Butter Balls
When I shared mom’s recipe for Italian Sprinkle Cookies, I mentioned that some sources claim Italian Sprinkle Cookies as an alternate name for Italian wedding cookies – and I contested that claim based on my recollection of the butterball recipe that my mother had made every Christmas for as long as I can remember (which I believed is the same as traditional Italian wedding cookies). In my memory, despite some superficial similarities, Italian Sprinkle Cookies and Italian wedding cookies (a.k.a. butterballs) are very different cookies with the sprinkle cookies having a tender, cake like crumb with a delicate vanilla almond flavor and the butterballs having a rich, buttery, nutty flavor and a sandy, crumbly, melt-in-your mouth texture. At the time, I didn’t have mom’s butterball recipe on-hand with which to make an updated comparison, but dad was able to find it and send me a copy (thanks, dad!).
I say that Italian wedding cookies, or butterballs, are a traditional Italian cookie, but it might be more accurate to say that they are a global tradition. Italian wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes/balls, Mexican wedding cookies, Polish wedding cookies/snowballs, Swedish wedding cookies, Greek Kourabiedes, even Viennese crescents (to name just a handful) are all essentially the same cookie – a rich, buttery, shortbread-like dough enhanced with finely chopped/ground nuts and coated with powdered sugar after baking. That is exactly what you’ll get with mom’s butterball recipe but which is not at all like the Italian Sprinkle cookies – so, if you are looking for wedding cookies, this butterball recipe is the one you actually want.
When I said that the Italian Sprinkle cookies were one of three traditional cookies I associated with my Italian heritage, I really should have said four – these Butterballs definitely should have been included in that list. Some of my earliest memories of mom baking at the holidays include her making these cookies. In my very earliest memories she would make three different sizes of butterballs; small, medium and large. Then she would dunk three at a time in glaze, one of each size, and stack them up, large at the bottom, then medium, and finally a small cookie on top making perfect and adorable little snowman cookies. I don’t remember when she stopped doing that – I imagine it was a whole lot of effort to go through and she essentially ended up with one third the total number of cookies – but even after she stopped making butterball snowmen, she continued making butterballs every single year for Christmas.
Equipment
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. (optional: line your baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat)
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy1 lb (448 g) butter, 3/4 cup (90 g) powdered sugar
- Add the vanilla and mix well.2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla
- Stir in the flour, nuts and salt (if you are using it) until well combined.4 cups (520 g) flour, 2 cups (224 g) walnuts, 1/2 tsp (3 g) salt
- Form the dough into small (~1"), smooth balls (I like to use a #100 cookie scoop to portion the dough) and place about 2 inches apart on your baking sheet.
- Bake in your preheated oven for about 10-12 minutes. The cookies will puff up and spread just a little bit, the tops will be set and dry and the bottoms will be light golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Roll the cookies, a couple at a time, in powdered sugar until they are well coated. Store in a air tight container at room temperature.additional powdered sugar for rolling
Notes
- I don’t believe mom did this, but I found that if I gave the cookies a quick roll in powdered sugar while they were still warm (almost hot), and then rolled them again after they had cooled I was able to get better coverage with the powdered sugar.
- Mom always used margarine (salted), but I typically use unsalted butter so I added a bit of optional salt to the recipe.
Private Notes
Nutrition
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