Our Favorite Italian Christmas Cookies Recipe

Cooking With Nonna’s Recipe for Italian Christmas Cookies

When it comes to authentic Italian cooking, you can’t do any better than going to the source itself – an Italian grandma! So it’s no wonder that we love the site Cooking With Nonna, filled with delicious Italian recipes straight from the kitchens of Italian grandmothers.

Cooking With Nonna’s mission is “Sharing Grandma’s Italian recipes with the new generations”, and we love the idea. From appetizers to entrees, lunches to dinners to desserts, the site features some great Italian classics and modern spins on your favorite old-world Italian dishes.

You MUST try this almond coffee Italian Christmas cookie recipe. (Photo credit: Cooking with Nonna)

Cooking With Nonna is the creation of Rossella and Vito Rago. Rossella travels to the kitchens of grandmothers from all regions of Italy, bringing you the greatest recipes (and secret family recipes!) from all over Italy.

This recipe for Almond Coffee Cookies is one of our all-time favorites, and will be one of the recipes that we use when they make Christmas cookies this year. We’re looking forward to taking it to our parent company Peter Salerno Inc.’s flagship showroom and making another batch myself!

Try it out for yourself, and see how these amazing flavors combine in your mouth for a beautiful Italian holiday dessert experience.

Italian Christmas Cookie Recipe: Almond Coffee Cookies (from Cooking With Nonna)

Ingredients:

1 Lb Almonds
1/2 Lb Sugar
Zest of 2 medium lemons
3 Egg whites
1 Tbs Espresso Ground Coffee
2 Tbs Unsweetened Cocoa powder
1/2 Cup Sugar for glazing (put it in a flat plate for rolling)
50 Whole coffee beans

Preparation:

To prepare the paste, boil the almonds and remove the peel. Once they are cold and somewhat dry, put them in a food processor or a blender and chop them finely.
Put the chopped almonds in a bowl, add the zest of the two lemons, the sugar, the ground coffee and the cocoa powder. Mix everything very well.
Add the egg whites and mix until the egg whites dilute the sugar and the mixture becomes a paste.
Take a lump of mixture in your hand, roll it into a ball the size slightly smaller than a golf ball.
Roll the ball completely into the sugar and place it on a baking sheet.
Slightly insert a coffee bean on top of each cookie.
Roll all your cookies and bake them for 30 mins. at 350F.

See more by clicking on this link and visiting Cooking With Nonna!