Growing up Italian, my grandparents had a different selection of cookies than what you find at the Italian bakeries. No one ever made Italian Rainbow cookies or these amazing Italian Butter Cookies.
However, head into any Italian bakery in New York City or Chicago and you are sure to find these amazing flavors.
Since we won’t be traveling to either locations this holiday season to get our Italian bakery fix, I decided to try to make Italian Bakery Style Butter cookies Recipe at home. There are no special ingredients, just one special piping tool you will need.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE ITALIAN BUTTER COOKIES
- Unsalted Butter– Softened
- Eggs–Room Temp
- Flour
- Vanilla Extract
- ALMOND Extract is a must for traditional Italian ones
- Size 8B Piping Tip
- Heavy Duty 16 inch Piping Bag
- Parchment Paper
How to Pipe Italian Butter Cookies
You need to refrigerate the dough before baking, we found if you pipe the dough first and then refrigerate the cookie sheets it is easy to pipe.
If you every find yourself in a traditional bakery, you will see how sorts of shapes and sprinkles. Great thing, it is usually the same cookie dough just different piping technique.
We find if you put the large piping bag in a vase and push the cookie dough to the bottom there is less waste on the bag itself.
Make Italian Sandwich Cookies
Using the bag slightly tilted pipe 2 inch lines of batter. Use a knife to cut straight lines.
When cooled add 1/4 tsp of strawberry jam to one side and then sandwich them together.
Dip 1/3 of the cookie into melted chocolate to keep them secure. Add Sprinkles and allow to set.
Make Butter Star Cookies
Hold the piping bag straight up for a star. If you want a little indentation for filling, lightly press down the middle with a floured finger.
Otherwise dip the star cookies into sprinkles before baking.
Here they are baked.
REFRIGERATE PIPED COOKIES
Because the dough was room temperature, it was easier to pipe. Granted it does take some muscle but not as much if the dough was hard and cold.
Pop the cookie sheets in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour and then bake.
Bake the cookies 9-12 minutes. The stars take slightly less time so try not to mix patterns on one cookie sheet.
Allow the cookies to cool about 3-5 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.
Then do the assembling/ chocolate coating when completely cool.
Italian Butter Cookies
Give or take you will make 18 cookie sandwiches but since we did a variety of shapes we are guesstimating the number of cookies.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2-1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 large egg, brought to room temperature
- 1/2 cup strawberry jam
- 4 ounces chocolate chips or chopped semisweet chocolate (melted)
- Sprinkles and more sprinkles
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together using stand mixer with a paddle attachment for 2-3 minutes or until light and creamy.
- Add the egg and extracts, and mix until it’s just incorporated.
- Slowly add the flour to the mixture and mix until a dough forms.
- Fit a pastry bag with the piping tip of your choice and fill the bag with the dough.
- Pipe out the dough on parchment covered cookie sheets.Pipe the dough into 2-inch long segments or starts, spacing each segment about an inch apart.
- Coat the shapes in sprinkles if desired.
- Stick your baking sheets in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hr.
- When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat oven to 350F.
- Bake the cookies for 10-13 minutes, or until they are light golden brown on the edges.
- Cool the cookies on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Place your chocolate chips/chocolate into a microwaveable bowl and microwave it for 30 seconds at a time, making sure to stir the chocolate after each time.
- FOR SANDWICHES: Allow cookies to completely cool, Spoon 1/4 teaspoon of preserves onto half of these cookies sandwich them with the top halves.\
- Dip the sandwiched cookies about 1/3 of the way into the melted chocolate, taking care to let the excess chocolate drip off.
- Drizzle the sprinkles over the chocolate and return the cookies to the baking sheet to set completely.
Nutrition Information
Yield 36 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 65Total Fat 2gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 6mgSodium 35mgCarbohydrates 12gFiber 0gSugar 7gProtein 1g
All information and tools presented and written within this site are intended for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and any nutritional information on stayingclosetohome.com should only be used as a general guideline.
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