This Italian butter cookie recipe makes classic Italian-American butter cookies in the same manner as the ones you can purchase at your favorite neighborhood bakery in New York! You can either fill them with chocolate, raspberry or apricot preserves, or you can dip one side in chocolate and sprinkles on top, or you can do both! Whatever you decide, these are certain to become your new go-to recipes for upcoming holidays and celebrations!
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 45 mins |
| Servings: | 48 |
| Yield: | 4 dozen cookies |
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- ½ cup vegetable shortening
- 4 ounces almond paste
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Combine cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
- Combine butter, sugar, and shortening in a large bowl; cream with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Mix in almond paste until thoroughly combined. Add eggs, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and almond extract. Reduce the mixing speed to low and slowly add flour mixture. Scrape down the bowl, then mix on medium speed until evenly combined, about 30 seconds.
- Fit a large pastry bag with a French star tip (#864) or an open star tip (4S); fill the pastry bag with batter. Pipe evenly sized cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart, giving cookies space to puff slightly during baking.
- Bake in the preheated oven, in batches if necessary, until bottom edges are slightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- You can use almond baker’s emulsion for almond extract, if desired.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 122 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 14 g |
| Cholesterol | 18 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 65 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Boy oh boy are these good! Just what I was wanting….like a local bakery makes! The only thing I changed was adding about 1 t almond extract rather than the 1/4t called for. Next time I will add even more – and there certainly will be a next time. These are delicious and easy to make!
Absolutely delicious. The only issue I encountered was that the almond paste was kinda hard to incorporate with the creamed sugar mixture. Make sure you soften it and add small pieces of it at a time. I did not do it that way so it was clumpy and had to loosen it up with a fork. Piping it through a bag was also a lot of effort but for me it’s worth it. Will be putting raspberry preserves in the middle to make a cookie sandwich and will dip one end of it in chocolate and sprinkles, just like what I had from an Italian bakery in Jersey City. Try it out and you won’t regret it. It’s a delicious recipe for sure.
I make them with 1 cup of Sweet & Low.
We do date night cooking classes. Whenever an Italian dish is made we serve these for dessert. Always a BIG hit. Chef David Bittle My Father’s Table
Good but not as much almond flavor as I would like. Also VERY difficult to pipe via pastry bag if you are not a lumberjack! I managed to finish but my wrists/hands almost gave up!
I made my own almond paste because I was unable to find any in-stock locally. I would recommend using a larger pastry bag to reduce number of refills at least a 12 in. I also used parchment paper to be able to transfer from pan easier
It was good but I wasn’t able to pipe it out through a pastry bag though. But it tasted like heaven.
Omg. These were easy to make. And so yummy too. I always make them