Italian Bar Cookie Recipes

Christmas Cookie Bars are the quintessential holiday treat! Sweet and soft with a tender center, there’s no one young or old that can resist these colorful little frosted sugar cookie bars!

The sprinkles are fun and festive, while the cookie itself is beyond decadent and fudgy as can be. And I really do mean it – no one will be disappointed to see this one on the dessert table!!

I know how stressful it can be to plan meal after meal, dessert after dessert during the holidays. Sometimes you just need a break!!

Italian Cookies Recipe {aka Italian Wedding Cookies}

Rest assured – these frosted sugar cookie bars are incredibly easy to prepare, come together in less than an hour, and will put a smile on

Monster cookies are great for the kids this time of year, too – use just the red and green M&Ms to stay on-theme.

I like to slice, freeze for just a little while, and then wrap up my individual Christmas cookie bars to thaw one at a time.

Italian Almond Cookies (gluten Free Biscuits, Ricciarelli)

I actually love to freeze the dough to bake at my leisure. It keeps for up to 3 months, thaws easily in the fridge, and the freezing doesn’t affect its texture!

Speaking of prep ahead, the frosting keeps really well, too! You can refrigerate for a month or so and freeze for up to 3, just like the dough.

This can be a tricky one, especially with sugar cookie bars. Because frosted sugar cookie bars harden as they cool, it can be hard to know

Christmas Cookie Bars

Here’s a good rule of thumb: once the edges begin to brown and pull away from the dish, your bars are likely close to done. The center may still look gooey, but don’t let appearances deceive you!

If you’re using an especially large pan, this may not always be the case, so you can also try the toothpick method! Only a few crumbs should stick to the toothpick when inserted into the center.

It’s basically a cookie made in a baking dish. Rather than scooping and baking individual cookies, you make the whole lump of dough at once and then slice afterward.

Bake Like Nonna: Six Italian Holiday Cookie Recipes From Garibaldina Society

They don’t have to be, no. But they’ll stay moist and soft for longer if you keep them refrigerated! If you store leftover Christmas bars on the countertop, be prepared for them to dry out within a couple of days.

You can always add a bit more life to them by microwaving them – if they’ve become especially dry, you can drape a slightly damp paper towel over them before microwaving in a last-ditch effort.

Christmas Cookie Bars are the perfect holiday treat! Sweet and chewy, no one can resist these colorful little frosted sugar cookie bars!

Chocolate Dipped Italian Biscotti Cookies (video)

Serving: 1 | Calories: 341 cal | Carbohydrates: 46 g | Protein: 3 g | Fat: 17 g | Saturated Fat: 10 g | Cholesterol: 71 mg | Sodium: 187 mg | Sugar: 35 g | Fiber: 0.4 g | Calcium: 31 mg | Iron: 0.3 mg

All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe’s nutritional value will vary depending on the ingredients used, measuring methods, and portion sizes.

And The Slow Roasted Italian will automatically receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting us, it helps us keep creating new recipes.You need to roast the almonds. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. Take the whole Almonds and spread them out on a cookie sheet or large baking pan, be sure to spread them out in one layer. Put them in the pre-heated oven for 5 minutes. Stir the almonds or turn them over if you can and put them back in the oven for another 4 minutes. (A Spatula is useful for flipping the nuts) Here is a tip on roasting nuts from “The Joy of Cooking” – “Turn nuts frequently to avoid scorching. Do not over toast as nuts tend to darken and become crisper as they cool.” You should be able to fit all 18 oz. of whole Almonds on one large cookie sheet in one layer. Roast these as listed above.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix Cheesecake Bars

Now you will want to roast the Sliced Almonds in the same manor as listed above, however these roast a lot faster so roast them for 2 min. then flipped them and roast for another 2 minutes. Take both the Whole and Sliced roasted almonds and put them aside to cool.

While the almonds are cooling. Grate (3) frozen 1.5 oz. (standard size 6″x2.5″ ea.) chocolate bars and put this on a plate to use later. Then grate (1) whole orange and (1) whole lemon rinds. You just want to grate the skin off, this really adds a nice flavor! Important Note: When you grate the orange and lemon, be sure to not grate the white part of the rinds because the white part is bitter, just grate the yellow and orange stuff 🙂

Out of the 1-1/2 pounds of now roasted almonds, take out 3/4 cups of Almonds and chop them, then put them in a blender and blend until finely chopped, if you don’t have a blender, then just put the almonds in a large ziplock bag, seal it up and that smash the heck out of them with the flat side of a meat pounder. Smash these almost to a powder. Put this in (bowl #1).

Italian Rainbow Bars Recipe

(This portion of the recipe is good for relieving any stress you may be having. 😉 You will need smash the rest of the Almonds in the same manor as listed about (ziplock and meat pounder), these you want to smash, but not as much. You want to smash them into 1/8″ pieces and smaller. When you have finished chopping all the almonds, mix them well in (bowl #1) with the finely chopped almonds.

Mix all the ingredient listed above in a large bowl with an electric beater at low speed, just enough to mix the ingredients. OK, set this bowl aside..

Mix with a fork as your pouring the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. This will be a very full bowl and you will have a lot of mixing to do, this will also be a VERY thick batter that you will have to work with a lot until you get a thick almost solid dough ball. You’ll start mixing with a fork or large spoon but will quickly have to change to just mixing with your hands. (If the batter gets to sticky to work with, just add some flour, not a lot, just sprinkle extra flour as needed to dry up the batter enough to make it easier to work with.)

Italian Fig Cookies (cucidati)

Now that you have (bowl #2) and (bowl #3) mixed together in (1) large bowl it’s time to add the chocolate and almonds. – Add (bowl #1) and the grated chocolate into this bowl. Mix all ingredients well, it will take some muscle and strong hands (Grandmom must have been a strong woman!, this is work!!!). Mix well until all the chocolate and almonds are spread out well throughout all of the dough, this will really take some muscle, (you might even break a sweat!) You will have to work with this for at least 5 to 10 minutes until it’s all blended together well. You should end up with one really large heavy dough ball (really, you could break a window with this thing! ;). If the batter gets sticky which happens sometimes depending on the temperature of the flour and humidity in your kitchen, just add a little flour to your hands while working with the batter. OK – So you will want to work with this until you have the big ball mentioned above.

You might need a little rest at this point, but don’t rest too long, we still have a lot of work to do. This Italian cookie making is serious stuff!!! Not for the weak.

Now that you have the batter done it’s time to make it into bars. Get some wax paper and spread out a little bit of flour on it. Spoon out the batter (which will be very thick) onto the wax paper and create a bar that is approximately 3″ wide, 12″ long and 1/2″ high. Get some more flour on your hands and firmly press the batter with your fingers to form the bars. This recipe should make approximately (4) 3″ wide, 12″ long and 1/2″ high bars. Now that your bars are made you will need to cut out the cookies.

Shortbread Magic Cookie Bars

OK, you should now have (3) 3″wide x 12″ long x 1/2″ high bars ready for cutting. Cut pieces on a 30 degree angle, pieces should be approximately 3/4″ to 1″ wide.

You should end up with cookies that are about 3″ long x 3/4″ to 1″ wide x 1/2″ high. Put cookies on a greased cookie sheet (preferably double wall cookie sheet to prevent burning), space the cookies at least 1/2″ apart. Cook for 10 minutes at 450 degrees f (pre-heated). After you cooked the Peseta Bars for 10 minutes take them out and let them cool on a cookies rack for about 5 minutes. Put them