Italian Cookies Recipes & Websites

If you still have a celebration or two coming up and are like me, a fan of Italian Cookies, here is the list of Italian Cookie recipes from my library (Italian Delicacy, Anise, Biscotti, Expresso, Fruit, Pignolia, Ricotta Zuccarines). Some recipes highlight only the ingredients to narrow down your search. If you have additional questions about the recipes shown here, email: deestephenson@comcast.net. In addition, the websites below are to help widen your search for Italian cookies. You may want to bookmark or copy the recipes from these ancestral sites, current sites, favorite newspapers, blogs and magazines as they move quickly.

Anise Cookies
2 c. sugar
3 eggs
4 tbsp. butter
½ c. finely chopped almonds
½ c. citron (finely chopped)
1 tsp. anise seed
1 tsp. baking powder
Mix together and let stand over night in a long roll, (covered with cloth to prevent drying). Slice and bake. - Lenore Mueller, Fun in the Kitchen, 1949, page 112

Expresso Thumbprint Cookies
A cookie batter made from sugar, butter, vanilla, 1 egg, all purpose flour, unsweetened baking cocoa, ¼ teaspoon salt + the Espresso Filling makes 3 ½ dozen cookies. - Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook – 2006 General Mills, page 135

Ricotta Zuccarines
Cookies are made with 2 cups Ricotta, margarine, sugar, vanilla, 3 eggs, flour, baking soda, salt and for the icing, sugar, soft butter and vanilla (variations may include milk, vanilla or anise extract).
Recipes from First Presbyterian Church- 1988, page 70

Italian Cookies
Butter, sugar, 6 eggs, nuts, vanilla, baking powder and flour for the ingredients.
A Taste of Jersey – 1977, page 92- “The plain ones are our favorites.” -Ann Curcio

Fruit Nut Cookies
70 calories made from brown sugar, 1 egg, decaffeinated coffee, fresh lemon, flour, rolled oats, walnuts and raisins.
Cooking For The Health of It, 1983, page 139

Italian Biscotti Cookies
“Italian biscotti cookies take 6 eggs, 2 c. sugar, 2 sticks unsalted butter, 1 tsp. anise extract, 5 c. flour, 3 tsp. baking powder, 1 egg yolk and 1 Tbsp. milk. For just Italian Cookies, sugar, butter, eggs, brandy, vanilla, lemon extract, flour, salt, baking powder, milk and sesame seed.”
A Cookbook of Treasures, page 123-124, Dolores L. Commune

Pasteli
This cookie is made with ground walnuts, ground zwieback, cinnamon, sugar, orange blossom honey, water, sesame seed, browned.
(I included this Greek recipe because someone referenced making an Italian cookie with a Greek filling.)
Treasured Greek Recipes, 1999, page 120

Christmas Cookies (Anise Drops)
Ingredients are 4 eggs, 2 cups of sugar, ¼ tsp. Salt, 1 tsp. Anise flour, 2 ½ cups flour and ½ tsp. baking powder.
What’s COOKING at St. Lukes, page 152
Elfrieda Von Rohr Sauer said these cookies are, “Unusual and delicious.”

Pignolia Cookies
“Butter, sugar, vanilla and egg, milk, flour, baking powder and salt and pignolia (fine) nuts. Bake 8-10 minutes.”
New Jersey Association of the Deaf, Inc Cookbook, page 24-Mabel Schwing

Anise Drops (A recipe borrowed from Germany)
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon anise seed
Beat the Egg and sugar for ½ hour. (“This times if quite important’”) Add the flour and anise seed and mix well. Drop batter from teaspoon onto greased baking sheet in drops the size of a walnut. Decorate with colored sugar. Cover with a sheet of waxed paper and let stand at room temperature 8 hours or overnight.
Bake in 300 degree oven about 15 minutes. These should be made to store for 2 or 3 weeks before using. Keep them in a tightly covered tin box with an apple. With good luck, the cookies have a hollow bubble in the top. Very different and delicately flavored!
A World of Eating, 1951, page 57

Italian Delicacy
Dough Mixture
6 cups of Crisco
2 cups flour, sifted
¼ tsp. salt
Red wine-about ¾ cup
Sift flour and salt together, cut in Crisco until like coarse cornmeal. Add enough wine to hold dough together and roll out as pie crust. Cut in strips 2 in. long and ½ in. wide and fry in hot shortening. Place on paper sheets after frying.
St. Joseph’s Cook Book, page 85

NUT COOKIES
“Combine 1 lb. sweet, butter, 1 lb. chopped walnuts, 2 cups flour and 2 cups powdered sugar. Roll into crescent shape and bake at 350 degree for half hour.”
378 Recipes From Hunterdon’s Kitchens, 1949, page 26-Theresa Kannapes

Italian Filled Cookie Recipe
Uncle Phaedrus’s website has a lot of hard-to-find recipes. There are over 22 Italian cookies recipes by Italian names. The following was taken from Uncle Phaedrus. “Years ago, my Italian grandmother baked a crescent shaped pastry...the filling resembled Greek pastries….”
http://hungrybrowser.com

Naras Biscotti Recipe
Blog has recipe, photo and happy comment.“They taste exactly like my Grandmother Frances!”
http://foodfamilyandvino.com/2011/12/12/the-great-food-blogger-cookie-swap-2011-naras-biscotti/

Pignoli Cookies Recipe
“Given to my mom by her sweet Italian coworker, Josephine.”
http://myitaliangrandmother.blogspot.com/2011/12/pignoli-cookies.html

Almond Pine Nut Cookies (Amaretti con Pinoli)
By Lidia
http://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/detail/744

Sicilian Fig Cookies
Peter Bocchieri, “They are delicious… great with a cup of coffee, Italian or American, or a glass of milk.
www.cooking italiancomfortfood.wordpress.com
http://blogs.dailyrecord.com/italianfood/2011/02/12/sicilian-fig-cookies/

Ricotta Cheese Cookies
Good Housekeeping Corrected, “Use baking powder, not baking soda shown in the recipe. A great variation is to crush pecans or walnuts in the food processor and after you ice the cookies press the icing into the crushed nuts.”
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/ricotta-cheese-cookies-645

ANGINETTI (LEMON DROP COOKIES)
This is one of many Italian recipe collections at The Recipe Link.
http://www.recipelink.com/mf/2/5309

The History of Cookies Biscotti
According to the Arnott Biscuit Company: Biscuit dates back to Rome, from the Latin word ‘bis coctum’ which mean twiced baked.Other countries have their version of this cookie - Dutch rusk, French biscotte, and the German zwieback.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CookieHistory.htm

Biscotti Fennel Pollen Style
“Credit to my grandmother, Josephine Altieri….plain, but great with your espresso in the morning.
http://www.pollenranch.com/blog/recipes/biscotti-fennel-pollen-style/

Cookies
New York Times
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/cookies/recipes/index.html

FOOD; Holiday Biscotti for Dipping or Munching
Copy an Almond Biscotti Recipe here.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/12/nyregion/food-holiday-biscotti-for-dipping-or-munching.html

Pesche - Italian Peach Wedding Cookies Recipes
“Lovely little cookies traditionally served at weddings in a small Italian village brought back from my great Italian aunt.”
http://www.food.com/recipeprint.do?rid=100104

Italian Wedding Cooking Recipe
7 easy ingredients
No eggs
“This was the first cookie I was allowed to bake on my own.”-Lisa
http://www.italian-dessert-recipes.com/italian_wedding_cookie_recipe.html