Italian Holiday Cookies

A twist on my grandmother's pizzelle recipe. These are made with chocolate!

With notes of citrus from fresh orange juice and lemon zest, the unique and richly spiced filling is wrapped inside a buttery sugar cookie dough that’s a dream to work with.

This rich chocolate variation of my popular amaretti morbidi cookies will delight your tastebuds.

I don’t think there is one household in Italy that doesn’t make cookies with pasta frolla. It is one of the must have pastry dough bases of every Pastry Store in the country. And I am sure everyone has their own recipe and method of making it.

Have you ever seen an Italian cookie tray, whether it’s at a wedding, baptism, first communion or other family gathering without pizzelle? I don’t think it’s possible!
Classic pizzelle are flavored with anise extract or oil. However I’m partial to my mother’s pizzelle recipe subtley flavored with lemon zest and vanilla.

Haven’t heard of biscotti before? Oh boy, you’re in for a treat! Biscotti means “twice-baked cookies” in Italian which is a literal reference to how they’re baked. When these cookies first originated in Italy many years ago they were baked twice so that they cookies would develop a crispy texture and form the distinctive shape they’re known for.

These yummy cookies are known as “Pusher biscuits” in my area because of the cookie press that “pushes” the mixture out.

These pretty little cookies are perfect served with coffee after dinner and make great foodie gifts for special occasions!

These Italian Rainbow Cookies have graced my Christmas cookie tray for many years and have always been one of the first to disappear

If there’s one word that captures these cookies, it’s rustic. And in my world, what that means is don’t get hung up about making them look perfect.

This is my newest cookie recipe for the holiday season. When I dreamed up these Tiramisu Cookies, I believed myself to be the first person to ever think of something so wonderful.

I can’t even tell you how wonderful your kitchen will smell when baking these (or while eating the batter). The end result is an interior that is light and tender- almost like a moist cake crumb. I promise they’ll be a showstopper.

Can there ever be enough gingerbread in the world? I think not. Especially when it comes to Gingerbread Biscotti. This biscotti, full of warm spices, is the perfect crunchy cookie for enjoying with coffee, tea or hot chocolate. It’s deceptively addicting too!

Our love of Florentines came about on one of our annual trips to Carmel-by-the-Sea in Central Coast California. Our favorite restaurant serves Florentine cookies and we just fell in love with them, so after many years of eating them, I finally have my own recipe.

Whenever I went to the bakery here in Italy my eyes and of course those of my kids would immediately go (and they still do) to these buttery Sandwich Cookies or as they are called here, Occhio di Bue (Bullseye).

Italian cookies are a given in Italian households both in America and in Italy. This Christmas tradition has been passed down through generations.