however, traditional Italian cookies that you buy from a grocery store can be hard, dry and sometimes tasteless because of all of the preservatives.
Unless you go to a good Italian bakery, you may be left with dry and even stale cookies. You don’t know how long they’ve been sitting there, day-after-day, aging like the lettuce bags in my refrigerator.
This easy recipe includes Italian sandwich cookies that are made with seedless raspberry jam and dipped in melted chocolate with rainbow sprinkles. They’re super delicious!
Some of the cookies are just half dipped in chocolate and sprinkles while others are simply topped with a candied cherry. The best part is that you decide how many you want dipped in chocolate. If it were up to me, they’d all be dipped in chocolate!
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Italian Butter Cookies Recipe
*The full, printable recipe is in the recipe card below.
Cookie Dough Ingredients
- salted butter
- white sugar
- egg yolks
- vanilla extract
- salt
- all purpose flour
- milk
In summary, you will make the buttery dough.
Then, pipe the cookies and then bake them.
Don’t worry if you make a mistake piping them because you can dip that side in melted chocolate or colorful sprinkles.
Note: If you’re using candied half cherries, you’ll put them on before you bake the cookies otherwise they won’t stick on them. Also, if you plan to decorate some cookies with only sprinkles (without the chocolate,) you’ll need to put the sprinkles on BEFORE baking them or they won’t stick to the cookies.
Then, you’ll cool the cookies on wire racks and start decorating them.
The detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.
Decorating Ingredients
- seedless raspberry jam
- rainbow sprinkles
- semi sweet chocolate chips or chocolate baking bars
- red candied cherries (or red and green)
Tools
- large pastry bag or piping bag
- large open star tip
- cookie sheets
I love chocolate so I dipped the majority of the butter cookies into the melted chocolate. But, it’s up to you how many you want to make into sandwiches with a jam center or dip or not dip into chocolate.
If you’re not a fan of candied cherries than simply omit them and top the cookies with colorful sprinkles instead.
Also, I’ve included a little more chocolate than you need (unless you’re dipping every cookie) because it’s hard to dip the cookies when the melted chocolate isn’t deep enough.
Cool cookies completely on a wire rack before decorating them.
Store the cookies in an airtight container so they don’t get stale. You can freeze them for later.
How to Freeze Cookies
Let the cookies get to room temperature. Use an airtight container and put the cookies in there in a single layer and then separated by wax paper or a sheet of parchment paper to put in multiple layers. They will hold up well in the freezer for several weeks.
Get the ingredients you need at the grocery store and make this Italian butter cookie recipe not only for Christmas but, for special occasions. They’d make great Italian Easter cookies too. Add this to your cookie recipes. They look beautiful on a dessert table.
You may also like:
Best and Easy Christmas Butter Cookie Recipe
Italian Anise Christmas Cookies Recipe
Raspberry Almond Butter Cookies
White Chocolate Cranberry Macadamia Shortbread Cookies
See more COOKIES recipes.
Traditional Italian Butter Cookies Recipe
Equipment
- large piping bag
- large star tip you may also need a coupler to hold it in place
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tbsp milk
Decorating
- 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
- 2.25 oz rainbow sprinkles
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate
- 4 oz candied cherry halves (red and green)
Instructions
Cookie Dough
- First, preheat oven to 350F.
- Next, to a large mixing bowl, add butter (1/2 cup) and sugar (1/2 cup.) Mix until creamy.
- Then, add the two egg yolks, salt and almond (1/2 tsp) and vanilla (1 tsp) extracts and mix.
- Next, add one cup of flour at a time (total two cups) and mix followed by milk (2 tbsp.) Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. It will be thick.
- Then, put the cookie dough into a piping bag with the large star tip attached.
- Next, put parchment paper or silicone baking mats on baking sheets.
- Then, pipe and equal number of two-inch strips (to make sandwich cookies.)
- Next, pipe twelve round cookies. Place candied cherry halves in the middle.
- Then, pipe the remaining cookie dough into round cookies or long cookies if you prefer.
- Next, bake cookies for eleven minutes at 350F. Allow to cool completely on wire racks before decorating.
Cookie Decorating
- First, put sprinkles in a shallow bowl. Line cooled cookie sheets with wax paper or use the parchment paper cookies were baked upon.
- Next, put the seedless raspberry jam into a shallow bowl and stir it. Gently spread it onto the flat side of half of the long cookies in which you want to make sandwiches. Top with the other cookies.
- Then, melt the chocolate in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Stir to make creamy.
- Next, dip one end of sandwich cookies into the the melted chocolate and immediately dip into the rainbow sprinkles. Place on wax paper or parchment paper lined cookie sheets for cooling.
- Then, dip half of the round cookies into the melted chocolate and immediately dip into the rainbow sprinkles. Place on wax paper or parchment paper lined cookie sheets for cooling.
