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Chocolate Dipped Italian Butter Cookies

December 3, 2014 by Kayley 74 Comments

Chocolate Dipped Italian Butter Cookies | thekitchenmccabe.com

I used to love getting a tin of shortbread cookies from…well, someone each Christmas when I was growing up. There were always the traditional printed shortbread cookies and the sugar crystal-crusted ones. But is seems like there were also crisp, swirly, butter cookies that looked oh-so elegant with their golden ridges.

These Chocolate Dipped Italian Butter Cookies remind me of those cookies.

Chocolate Dipped Italian Butter Cookies | thekitchenmccabe.com

These cookies are like a very sturdy shortbread, with an extra crisp texture that goes so nicely with a dipping of chocolate. I used both regular and powdered sugar to give it a texture that is crispy, but not overly crunchy.

These are given their pretty look by piping the dough out with a piping bag and tip like these:

Ateco 3224 24″ Canvas Decorating Pastry Bag

9ST Large Open Star Tip

You will need a little muscle to pipe these out, but it’s not too hard.

Pipe little fingers like these, or get fancy and make circles or swirls. Anything you want. Just don’t make them too large and keep them uniform in size so that they cook evenly.

Ā 

Chocolate Dipped Italian Butter Cookies | thekitchenmccabe.com

Wouldn’t these make such a pretty gift? These are definitely making it onto my Christmas cookie gift plates.

Make them really special by using a high quality dark chocolate. Regular, easy-melt chocolate bark or wafers will work great too. And if you wanted to, you could get crazy and dip the chocolate coated cookies in sprinkles or chopped dried fruit. Or nuts. Whatevah. You’re the boss.

Chocolate Dipped Italian Butter Cookies | thekitchenmccabe.com

Chocolate Dipped Italian Butter Cookies
 
Print
*If the dough seems to stiff to pipe out, add a few tablespoons of milk to the dough.
Serves: Makes 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on how large the cookies are made to be.
Ingredients
  • 1 C. Salted Butter, softened
  • ½ C. Sugar
  • ⅓ C. Powdered Sugar
  • 2 Eggs + 1 Egg Yolk
  • 1½ t. Vanilla
  • 2½ C. Flour
  • ¼ t. Salt
  • ½ t. Baking Powder
  • 1½-2 C. Dark Chocolate, melted
  • Chocolate Curls
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment or non-stick mats.
  2. Add butter and sugars to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until smooth, creamy and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  3. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
  4. In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together and add to the butter mixture. Mix together until just combined.
  5. Scoop dough into a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
  6. Pipe strips of dough out onto prepared sheets. To make them as pictured, tilt the tip down while piping it out and slowly bring it to a 45 degree angle as you pipe,so that the tip of the cookie is slightly curled under.
  7. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes or until the edges just look golden.
  8. Cool on a wire rack.
  9. When the cookies are cool, dip the tips in melted chocolate, and place on parchment paper to set. Sprinkle chocolate curls over the chocolate dipped cookies, if desired, but make sure to wait until the chocolate is no longer warm, but has not hardened.
3.2.2925

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Chocolate Dipped Italian Butter Cookies | thekitchenmccabe.com

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Filed Under: Chocolate, Cookies and Whoopies, Desserts, Holidays Tagged With: butter, chocolate, cookie, italian

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Comments

  1. Matt Robinson says

    December 3, 2014 at 4:55 PM

    These look incredible, LOVE the pictures!

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      December 4, 2014 at 5:27 PM

      Thanks so much, Matt!

      Reply
  2. Kayiu @ Saucy Spatula says

    December 9, 2014 at 7:56 PM

    Gonna be making 20 dozens of cookies in a few days, and these are SO on my list!! I’m so excited to land on your recipe!

    Love your blog too, by the way šŸ˜‰

    -Kayiu

    Reply
  3. Thalia @ butter and brioche says

    December 14, 2014 at 2:58 AM

    Oh god, after seeing this post these chocolate dipped butter cookies are all I am craving. I can only imagine how delicious they tasted!

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      December 14, 2014 at 5:35 PM

      Thanks, Thalia! They are one of my favorites this season!

      Reply
  4. Alice @ Hip Foodie Mom says

    December 15, 2014 at 3:44 PM

    oh my goodness, growing up, we ALWAYS had a few tins of those shortbread cookies in our house during the holidays. . love love love that you dipped these in chocolate! so elegant!! love the texture and detail on these cookies. . so perfect!!! Happy holidays!!

    Reply
  5. sadiya says

    February 14, 2015 at 12:56 PM

    Hi, im from england and we use the metric system so im a little confusedwhen you said i need a cup of butter? What exactly dies that mean? Like a cup of chunjs of butter or a cup of melted butter? I really want to make these!

