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    December 6, 2022

    Traditional Italian Christmas Cookies and Holiday Desserts

    Holiday baking is one of the cornerstones of the holiday season and many of us have recipes for traditional Italian Christmas cookies and desserts that stem from family and local traditions. Almost every single town and region throughout Italy has fabulous holiday recipes and many of these have been adapted by Italian Americans and Italian immigrants worldwide. They reflect the availability of local ingredients plus the input of acquired new cultural baking recipes.

    Michele Di Pietro and I shared our Italian heritage Christmas cookie recipes and holiday desserts, plus a few other recipes we love.

    Michele's family cookie recipes

    Michele did a lot of holiday baking with her mom and one of her favorite recipes is pizzelle made with anise. Another of her favorite cookie are snowball cookies loaded with nuts and butter, and sometimes known as Mexican wedding cookies.
    She also made Czechoslovakian Christmas cookies with her mom: a cookie with a lemon and ricotta batter and layers of jam, usually apricot. These are baked in a brownie pan and then cut into squares, and they freeze beautifully.
    Struffoli (honey-dipped, deep-fried sweet dough balls), a holiday treat originally from Naples, were not part of Michele’s holiday baking tradition although nowadays she says you find them quite frequently in the greater New York area. Read about Naples and its great food here.

    Struffoli from Naples are honey-dipped, deep-fried sweet dough balls and are  one of the best among the Italian Christmas cookies and holiday desserts


    Michele says you can also now find zeppole, a larger and equally delicious deep-fried sweet dough ball. This delicious fritter is usually stuffed with a custard or pastry cream and it’s typically served on March 19, the feast of Saint Joseph. Michele‘s grandmother made a version of zeppole stuffed with anchovies!

    Classic Italian Christmas Cookies

    Almost every town in every region in Italy has its own variation on a rich and delicious holiday treat filled with nuts and dried fruit. Usually there’s a small amount of flour – about 15% – and then all the ingredients are chopped and combined together to form a flat round or rectangular loaf, similar to the flat loaf for biscotti. In Tuscany this cake is known as panforte, and in Siena panpepato because freshly ground black pepper is added to the ingredients.
    Here in the Lazio region where Rome is located this cake is known as pangiallo. The small town where I live, Riano, celebrates a Pangiallo Festival on December 8th.
    One of my favorite cookies is buccellati, a Sicilian Christmas cookie stuffed with dried summer figs.
    Melissa Bellini, an accomplished Italian American home cook shares her fabulous recipes on Instagram and in videos. She recently shared a wonderful family Christmas cookie recipe, giurgiulena. Thirty years ago Melissa’s mother-in-law shared this recipe with her and it’s a nugget-like cookie made with honey, sesame seeds, almonds, cinnamon and orange zest. The cookies are cut into diamond shapes and they are chewy and delicious! Here are the ones she made this year:

    Giurgiulena, one of the top Italian christmas cookies and holiday desserts


    Classic Italian Christmas cookies and holiday desserts, by region (alphabetically):

    Abruzzo - Parrozzo
    Basilicata - Calzoncelli
    Calabria - Petrali
    Campania - Struffoli Napoletani
    Emilia-Romagna - Certosino di Bologna
    Friuli Venezia Giulia - Potiza, Focaccia Natalizia
    Lazio - Pangiallo
    Liguria - Spongata di Sarzana
    Marche - Cavallucci di Apiro
    Molise - Pepatelli di Natale
    Piemonte - Torrone
    Puglia - Cartellate
    Sardegna - Pane di Mosto
    Sicilia - Crispeddì di Messina
    Toscana - Panforte di Siena
    Trentino Alto Adige - Kipperl all Vaniglia Altoatesini
    Umbria - Pinoccata Bianca e Nera
    Valle d'Aosta - Lou Mécoulen

    Biscotti are traditional at Christmas time and I like to add dried cranberries for a festive and tasty variation. Here's the recipe for Cranberry Hazelnut Biscotti.

    Cranberry Hazelnut Biscotti

    Some other Christmas Cookies we love

    A few years back one of my sisters gave me a recipe for chocolate truffles. When you taste them your mouth is full of a comfy and delicious dark chocolate truffle flavor. If you didn’t know better you would think you are tasting a chocolate truffle, but these truffles are made from ground Oreo cookies and cream cheese! They're rolled into walnut-sized balls and drizzled with melted dark chocolate: positively luscious! And if you don’t tell, no-one will know the difference!

    Holiday Chocolate Truffles

    In the Genoa area the most popular holiday cookie is anicini, flavored with anise.
    Chocolate chip cookies are always a favorite during the holidays. Chocolate chips are not always available everywhere in Italy so instead I make a peanut butter thumbprint cookie and put a gianduia chocolate in the center.

    Amazing peanut butter Gianduia cookies! One of our five best Christmas cookie recipes you'll want this holiday season!
     

    Do you have a comment or something you'd like to share with me? Scroll down to the very, very end of this page to reach the Please Leave Your Comment section.
    I'd love to have your feedback and questions!

    Other Holiday Desserts

    The most popular cake in Italy that you find on every single holiday table is panettone (a tall raisin bread-like cake) and pandoro (a fluffy and tall bread-textured sweet cake). Both of these holiday cakes are a typical gift exchanged with friends and family, and usually beautifully packaged, each one more beautiful than the next. I bake my own panettone; here's the step-by-step recipe.

    Fresh baked panettone are the perfect dessert for your holiday table!

    One of the most delightful breakfast treats imaginable is panettone French toast. At the end of the holiday season I usually buy up a few of these just so I can make this French toast recipe.

    Panettone French Toast with butter and maple syrup


    I always make a variation on the traditional tiramisù recipe made with biscotti. My recipe includes sweet dried cranberries which makes it a wonderful dessert to serve over the holidays!

    This Cranberry and Biscotti Tiramisù is one of the best among Italian christmas cookies and holiday desserts


    And finally I have to mention a fabulous recipe in Letitia Clark’s Sardinian cookbook, Bitter Honey: it’s a Saffron Custard and Panettone Pudding. It’s Letitia‘s take on panettone and an amazing dessert to serve over the holidays. I plan to serve it New Year’s Eve.

    Panettone Christmas packages

    I earn a modest commission from purchases made via links on my website. Rest assured, prices remain the same for you. Choosing to buy through my links directly contributes to sustaining my efforts in providing you with exceptional recipes, podcast episodes, and valuable culinary and travel insights.

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    About

    Wendy at Roscioli
    I’m American and I’ve lived in Italy for nearly four decades with my Italian family. My passion and strength lies in sharing Italian stories, recipes and unique travel insights on my blog, my Flavor of Italy trips and tours, newsletter and podcast. Continue Reading...

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