Italian Wedding Cookies III Recipe - Allrecipes.com
Italian Wedding Cookies III Recipe
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Italian Wedding Cookies III
These buttery bites are delicious with coffee or tea. See more
  • READY IN ABOUT 1½ hrs

Italian Wedding Cookies III

Read Reviews (174)

"Also sometimes called 'Mexican wedding cookie', 'Russian tea cakes', or 'butterballs', can also be made into crescents. You can also substitute pecans and they are very good as well. This is the best version of these I have ever seen, it was given me by a friend who grew up in central Europe." —  

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Original recipe makes 80 cookies Change Servings
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Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
  2. Cream butter or margarine in a bowl, gradually add confectioners' sugar and salt. Beat until light and fluffy. Add almonds and vanilla. Blend in flour gradually and mix well.
  3. Shape into balls (or crescents) using about 1 teaspoon for each cookie. Place on ungreased cookie sheets, and bake for 15-20 min. Do not brown. Cool slightly, then roll in the extra confectioners' sugar.
Kitchen-Friendly View
  • PREP 45 mins
  • COOK 15 mins
  • READY IN 1 hr 20 mins
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Reviews More Reviews

Most Helpful Positive Review
Dec 17, 2003

these cookies were delicious! the best recipe i've found for this type so far... if you make a small change.. i agree with the other reviewers about the salt. i added only 1/4tsp to the dough and they were perfect. i especially like that this recipe calls for pwd sugar instead of white sugar in the dough. i think that it made the cookie extra melt-in-your-mouth. i also used ground pecans instead of almonds, that's the way i like best. a hint for rolling them in the sugar after they bake... roll once when the cookie is still hot and again when it is completely cool. YUM!

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Most Helpful Critical Review
Jan 08, 2007

These were ok, not the best wedding cookies I have ever had. I found I needed to bake them a lot longer, not only to be fully cooked, but also so they didn't fall apart. They were so delicate while rolling in the sugar! I used a coffee grinder (used only for nuts) to chop the almonds after breaking my minichopper with them.

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Jan 05, 2004

I took everyone's feedback here on the first try and used salted butter with no more salt added (surely the amount shown is a typo?). I also decided that with the almonds and the heavy dose of vanilla called for in this recipe that I would make either true "almond crescents," which is a popular cookie, or true wedding cookies. So, I used only 1 tsp. of vanilla and 3 tsp. almond extract. I could not grind the almonds finely enough, however,so the texture of the final result was a bit too rubbery and bumpy with almond bits easily noticeable and getting stuck in teeth (at least mine), but this was probably my own fault. I'm sure that finely ground almonds would have enhanced my results (can you buy finely ground almonds? I cannot imagine grinding these by hand or machine such that they would truly be fine enough...the almond is very moist). The flavor of these cookies was marvelous! Everyone liked them. Since I bake cookies almost exclusively as my Christmas gifts, I appreciated the larger quanitity produced from this recipe than most others I see. So,a hit for this year means a tradition next year. Think I'll try them with ONLY the vanilla and pecans next Christmas (in addition to the almond crescents again). Thanks for a nice recipe.

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Apr 29, 2007

I made 1/3 of this recipe and got about 15 cookies. I used about a pinch of salt. everytime Ive had wedding cookies (store-bought) I thought they were too salty. even with all the sugar though, I dont think they need that much. Anyway, after I finished rolling these cookies in the sugar, I realized that I left out the ground almonds. Luckily, I used almond extract along with the vanilla and it still tasted PERFECT, you couldn't even notice it was missing it. I ended up sprinkling the ground almonds on top, over the sugar. Also, I found it easiest to coat the cookies in a deep bowl, filled with the sugar, using a spoon. If you use your fingers (and the cookies are still warm), it will stick and come off the cookie.

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Mar 20, 2008

This is a delicious recipe. As I'm always too busy, the first time I made them, I modified the recipe and made half the amount (40 cookies, less to be tempted by!?) but at the end I wished I'd made the entire amount as they were so good! I put the butter and icing (confectioners') sugar in the moulinex food processor, added the vanilla and only a half teaspoon of salt (which was fine), then gradually added the flour as well and mixed all together with a couple zaps. The mixture became soft, crumbly and I easily formed the balls quickly, and rolled them by hand. The entire process took less than half the time, too and they were all eaten in 10 minutes by the family who loved them!!

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Mar 09, 2006

These were excellent. My husband has always loved these cookies and I am by no means a good baker and he raved about these. A little tip... I scooped them inot a 1 oz cookie scoop and clicked the handle a few times to form perfect balls. No messy hands and they turned out perfect!

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Dec 20, 2002

This recipe produces an excellent version of this type of cookie. I reduced the salt to about 1/4 tsp and rolled them in 10X sugar three times each. I found that about 12 minutes produced the right amount of doneness.

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Aug 31, 2008

Someone get these away from me - I can't stop eating them! And I don't usually like nuts in my cookies. Other than putting in a teaspoon of almond extract and reducing the salt to about 1/4 teaspoon (I used lightly salted almonds that I ground in my mini-chopper) I made them as stated. I wasn't sure how far apart to place them on the cookie sheet, but they didn't spread at all, so you can really load up the sheet. I cooled them for about 10 minutes and then rolled them in the confect. sugar once, waited about 3-4 minutes and then rolled them again. I'm making these for a wedding - I hope they last until then! Thanks for the great recipe.

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Nutrition

  • Calories
  • 140 kcal
  • 7%
  • Carbohydrates
  • 11.5 g
  • 4%
  • Cholesterol
  • 18 mg
  • 6%
  • Fat
  • 9.7 g
  • 15%
  • Fiber
  • 0.9 g
  • 4%
  • Protein
  • 2.2 g
  • 4%
  • Sodium
  • 45 mg
  • 2%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

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