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      February 14, 2015 at 7:04 PM

      Hi Sadiya, 1 C. of Butter would be 8 oz. or 16 tablespoons of butter.

      Reply
  6. Chelle says

    October 28, 2015 at 4:31 PM

    Hi, there! May I ask why you code to use 1 whole egg and two egg yolks? I have searched quite a bit about Italian buttered cookies and most of them either use whole eggs or egg whites. I want to make the cookies of your recipe, because they look really good! I just have this question and hope you would answer. Thank you! ?

    Reply
    • Chelle says

      October 28, 2015 at 4:42 PM

      Chose*

      Reply
  7. Kathleen says

    November 16, 2015 at 8:24 PM

    Can this dough be frozen? If so, for how long?

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      November 18, 2015 at 11:44 PM

      Yes, it should keep for a few months =)

      Reply
  8. Christine says

    November 22, 2015 at 4:00 PM

    These look great! Will the dough work in a cookie press? Thanks!

    Reply
  9. Natalie says

    November 23, 2015 at 9:21 PM

    I just made these babies in star and heart shapes! A perfect little gift for people. It’s easy to make, but quite time consuming (or at least I found them to be) — but it’s a wonderful and relaxing process. It yielded a lot of cookies as mine were rather small. I’m very glad I found this recipe. I was browsing and browsing through the web and finally came across one with encouraging comments, so I gave it a go. I’ve never been much of a cookie person in that I never tend to get them right (they always make me nervous). I made these and they turned out absolutely delicious. The dough was spot on; easy to work with. I didn’t use the piping bags as I wanted to make them specific shapes, but the pictures look amazing and in the future I shall give them a go for sure.

    For anyone cutting the dough out into specific shapes, I would definitely suggest refrigerating the dough for about 40 minutes or so — I decided to experiment with the dough a bit and found that refrigerating it allowed for an firmer and thus easier cut to then place on the baking tray.

    Thanks again for the recipe, Kayley. I’m no longer afraid of baking cookies! Never when they’re this yummy!

    Reply
  10. rachel says

    November 30, 2015 at 4:16 PM

    I just made these, and while they came out nicely, it wasn’t very easy. My dough was way too stiff to pipe through a regular bag and tip. I ended up adding a little bit of milk to soften the dough and then pushing it through the star tip with my finger. Not ideal when the goal is to make 50 cookies. Any thoughts from people who’ve made this recipe?

    Reply
    • Diane says

      October 23, 2017 at 2:41 PM

      I pipe them without a tip..

      Reply
  11. Jules says

    January 31, 2016 at 3:27 AM

    Can these cookies be made without eggs?

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      February 2, 2016 at 10:01 AM

      No, the eggs are what bind the cookies together and give them their texture =)

      Reply
  12. Fatty says

    February 26, 2016 at 12:46 AM

    butter mixture and the set aside flour can be mixed with electric mixer ? or by hand?

    Reply
  13. Michelle says

    May 26, 2016 at 7:59 AM

    I just made these and they were so delicious. I dipped them in mint dark chocolate and dark chocolate after. I added about a tablespoon or less of milk to the dough, and it worked out fine to pipe. I used a large star tip. These remind me of some butter cookies I used to love as a child. So glad I can make them now. I am going to write about them on my blog and link to your page, hope it’s okay. Thanks for posting this recipe!

    Reply
  14. Michelle says

    June 10, 2016 at 11:31 AM

    Does the “t” stand for teaspoon or tablespoon?

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      June 24, 2016 at 8:43 AM

      teaspoon =)

      Reply
    • Renee says

      December 17, 2017 at 2:59 PM

      In any recipe… Small ā€œtā€ always mean teaspoon.
      Large ā€œTā€ always means Tablespoon.

      Reply
  15. Ileana says

    October 7, 2016 at 12:31 PM

    thank you for this delicious recipe! . Great pictures!

    Reply
  16. Nazia says

    November 28, 2016 at 7:29 PM

    How do your cookies retain their shape during baking? Mine spread even though I chilled the piped cookies for 45 minutes before baking.

    Reply
  17. Lexie says

    November 30, 2016 at 11:46 AM

    Hello: your recipe that I printed out August 2015 states 1 egg + 2 egg yokes which is different that this one. Does it make a difference and if so which one is better?
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      October 19, 2017 at 8:34 AM

      Readers were having difficulty piping out the dough, so the extra egg loosens up the dough making it easier to pipe while still keeping the cookies texture similar.

      Reply
  18. Gwen says

    December 3, 2016 at 4:52 PM

    There is a bakery back home in the Chicago area that my sis always stops at and picks up a couple of dozen of these butter cookies when I am coming in town. I have been searching for a recipe that comes close for years … and here it is!!!! Seriously, if you put these gems in a box and tied bakers twine around them, I would not know the difference! Kayley, thank you so much for this amazing recipe. I am truly grateful!!!!

