25 Old-World Italian Cookie Recipes Your Grandmother Made

I’ve probably had too many of these, at one point or another in my life. Also a nice find off Flipboard, because some of my mother’s baking recipes were lost or trashed during my last move. Among them the Italian sparkle cookies.

Maybe a decade ago, ma came across the recipe in a magazine or a website and it became yearly tradition to make a batch for the holidays. It was as close to a cookie one of the old Italian relatives used to make when she was younger, as she could find; I think it was one of my grandmother’s sisters that made them.

The difference is, our relative made them as huge cookies. My mother, made as many freaking dozen cookies as she could™. I think the recipe called for something like 6 dozen cookies, and she usually made a couple dozen more, demanding so when six eggs were involved in the process. We usually had plenty for Christmas,plenty to give others, and a few frozen to help tide us over until next holiday season.

While I stand by my grumbling about having to make so many extra cookies, it was fun helping my mother bake the sparkle cookies 👍. I’ve often thought, that I might take a shot at it if I ever found a similar recipe, someday.