These classic Italian Wedding Cookies are melt in your mouth perfection. Soft, buttery, sweet, and rolled in a snowy layer of powdered sugar. They’re the kind of festive cookie that disappears fast from every holiday tray, thanks to their rich nutty flavor and tender, crumbly texture.
Why You’ll Love These Italian Wedding Cookies
These Italian Wedding Cookies are straight from my Grandma’s recipe box, and they’ve been a holiday staple in our family for years. Her secret? She used walnuts instead of pecans and we think it gives these cookies a richer, toastier, nuttier flavor.
- Tender and melt in your mouth: These cookies have a crumbly, buttery texture that practically dissolves when you eat them.
- Walnuts that sets them apart: Walnuts add a deep, cozy rich flavor that you don’t get from pecans.
- Perfect for holidays and gifting: Easy to make in big batches for Christmas cookie platters or gifting to friends.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Just a few basic, pantry staple ingredients is all you need to get started with this classic cookie recipe!
- Finely Ground Walnuts: You can substitute pecans or almonds, but our grandma always used walnuts. We like to pulse them a few times in a food processor to get them super fine, almost like a flour.
- Butter: Salted or unsalted, we always use salted butter.
- Powdered Sugar: Or confectioners sugar, used in the recipe and for dusting the cookies after baking.
- Egg: Sometimes our grandma didn’t use an egg if she didn’t have one handy, so you can omit it. But adding just one egg helps hold the cookies together a bit more.
- Vanilla Extract: Real vanilla extract, and a good amount of it. Two tablespoons are added to this recipe.
- Salt: Just a touch of salt to balance the sweet flavor.
How To Make
Only a few steps and you’ll be on your way to the most delicious Italian Wedding Cookies, straight from grandma’s recipe box!
- Cream butter and sugar: Using a stand mixer or a handheld beater, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix again.
- Add the ground walnuts, salt, and both vanilla and almond extracts (almond extract not shown in photo because you can just vanilla if you like) and mix to combine. Add the flour in batches until the dough forms.
- Roll and bake: Make 2 tablespoon balls of dough (a little smaller than a golf ball) and place them spaced apart on an baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes until slightly golden brown. Remove to a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes before decorating.
- Decorate: Decorate the cookies with powdered sugar for a classic finish, and/or ice and cover with sprinkles. We like to do a combination of both!
Can You Freeze Italian Wedding Cookies?
Yes, Italian Wedding Cookies freeze really well and you can do it in a couple of different ways. Here’s how to do it:
- Bake and Freeze: Bake the cookies and let cool. Dust with powdered sugar and place in a single layer in a freezer bag or on a baking sheet. Freeze until firm, then the cookies can be stacked. When you defrost the cookies, dust again with powdered sugar.
- Freeze the Dough: Roll the dough into balls and freeze in a single layer until solid, then store in a freezer bag. Bake right from frozen, just add another 2 minutes to the cooking time.
Variations
Like we mentioned before, you can swap out the nuts for pecans, almonds, or even pistachios or hazelnuts. Just make sure that you grind them up finely in a food processor. We love the addition my grandma adds of just a hint of almond extract but you can omit that if you like.
You can decorate these cookies any way you like! Keep them classic with powdered sugar or ice them and add any kind of decoration or sprinkle to fit your holiday or theme.
Looking For More Cookie Recipes?
- Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
- Grandma’s Spritz Cookies
- Grandma’s Nut Cups
- Polish Cream Cheese Cookies
- Bourbon Iced Molasses Cookies
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Italian Wedding Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 3 dozen 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeSoft, buttery Italian Wedding Cookies that melt in your mouth! Made with finely ground nuts and rolled in powdered sugar, these classic snowball cookies are perfect for Christmas baking, holiday cookie trays, and gifting.
Ingredients
- 1 1 /2 cups butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar (plus extra for coating the cookies when finished)
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups finely ground walnuts (or pecans or almonds see note*)
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour
For the icing:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1–2 tablespoons of milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cream the butter and the powdered sugar together using a stand mixer (you can also use a hand held electric mixer) until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until combined.
- Mix in the salt, walnuts and the vanilla and almond extracts. Add the flour in batches and mix until combined.
- Form the dough into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball (about 2 tablespoons). Place on an un-greased cookie sheet, spaced apart, and bake for 15-17 minutes until very lightly golden brown.
- Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool for at least 15 minutes before decorating. Dust the cookies with powdered sugar and/or ice the cookies and top with sprinkles if desired.
To make the icing:
- Add the powdered sugar to a bowl along with 1 tablespoon of milk and the extract. Whisk until smooth, adding more milk if needed.
Recipe Notes
For the walnuts, I purchased a 6 ounce bag of walnuts (halves and pieces) and that equalled approximately 1 1/2 cups of finely ground walnuts. Add the whole bag to a food processor and pulse until finely ground.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American / Italian
