Little Italian Cookies.
TASTY little Italian cookies.
EASY tasty little Italian cookies.
Ermmm, they’re FAST, too – about an hour from start to finish.
The original recipe for this little gem of a cookie, from the very nice folk at Real Simple, called for vanilla as the flavoring – infinitely preferable, to my tastes, to the more traditional Anisette – but I thought that Amaretto would be a good thing here, and so, one of Rich’s very favorite cookies is born. I toss a batch of these together at least every other week, so though it time to feature the recipe again, just in time for everyone to plan their holiday cookie baking.
INGREDIENTS
Cookies:
•8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
•1/2 cup granulated sugar
•1/2 tsp Di Saronno
•2 large eggs
•2 cups all-purpose flour
•2 tsp baking powder
•1/4 tsp kosher salt – I used coarse sea salt
Glaze:
•1-1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
•2 tsp Di Saronno
•2 tbsp + 1 tsp water
Topping (optional):
•Multicolor nonpareil sprinkles
Also optional, but REALLY helpful:
•Parchment paper and a one tablespoon cookie scoop
Heat oven to 375° .
Combine the flour with the baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
Whisk the butter, sugar, eggs and Di Saronno together, then add the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon into a thick dough.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and measure out the dough into little balls using the cookie scoop. If you don’t have a scoop, dust your hands with a bit of flour before rolling the dough into balls.
My one tablespoon scoop gives me about 24 cookies, perfect for 12 per cookie sheet. These cookies will puff up when baked, so don’t crowd them.
Bake for seven to eight minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack set over a sheet of parchment paper. I bake each sheet separately, getting the first together and popped into the oven, then prepping the 
second while the first is baking, and mine are nicely done in seven minutes.
While the cookies are cooling, make the glaze by stirring the water and Di Saronno into the confectioners’ sugar – I usually wash out the dough bowl and use that for the glaze to keep down the number of dishes involved.
Once the cookies are fully cooled, dip each in the glaze and sprinkle the nonpareils over all and allow to set.
Once the glaze has hardened a bit, store the cookies in an airtight container for up to five days – yeah, like these’ll last that long.
Tasty, easy, and fast; I LIKE that in a cookie.