Italian Christmas Spice Cookies Recipes

ITALIAN CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Steps:

• Firstly, sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl.
• Then, in a larger bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and add vanilla, then pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix.
• Knead and add flour as needed to keep dough from sticking to hands. Pinch off dough, roll in your hands to form a log and then twirl into shape. Place on greased cookie sheets.
• Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.
• Combine the next 3 ingredients until creamy.
• Dip cookies into icing and sprinkle with trim. Place on wire rack with wax paper on counter to collect the dripping icing and sprinkles.

DECORATED SPICE COOKIES

Steps:

• In one bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and nutmeg.
• In a separate bowl, beat the butter until light using an electric hand mixer, about 2 minutes.
• Add both the sugars and molasses and continue to beat until creamy, about 3 minutes.
• Add the egg and vanilla, and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
• Add the dry ingredients and using the mixer at slow speed, mix until blended.
• Divide the dough into two balls, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 3 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough 1/2 inch thick and cut with your favorite cookie cutters.
• Place the cookies evenly spaced on parchment lined baking sheets.
• Bake for about 12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway.
• Cool the cookies completely on wire racks.
• For the icing, whisk together the icing sugar, corn syrup, and 2 teaspoons of water.
• The icing should be thick, if too thick to use, add 1/2 teaspoon more water.
• Place the icing in a decorating bag or squeeze bottle and decorate cookies as desired.
• Allow the icing to dry for at least 6 hours, or until dry to the touch, then store cookies in airtight containers.

ITALIAN CHOCOLATE SPICE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Beat in eggs, milk and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and cloves; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Stir in walnuts., Shape level tablespoons of dough into balls; place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until bottoms are light brown, 10-12 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely., For glaze, in a large bowl, mix confectioners' sugar, corn syrup and enough milk to reach desired consistency. Dip tops of cookies into glaze; if desired, decorate with sprinkles. Let stand until set. Store between pieces of waxed paper in airtight containers.

ITALIAN CHRISTMAS SPICE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa, cloves, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg.
• In a large separate bowl mix together eggs, sugar, oil, milk and vanilla.
• Add flour mixture to wet mixture in small batches and mix until combined.
• Add chocolate chips and chopped almonds. Dough will be very stiff.
• With lightly oiled hands, continue to mix the dough till all ingredients are incorporated. Wash hands thoroughly.
• Lightly oil your hands again so the dough won't stick to them and break off pieces of dough, rolling them with your palms into balls the size of walnuts.
• Arrange on prepared baking sheet 2" apart and bake for 10 minutes.
• Once cooled, dip the top of each cookie into the chocolate glaze. While still wet garnish tops with a few sliced almonds.
• When set, re-dip the bottom of each cookie back into the chocolate glaze and let set again.
• While still slightly wet, generously dust or roll each cookie into 1 cup powdered sugar.
• Set aside to dry before stacking.
• Cookies will keep in an airtight container for 2 weeks.

MOSTACCIOLI-ITALIAN CHRISTMAS SPICE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325°F.
• Into the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, pulse the almonds and sugar until the almonds are finely ground. Add the orange zest, flour cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, and cloves and pulse several times to mix. Cut the butter into 12 pieces and add to the work bowl. Pulse until the butter is mixed in (about 20-25 times).
• Ad the eggs and wine; pulse until the dough is evenly moistened, tough it probably will form one ball. Allow to stand for 1 minute to absorb the liquid, then refrigerate for 30 minutes. *I could not fit all the ingredients in my food processor. See recipe note above.
• Scrape the dough onto an oiled work surface and roll into a log, 12 inches long. Cut the log into six pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a 12-inch cylinder, flatten slightly the palm of your hand, then cut each 12-inch cylinder diagonally into ten or eleven pieces and place the pieces on pans about 1 inch apart. Place the pans in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 300 degrees. Bake the cookies about 10-14 minutes, or until firm and light golden.
• Icing:
• Whisk the confectioners' sugar with the water and orange juice. Add the water a little at a time. If it is too thick, add a little more water a tablespoon at a time.
• Transfer the cookies to a rack and drizzle on the icing. I did two coats of the icing drizzle. The original recipe says to dunk the cookies in the icing. I wanted to see a little bit of the cookie color. Add some sprinkles.

ITALIAN CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Steps:

• Cookies
• In a bowl sift together the flour and baking powder , set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well. Mix in the vanilla. Add in the flour mixture.
• Knead until dough is firm and not sticky, adding more flour if necessary.
• Refrigerate 1 hour.
• Cut off small amount of dough and roll on floured surface into 6 inch strips.
• Twirl into shape and place on greased cookie sheets.
• Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes (the bottom should be lightly browned but the tops should remain light).
• Remove cookies to wire rack and cool completely before glazing.
• Icing
• Combine the Icing ingredients in a bowl until just smooth. You want it more thick than thin, but still runny.
• Dip the tops of the cooled cookies into the glaze, then return to the wire rack, allowing the glaze to drip down the sides of the cookie.
• Top with sprinkles, while glaze is still wet.

GLAZED ITALIAN SPICE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and milk. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in pecans., Roll dough into 1-in. balls. Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 9-11 minutes or until edges are set. Remove to wire racks to cool., For glaze, in a large bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add the confectioners' sugar, milk, and extracts; beat until smooth. Spread over cooled cookies.

ITALIAN CHOCOLATE CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Steps:

• Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients for cookies in a large bowl. Roll into balls (slightly smaller than a golf ball) and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for approximately 10 minutes. Step 2 Set cookies on cookie rack and let cool completely. In a medium bowl, combine confectioner's sugar with vanilla. Pour a tablespoon of water into the bowl at a time and stir, repeating the process until you have a thick consistency for the glaze. Dip the cooled cookies into the glaze and place on the cookie rack to wait for glaze to harden. Sprinkle nonpareils before the glaze hardens. Step 3 Store in Tupperware or cookie tins.