An Italian cookie tray is not one recipe made well. It is seven or eight kinds arranged on a platter, each one a different texture, and the whole point is that you take a little of everything.
The classic Italian cookies are anise cookies, pizzelle, rainbow cookies, cucidati (fig cookies), pignoli (pine nut), amaretti, biscotti, canestrelli and baci di Alassio. Most are almond-based rather than butter-based, which is why they keep for weeks in a tin and why so many of them are naturally gluten-free.
This is the full tray: 17 recipes, grouped so you can build a balanced platter rather than three versions of the same thing. Six of them are what an Italian family puts out at Christmas. Save the list — you will want it in December.
Building a cookie tray? Pick one from each group below. A classic Italian platter is pizzelle, pignoli, rainbow cookies and biscotti — soft, chewy, layered and crisp, in that order.
The Christmas Cookie Tray
The six that appear in December in every Italian-American kitchen. Make these first if you are building a tray.
1. Italian Anise Cookies
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Soft, cakey knots under a thin white glaze and sprinkles. The anise is the taste people mean when they say a cookie tastes Italian.
2. Pizzelle
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Pressed thin in an iron until they are crisp and lace-patterned. The oldest cookie in Italy, and the easiest to make in quantity.
3. Italian Rainbow Cookies
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Three almond sponge layers, apricot jam between, chocolate over the top. They need a night under a weight, so start them the day before.
4. Cucidati (Sicilian Fig Cookies)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Dried figs, nuts and orange zest wrapped in pastry. Sicilian Christmas in a cookie, and the filling is better made a day ahead.
5. Struffoli (Honey Balls)
Small fried dough balls piled into a mound and glazed with warm honey. Naples serves them at Christmas and everyone picks at the edges.
6. Chocolate Salami
No baking at all — crushed biscuits and chocolate rolled into a log, chilled, then sliced so it looks like salami. Children love making it.
Almond & Hazelnut
Italy bakes with ground nuts where other countries use flour. These three are the result, and all of them keep beautifully.
7. Amaretti
Crackled tops, chewy middles, and a strong hit of bitter almond. Three main ingredients and no flour, so they are gluten-free by nature.
8. Pignoli Cookies
Almond paste rolled in pine nuts. Expensive to make, impossible to stop eating, and always the first to disappear from the tray.
9. Baci di Alassio
Two hazelnut-cocoa domes joined with chocolate ganache — the name means kisses from Alassio. Rich, soft and very Ligurian.
Biscotti & Shortbread
The crisp end of the tray. These are the ones made for dunking into coffee or sweet wine.
10. Italian Biscotti
Twice-baked so they dry hard enough to dunk without falling apart. They keep for a month in a tin, which is the whole idea.
11. Canestrelli
Flower-shaped Ligurian shortbread made with hard-boiled egg yolk, which gives an unusually short, sandy crumb. Dusted heavily with powdered sugar.
12. Savoiardi (Ladyfingers)
Light, dry sponge fingers. Good with coffee on their own and essential if you plan to make tiramisu properly.
Holiday Confections
Not strictly cookies, but they share the Christmas tray and nobody has ever objected.
13. Torrone (Soft Nougat)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Whipped honey and egg white packed with toasted almonds, set between sheets of edible wafer. Soft enough to cut with a knife.
14. Panforte
A dense Sienese slab of nuts, candied fruit and spice — closer to fruitcake than cookie, cut into small wedges. Keeps for months.
15. Panpepato
Panforte’s peppery older cousin, darkened with cocoa and black pepper. Stronger, spicier, and traditionally the more rustic of the two.
Fried & Savory
Two outliers worth knowing: one fried and sugared, one that goes out with the aperitivo instead of the coffee.
16. Zeppole (Italian Donuts)
Fried dough puffs rolled in sugar while still hot. Made for Saint Joseph’s Day in March and at every festa since.
17. Savory Parmesan Cookies
A shortbread made with parmesan instead of sugar. Served with prosecco before dinner, and the surprise of any cookie tray.
More Italian Sweets
The rest of the Italian dessert table, if the tray is not enough:
- 20 Best Italian Desserts
- Italian Christmas Dinner: 40+ Recipes
- Classic Tiramisu
- Cannoli
- Italian Ricotta Cheesecake
- Torta Caprese
- Italian Panettone with Chocolate
- Crostata di Marmellata (Jam Tart)
Italian Cookies FAQ
What are the most popular Italian cookies?
Biscotti, amaretti and pizzelle are the best known worldwide. On an Italian-American Christmas tray the staples are anise cookies, rainbow cookies, pignoli, cucidati and struffoli. In Italy itself, regional cookies dominate — canestrelli in Liguria, baci di Alassio on the coast, panforte in Siena.
What is on a traditional Italian Christmas cookie tray?
Six to eight kinds, chosen for contrast: something soft and glazed (anise cookies), something crisp (pizzelle or biscotti), something layered (rainbow cookies), something nutty (pignoli or amaretti), something filled (cucidati) and something fried or honeyed (struffoli). Torrone and panforte usually sit alongside.
Which Italian cookies are gluten-free?
Amaretti, pignoli and torrone contain no flour at all — they are built on almond paste, egg white and sugar. Panforte uses only a small amount and is often made gluten-free. Always check your almond paste for added wheat starch.
How far ahead can I make Italian cookies?
Biscotti, amaretti, pizzelle, canestrelli, panforte and torrone all keep two to four weeks in an airtight tin and many improve. Rainbow cookies need a day under a weight before slicing. Struffoli and zeppole are best the day they are made.
Which ones are on your tray this year? Tell us in the comments — and pin this list so it is ready when the baking starts.
