In honor of St. Patrick’s day, I decided to share my fun recipe for Spumoni cookies with you guys. These green cookies are an amazing add to your St. Patty’s day party, but really, for any day! But beware, they are DANGEROUSLY good (I ate half the batch, and I’m usually pretty good about tempering myself – oops!).
Now although I’m not Italian (even though I look like I may be), I may very well have been in another life. When I visited Italy for my honeymoon last year, I fell in love. Not only with with beautiful scenery and the amazing culture, with mostly with their food! The stereotype that Italians know how to cook is 100% true. They know how to cook, they know how to serve, and they know how to make a proper dining experience all around.
What I also learned while I was in Italy was that not only is their food to die for, but their desserts are even better! Gelato piled high on every corner, bakeries filled with amazing pastries, and flavors that I never even knew existed before tasting their scrumptious treats.
One, in particular, that is very prevalent over in Italy but not so much here in the States is pistachio. Pistachio is an EXTREMELY underrated flavor. Although we may enjoy the nuts over here (all the commercials for pistachio nuts with celebrities wearing green help a bit), we don’t often use it to flavor our foods. I’m seeing it a bit more in the speciality ice cream shops that are popping up, but not in the mainstream.
Well, I am here to tell you today to BRING THE PISTACHIO into your life. It’s an amazing flavor that will add a special punch to your next dish.
For those of you that don’t know what Spumoni is, it’s an Italian ice cream that is usually made of 3 flavors: chocolate, cherry, and pistachio. Much like the neapolitan ice cream we have in the states, but oh so much tastier. And it’s REALLY hard to find in any grocery store in the US.
So recently, since I don’t have an ice cream maker, I decided to try to make spumoni cookies. The result was INCREDIBLE! Below are the ingredients you’ll need and the steps I took to make these oh so delicious green Italian butter cookies.
Steps to Make Spumoni Italian Butter Cookies
The Necessary Tools:
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 c butter (3 sticks), softened
- 1 c sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 10 drops green food coloring
- 4 c flour
- 1/2 c ground pistachios
- Candy melting chocolate
- Dried cherries or maraschino cherries
Step 1:
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Step 2:
- In a large bowl (or in your tabletop mixer), mix together your butter and sugar for about 3 minutes, or until a creamy consistency
Step 3:
- Gradually add egg, almond extract, and food coloring. Beat until the mixture is light a fluffy.
Step 4:
- Little by little add your flour, and mix until completely incorporated.
- The mixture will start to firm up and may stick to your mixing tools. If they become too stuck, stop your machine and remove the mixture from the struts of the mixer back into the bowl. You may need to do this quite a few times while mixing.
Step 5:
- Separately, in your food processor, finely chop up your pistachios.
- Once all the flour is mixed in, add your chopped pistachios into the mix.
Step 6:
- Place a piece of saran wrap down on your countertop.
- Take your dough out of your mixer and roll it in a ball. Then place it on top of the saran wrap, and place another piece of saran wrap on top of your dough ball.
- Take your rolling pin and roll the dough flat between the 2 sheets of plastic wrap (no need to refrigerate).
Step 7:
- Use a cookie cutter (or the top of a cup or champagne flute if you don’t have a cookie cutter. I used a champagne flute and it worked perfectly) to cut the cookies.
- Place each cookie on an un-greased baking sheet
Step 8:
- Top each cookie with a dried cherry (I used dried cherries because they are more natural than maraschino cherries, and tasted amazing. But you can use either or).
- Place your cookies in your oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges start turning a golden brown.
Step 9:
- Take your cookies out of your oven and place them on a drying rack.
- Put your chocolate in a ziplock bag in your microwave for 1 minute.
- Once done gradually knead the chocolate until it’s a creamy melted consistency.
- Cut a hole in the edge of your bag and drizzle the chocolate over the cookies.
Now, EAT! It’s better once the chocolate has had a chance to sit and harden, but sometimes you just can’t wait! Mmm mm. Beware though, as I mentioned earlier, they are dangerously good. Surprisingly so! Don’t say I didn’t warn you 🙂
Hopefully these will bring a fun, new twist to your St. Paddy’s day this year, or to your next weekend gathering. Whatever the occasion, these spumoni cookies are sure to be a hit!
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