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      December 5, 2016 at 12:38 PM

      Aw, I love to hear that! Thank you for sharing that with me and I’m so glad you like the cookies!

      Reply
    • Nora Zamudio says

      December 16, 2017 at 12:51 PM

      Yea! I’m going to try this receipe because when I use to live in Chicago Gonellas cookies where the best and haven’t found them online so these look the same.

      Reply
  19. Sandy says

    December 6, 2016 at 7:57 AM

    I printed this recipe a couple of years ago and have made these cookies many times. I made them again last weekend, and my mother in law wanted a copy of the recipe but the print on my copy was too small for her so I came back to your site to print a fresh copy so I could enlarge the print. I noticed that my copy that I printed a couple of years ago calls for 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, but this recipe calls for 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk. Everything else is identical, including the pictures on the page. Why was there a change in the number of eggs. The version I’ve been making with 1 egg has always been a hit, but I’m wondering if the 2 egg version would be even better?

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      October 19, 2017 at 8:33 AM

      Readers were having difficulty piping out the dough, so the extra egg makes the dough looser and easier to pipe, while still allowing it to hold together well while baking =)

      Reply
  20. Kothai says

    December 11, 2016 at 1:02 PM

    Hi,

    Can you upload the video,please?

    Reply
  21. Kat says

    December 17, 2016 at 3:00 PM

    Can you use a cookie press with star tip?

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      December 19, 2016 at 4:08 PM

      You could try. I haven’t done it so I can’t say how it will work out šŸ™‚

      Reply
  22. Jim says

    December 17, 2016 at 6:16 PM

    Can you sandwich these cookies with apricot or rasberry jam

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      December 19, 2016 at 4:08 PM

      You bet!

      Reply
  23. joannie says

    January 25, 2017 at 2:07 PM

    Like to try this recipe. Please can you advise the weight of flour and sugar as unsure how this equates to cup measurements. Many thanks!

    Reply
  24. Jan says

    February 7, 2017 at 5:43 PM

    These look great. Any idea how to keep the chocolate shiny looking? since some dipped cookies look dull and others look shiny, I assume the shiny is because it is still hot and hasn’t cooled?

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      February 7, 2017 at 7:29 PM

      You’re right šŸ™‚
      The shiny cookies have chocolate that hasn’t hardened yet. You could brush a simple syrup on the chocolate after it had set for a shiny effect, I suppose.

      Reply
    • Cyndi says

      May 17, 2017 at 1:26 PM

      Tempered chocolate stays shiny and crisp when it dries but might flake off the cookie.

      Reply
  25. nikki says

    October 8, 2017 at 11:49 PM

    what does C. stand for? Cup?

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      October 15, 2017 at 5:32 PM

      cup =)

      Reply
  26. Amy says

    November 5, 2017 at 12:11 PM

    My son and I just made these and the dough was very easy to work with! They were a huge hit in our house. We delivered them to all our neighbors and they all agreed they were tasty! This is definitely on our list of Christmas cookies now. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      November 5, 2017 at 4:39 PM

      So glad you liked them! Thank you for sharing, Amy!!

      Reply
  27. Suzy says

    November 24, 2017 at 6:41 AM

    It says flour , I’m in uk. Is this plain or self raising flour?

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      November 29, 2017 at 6:12 PM

      All purpose:)

      Reply
  28. Mommers says

    November 29, 2017 at 5:53 PM

    Made these tonight. Husband loved them!! New addition to annual Christmas baking. Thanks for sharing!!

    Reply
  29. Lizz333 says

    December 2, 2017 at 11:18 AM

    Did you add shortening to the chocolate to thin the chocolate for dipping? If not, how did you get such a thin layer of chocolate on the cookies?

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      December 11, 2017 at 8:10 AM

      It’s just melted chocolate, I tap the cookies lightly over the bowl after dipping them to allow excess chocolate to fall off.

      Reply
  30. LA says

    December 17, 2017 at 4:58 PM

    I don’t have a Stand Mixer – can I use a regular hand held mixer?

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      December 17, 2017 at 7:33 PM

      Yes šŸ™‚

      Reply
  31. Dolly says

    April 28, 2019 at 6:58 PM

    Are these cookies hard to pipe with the piping bag? I made a different recipe and it was very hard to pipe… Even my son who played football at the time was having a hard time.

    Reply
  32. Bella says

    March 12, 2022 at 8:14 PM

    Just made them and are absolutely delicious. I bought the pipe bag and the tip. So that next time they will exactly like yours

    Reply
    • Kayley says

      March 18, 2022 at 6:38 AM

      So happy you liked!

      Reply

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My name is Kayley! Welcome To The Kitchen McCabe, a blog based on wholesome recipes, beautiful food and photography. More >>

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