As many of you know, I live in New Haven, home to the only pizza worth eating, and more Italian-American bakeries than you can shake a stick at. I’ve peered many-a-time into their glass bakery cases, spilling over with all manner of pretty pink, green, brown and white cookies, and cursed the fact that they all contain animal products. This year, my holiday cookie baking was influenced by these pretty displays, featuring these citrus-flavored anginettes and those cookies sometimes known as Italian butter nuts.
I really can’t say for sure how authentic these anginetti are. Over the course of a very-scientific hour-long survey of anginette recipes on the Internet, I concluded that about 80% of these recipes indicate that anginetti are “lemon drop cookies,” while another 10% call them “orange juice cookies,” and still another 10% combine lemon and orange juice and/or anise extract. While I’m pretty stoked on this lemon version, I bet these tender little bites would taste great no matter how you flavor them.
If you’ve never had them, these small, spherical cookies are often described as being “cakey,” but I’d say these are better described as “soft and dense.” They’re glazed, but they aren’t super-sweet or terribly rich, which makes them a nice alternative on a tray of heavy, buttery baked goods. Plus, they’re as simple to make as they are adorable and delicious!
- For the cookies:
- ½ c sugar
- ¼ c coconut oil (or vegan shortening)
- ⅓ c water
- 1½ tsp lemon extract
- 1 packed tsp lemon zest (about half a lemon)
- 2 c all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp potato, corn, or tapioca starch
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ____________________
- For the icing:
- 2 c powdered sugar
- 2½ Tbsp water or vegan milk
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- vegan sprinkles, optional
- In a large bowl, cream together sugar and oil.
- Beat in the water, lemon extract, and lemon zest. Don’t worry if the mixture isn't completely homogeneous.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, starch, baking powder, soda, and salt.
- Add dry ingredients to wet and beat until a stiff dough forms. Don't worry: it'll be quite dry, but you should be able to form it into a ball.
- Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour, until dough is firm.
- Preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Form walnut-sized chunks of dough into balls.
- Place balls about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes, until bottoms are golden.
- Repeat until all dough has been used up.
- Cool cookies completely.
- Once cookies are completely cool, beat together icing ingredients in a shallow bowl until smooth.
- Dip the top of each cookie into the icing, let most of the excess drip off, and place right-side up on a cooling rack to set. The icing should be thin enough to drop down and cover the sides of the cookies, but thick enough that it doesn't just all drip off. Add a tablespoon or two of sugar if your icing is too thin, or a few drops of liquid if it's too thick.
- If desired, sprinkle each cookie with sprinkles while the icing is still wet.
- Allow icing to set completely before serving.
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12 comments
Laura says:
Dec 23, 2015
Omg! I have actually been in some Italian bakeries recently, cursing a bit that nothing is vegan. Someone somewhere needs to create a vegan Italian bakery. I really want the rainbowy (like green, pink and yellow) colored variety of Italian holiday cookies to be veganized. I see them most often in the grocery store, I loved those Italian cookie variety packs as a kid…I even tried searching for some recipes online to try and veganize but I didn’t have much luck!
Also I’m going to be making your sugar cookie recipe today! 😀 Happy Holidays!
Amey says:
Dec 28, 2015
OH wow!! I made cookies that looked JUST like this – but flavored with Anise extract instead of with citrus. Mine also came out perfectly spherical and absolutely adorable! ha ha. I hadn’t ever seen them before (I clearly do not live in New Haven), but my internet searches for “Italian Christmas Cookies” clearly steered me in the right direction! 🙂
claryn says:
Dec 29, 2015
Haha, sounds like it! I wasn’t a big fan of anise-flavored cookies when I was a kid, but I think I’ll have to add some to my spread next year.
The Green Creator says:
Jan 6, 2016
These look like heaven!!! Happy I found your website! 🙂
Bianca
Susan Edelman says:
Jan 18, 2016
Oh these caught my eye! Very pretty!
Mariana says:
Jan 29, 2016
This vegan anginette is mouth watering! Still staring at that picture…. Delicious! x
Robert says:
Feb 21, 2016
Oh my! That looks amazing. I will try make these for my girlfriend this weekend. I’m sure she will freak out 😀
Thanks for the recipe
Tatlimm says:
Mar 16, 2016
Any ideas on using lemon juice instead of extract? I don’t have anything but vanilla extract at home, and really don’t want to buy lemon extract just for 1 recipe…although these are making me drool…
claryn says:
Mar 16, 2016
Sure! You could try replacing both the lemon extract and the water/milk in the icing with lemon juice, and you could replace the water (some or all of it) and the lemon extract in the cookies with lemon juice. I don’t know how much you’d need to use to pack the same citrusy punch, and it’s possible the cookies may rise slightly differently with all of the acid lemon juice would add, but do let me know how it turns out if you go that route!
Tina says:
Mar 30, 2016
This is so adorable! Definitely the perfect dessert for event! Delicious!
Jennifer says:
Aug 27, 2016
Thank you for this recipe! I haven’t tried them yet but I grew up with my mom and their cousins making these delicious cookies.
Beth-Ann says:
Apr 21, 2017
Thank you for sharing , I made them and they are wonderful, I did two batches as recipe instructs and I made two batches using the anise flavoring instead of the lemon as I am Italian and grew up eating these with the anise flavor. thank you again, they are wonderful, I would send a picture put I can’t figure out how to copy it to this using my iPad, I do shape them differently as my mom always did, they are rolled, then twisted up into a round like shape