These Italian Butter cookies taste so much better than the store-bought variety. So buttery and delicious. They’re perfect for the Holiday cookie table and for gift giving. The best gifts are made with love. Follow this easy recipe and make a few batches this weekend!
Use this basic recipe to make so many different flavor combinations and shapes. They taste fantastic plain, but glue them together with some jam or chocolate and dip them in your favorite things to create the most beautiful little desserts.
Flavor Combinations
- chocolate filled: dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles, almonds, shredded sweetened coconut, or ground pistachios
- Jam filled: dipped in white chocolate, dark chocolate, or jam, and rolled in sprinkles, nuts, or shredded coconut
- Baked with a maraschino cherry in the center
- baked topped with sprinkles
I’d love to hear how you decorated and filled your Italian Butter Cookies. Leave me a comment down below and share your pics with me on Facebook and/or Instagram.
Tips
- Start off with room temperature ingredients: the butter should be very soft, and the eggs should also be at room temperature.
- Do not overtax the batter or it will be harder to pipe out of the pastry bag.
- Pipe the cookies immediately after the cookie batter is ready. As the batter sits, it hardens.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely after they’re baked.
- Freeze the cookies for 10-15 minutes after they’re filled with jam or chocolate. This will help them stay in place and will make dipping much cleaner and easier.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container. The plain cookies can be stored at room temperature. The chocolate dipped cookies can be stored in the refrigerator or the freezer.
The cookies taste wonderful with a hot cup of Greek Coffee.
Watch the Video Tutorial
I hope that you give this recipe a try and you let me know what you think. What’s your favorite flavor combination? Let me know in the comments, below. Enjoy the cookies and I will be back here soon with another delicious recipe worth sharing. xx Dimitra
Italian Butter Cookies (Bakery-Style) for the Holidays
These Italian bakery-style butter cookies are rich, buttery, and tender with the perfect crisp edges. Pipe them into classic shapes, sandwich them with jam or chocolate, and decorate them with melted chocolate, sprinkles, coconut, or nuts. They are beautiful on a Christmas cookie tray and make a wonderful homemade holiday gift.
Ingredients
- 12 ounces unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 3 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- For the Fillings and Toppings
- Semisweet chocolate, melted
- White chocolate, melted
- Jam
- Sprinkles
- Shredded coconut
- Sliced almonds
Instructions
Prepare the Oven and Baking Trays
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line 3 to 4 baking trays with parchment paper.
Make the Cookie Dough
Add the softened butter, sugar, and vanilla extract to the bowl of a tabletop mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Beat until light and fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fluffy after each addition.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl and whisk together.
With the mixer running on low speed, add the flour mixture in a few batches. Mix just until incorporated.
Pipe the Cookies
Fit a pastry bag with a large star tip and fill it halfway with the cookie dough.
Pipe 2 to 3-inch strips or rosettes onto the prepared baking trays. Leave 1 to 2 inches of space between each cookie.
Bake the Cookies
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges.
Allow the cookies to cool completely before filling or decorating them.
Fill and Decorate
Sandwich the cooled cookies together with jam or melted chocolate, if desired.
Place the filled cookies in the freezer for 10 minutes to help the filling set.
Dip or decorate the cookies with melted semisweet chocolate, white chocolate, sprinkles, shredded coconut, or sliced almonds.
Allow the decorated cookies to set completely before serving.
Serve with tea or coffee.
Notes
Twelve ounces of butter equals 3 standard American sticks of butter.
The butter should be very soft, and the eggs should be at room temperature before making the dough.
Do not overmix the dough after adding the flour. Mix only until the ingredients are incorporated.
Pipe the cookies immediately after preparing the dough because it becomes firmer as it sits.
Fill the pastry bag only halfway to make the dough easier to pipe.
If the dough is difficult to pipe, make sure the butter was thoroughly softened. A cookie press may also be used to shape the cookies.
If using chocolate chips, stir a few tablespoons of vegetable oil into the melted chocolate to thin it.
Allow the cookies to cool completely before filling or decorating them.
Plain cookies may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Chocolate-dipped cookies should be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.
The decorated cookies may be frozen in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Filoxenia Hosting Tip
Bake the cookies ahead of time and set up a simple decorating station with melted chocolate, colorful sprinkles, coconut, and chopped nuts. Create a variety of designs, then arrange them on a tiered platter for a beautiful bakery-style holiday cookie display.
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Sounds yummy, must try
Thank you so very much Dimitras for this delicious cookie recipe! I have been looking for this cookie recipe most of my life!
I made it immediately and is my favorite cookie of all time. They look beautiful and taste delicious. I will make these to give as special gifts to all my favorite people. The bakery needs to take lessons from you!
