Go Back
+ servings
many italian cookies with chocolate, walnuts and glaze on a wire rack.
Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Italian Chocolate Cookies

These Italian chocolate cookies are perfect for the holiday season. Moist and tender on the inside, lightly crispy and crackled on the outside, spiked with walnuts, and with just a touch of icing on top.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time12 minutes
Course: Cookies
Cuisine: American, Italian
Servings: 30
Calories: 104kcal
Author: Adina

Equipment

  • Stand mixer or hand-held mixer

Ingredients

  • 125 g unsalted butter 1 stick + 1 tablespoon, Notes 1, 2
  • 200 g all-purpose flour 1 ½ cups, Note 1
  • 30 g unsweetened cocoa powder ¼ cup
  • 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 100 g light brown sugar ½ cup
  • 100 g granulated sugar ½ cup
  • 1 egg large
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 75 g walnuts ½ cup chopped , Note 3
  • 100 g confectioners’ sugar 1 cup, Note 4
  • ½ - 1 tablespoon milk
  • 2 tablespoons sprinkles

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 360°F/180°C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper (Note 5).
  • Melt butter in a small saucepan (or the microwave). Leave to cool slightly until needed.
  • Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder in a bowl. Set them aside.
  • Beat brown sugar, granulated white sugar, and egg in a large bowl until creamy. Stir in the vanilla extract.
  • Alternating, add the melted and cooled butter and the flour mixture to the sugar-egg mixture and mix well. The dough will be smooth, dense, and slightly sticky.
  • Sprinkle the chopped walnuts on top of the dough. Mix them with a spoon or hand, ensuring they are evenly distributed in the dough.
  • Form about 30 balls and place them on the prepared cookie sheets leaving enough place between them (they will spread).
  • Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Leave them on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes until they are firm enough to move, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
  • Glaze: Mix the confectioners’ sugar and ½ tablespoon milk in a small bowl to form a paste. Add a tiny bit more milk if necessary to obtain the desired consistency, a thick yet pourable paste.
  • Sprinkle the chocolate cookies with the glaze (use a teaspoon) and then with the sprinkles.

Notes

  1. Always use a digital kitchen scale in baking; it guarantees the best results (Amazon affiliate link). Especially flour and butter are tough to measure consistently using cups. I measured the flour using cups and had 1½ cups, but that might differ from one person to another.
  2. Butter: Use European-style butter with 82% fat. Please don’t use lower-fat alternatives when baking cookies unless the recipes are developed using that kind of butter.
  3. Replace all or half of the walnuts with chocolate chips. You can also use chopped pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, or the same amount of chopped dried fruit instead.
  4. Confectioners’ sugar, icing sugar, and powdered sugar are all the same kind of sugar.
  5. You can simultaneously bake both trays of chocolate cookies in a fan-forced or fan-assisted oven. In this case, preheat the oven to 320°F/ 160°C.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 104kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 27mg | Potassium: 42mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 114IU | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 1mg