Italian Sprinkle Cookies
Italian sprinkle cookies are a traditional Italian cookie consisting of a soft, tender, cake-like cookie commonly flavored with almond, lemon and/or vanilla extracts dunked in sweet glaze and topped with colorful sprinkles. They are one of three cookies that I always associated with my Italian heritage — egg biscuits and wine biscuits, which my grandmother made, and these sprinkle cookies that my mom started making when I was a teenager. Mom persuaded grandma to share the egg and wine biscuit recipes and she included all three recipes in her dessert recipe binder.
Looking at the three recipes side by side, it is easy to see the shared roots across them with similar ingredients and preparation methods, but the sprinkle cookies are sweeter, softer and more moist than the egg or wine biscuits. While the egg and wine biscuits would typically be eaten with coffee (and often dunked in the coffee to provide additional moisture), these sprinkle cookies are a delight to eat just as they are.
While I was researching this recipe, I came across a number of recipes and articles that called these “Italian Wedding Cookies”. I’m sure that these are probably found among a selection of cookies served at Italian weddings, but I don’t believe these are the traditional Italian wedding cookies. My recollection of Italian wedding cookies is a nutty, buttery, slightly crumbly, melt-in-your mouth cookie that is coated in a thick layer of loose powdered sugar. Mom made a version of those (or maybe just a very similar recipe) which she called “Butterballs” (I see Butterballs on her list of Christmas cookies at the back of her binder, but the recipe was not included there — if I track it down, I will make a batch of those for comparison).
Italian sprinkle cookies were another popular treat mom made, adding a burst of color — both visually and culturally — on her Christmas cookie trays. I remember, around the time she first started making these, she was enjoying watching Emeril Lagasse’s cooking show. If you’ve ever watched him, you are probably familiar with his exclamation of “Bam!” as he tossed finishing touches onto the plates. How is this relevant, you ask? Well, glazing and sprinkling these cookies is much easier with a partner. Mom and dad would work on them together with mom giving them a quick dip in the glaze and dad applying the sprinkles. As they worked, every time dad tossed the sprinkles onto a freshly glazed cookie he would exclaim “Bam!”, just like Emeril. Remembering that made me chuckle a little as I was making these (and, kind of made me want to yell “Bam!” too 😀)
Equipment
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until the are light and foamy (this should take about 5 minutes). Set aside.6 eggs
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, powdered sugar and baking powder. Stir the oil, almond extract and vanilla extract into the flour mixture.5 cups (675 g) flour, 2 cups (240 g) powdered sugar, 2 1/2 tbsp (30 g) baking powder, 1 cup (130 g) oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml) almond extract, 1 1/2 tsp (10 ml) lemon extract
- Gradually add the beaten eggs and continue to mix until a soft dough forms. The dough will be a little sticky, but you should be able to roll it into a ball without it adhering to your hands.
- Roll the dough into 1" balls and place them about 2" apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or just until the edges begin to turn a light golden color.
- While the cookies are baking, combine the milk, almond extract and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Add the powdered sugar and whisk until the glaze is smooth.1/2 cup (120 ml) warm milk, 1 tsp (5 ml) almond extract, 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract, 3 3/4 cups (450 g) powdered sugar
- As soon as the cookies are removed from oven, quickly immerse two or three at a time completely in the glaze. Remove with a slotted spoon or fork and place them on a wire rack to drain. Immediately top each cookie with sprinkles (do not wait or the glaze will begin to set and the sprinkles will not adhere to the cookie).colored sprinkles or colored sprinkling sugar
- Let the cookies dry on the rack for several hours (up to 24) before storing in an airtight container. The glaze should be completely dry with no sticky spots or any hint of moisture.
Notes
- Make sure to roll the dough into very smooth balls, the smoother the dough is rolled, the less cracking there will be as the cookies bake.
- Since the cookies need to be glazed while they are still hot, it is best to bake them off in smaller batches so you have time to get all of the cookies through the glaze before they cool.
- The glaze recipe as written is very, very thin. When you dip a hot cookie into a thin glaze, the glaze melts and thins even more and becomes invisible on the cookies. When mom made these cookies the glaze was a clearly visible layer on the cookies. I found I needed ~6 cups of powdered sugar instead of the 3 3/4 cups listed to reach the consistency mom used. Because the glaze is thicker, more will cling to the cookies and you may need about 1 1/2 times the glaze recipe to coat all of the cookies
Private Notes
Nutrition
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