Merry Christmas & God Bless,
Michele H.
Do you have a video on how to fill these beautiful Italian butter cookies?
Found your video. I now know how to fill the cookies. Mahalo🌺
Can I bake these cookies without piping them?
Thank you so much for sharing your Italian butter cookie recipe, I made them as they came out perfect. Everybody wants the recipe and I directed them to your website and told him that it was yours. Again thank you so much for sharing
I’m so happy!! Thank you 🙂
I followed your recipe and mine flattened out , had to throw them out, do u know why that would happen ??
It could be that the baking powder was old or that too little flour was added.
Hi Dimitra,
Your recipe was fantastic! I followed it to a t and everyone loves them. This is my favorite cookie and thanks to you I have perfected them. Bravo Koukla.
would a cookie press work with this ? Going to do these for Thanksgiving ! Thank you for sharing.
Yes, absolutely! Happy Holidays!!
Thank you for answering that was fast ! I was just in middle of making and I added 3 TBLS of vanilla, I grabbed the wrong spoon!!! lord have mercy 😂 now I to triple recipe lol but, that’s ok too! making for 30 ppl . was also wondering if you can add color to 🤔 these thank you for your help!
You’re welcome and yes, you can add some food coloring 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving!!
Can I make these ahead and freeze them?
If so how long can they be frozen for?
Yes, they can be decorated and frozen up to 2 weeks 🙂
Do I have to pipe the cookies, can I roll them out into small logs and press with a fork and bake like a short bread cookie
Is the butter for the recipe 3 sticks of 8 Oz each or 12 ounces of butter. I used 12 ounces as the recipe states, but they were very dry, and impossible to pipe out
I used 12 ounces of butter as the recipe stated, but the cookies were very dry, and impossible to pipe out. It seems, that when I watch your video, you use three 8 ounce sticks of butter. Which is the correct amount?
I too had some problems with the rise. My baking powder didn’t expire for more than a year and I tested it and it was fine. I also found the dough to be a bit thick and hard to pipe. The results, however, were so delicious!!! Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe and showing the options of sandwich with jam and dipping in chocolate, yum. Now I feel confident to add more baking powder and getting a good consistency for piping
Hi Dimitri, first I want to thank you for your wonderful recipes. I’ve made many of them. I am originally from Brooklyn, New York and live in California now so it’s been fun having some of that East Coast Greek food if you know what I mean, I tried to make these Italian cookies and I’m having a hard time piping the dough through the bag. It seems to firm any suggestions? I have to tell you I did make them, but I used a cookie gun. They are delicious. They’re even better than the ones in the bakeries in New York. God bless you and your family. Thanks again for all that you do, Maria
Hi Maria,
Thank you so much for your kind words and for trying out my recipes! I’m thrilled to hear you’re enjoying some East Coast Greek food in California. For the Italian butter cookies, if the dough is too firm for piping, try adding a little more softened butter to the batter. This should help to soften it up and make it easier to pipe. Using a cookie gun is a great alternative that worked well for you—it’s all about finding what method works best for you. I’m delighted they turned out delicious!
God bless you and your family too, and happy baking!
I made these last Christmas for the first time (also first time learning how to use a pastry bag and tip!!). It was an “adventure” but, everyone loved the finished product. While still very much a beginner with the piping, I have added them to my growing list of 15+ cookies I bake at Christmas time. (Your mini shortbread cookies are also on the list…lol)
I’m an avid baker, but was not able to make these cookies work. Couldn’t even get them fluffy in the first step. Tried multiple times (with multiple batches of ingredients), temped my butter to make sure it was at room temp. Lots of missing info in this recipe, and no photos (the video conveniently does not show critical points in the process). So disappointed. Will have to find a better recipe.
These are soooo delicious, I can’t thank you enough! My favorite cookies from as far back as I can remember. They came out so beautiful, too!
I’m so glad you loved them! That makes me so happy to hear, especially since they’re a favorite from your childhood. Thank you for sharing!
Was wondering I the cookies can be made with the use of Kitchen aid machine with the cookies machine to make the different shapes. Cookie Maker Pastry Attachment, Cookie Attachment for Meat Grinder Meat Mincer Churros Making Tools, Stainless Steel Biscuit Mold Dough.
Yes, you can definitely use the KitchenAid Cookie Maker Attachment to make the Italian Butter Cookies! It’s a great tool for shaping dough quickly and easily, and it should work perfectly for this recipe. Just make sure to chill the dough slightly if it’s too soft, as it can help with handling and shaping. The cookie maker will give your cookies a nice, uniform shape, and they should turn out beautifully! Enjoy baking!