Iced Italian cookies, lemon drops, lemon knots, wedding knots or anginetti, whatever your family calls them you’ll be sure to find these traditional Italian cookies at many special occasions and holiday cookie trays. Like most Italian cookies the cookie itself is not too sweet, it has a nice moist crumb and by frosting it you’ll get a more intense lemon flavor, which is a good thing!
They’re like little puffs, they look the same color from the raw to baked state except they’ll get puffier and golden brown on the bottom.
Honestly, there are so many variations to this cookie, just do a Google search and you’ll see what I mean, but the general idea remains the same. In the past I’ve made them with Crisco shortening, that’s what they used back in the day, then I tried some Organic non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening, which quite honestly turned out a little drier, I think if I upped the amount they would have been better, but this time I used all butter.
NOTE: Keep that dough cold! I actually made the dough the night before we baked them, then refrigerated it. Then as I started to form the cookies the dough started to warm up so I even threw it in the freezer for 10 minutes or so to get it cold again, it makes it much easier to form the cookies when it’s really cold, because of the butter and the warmth of your hands the colder the better.
You’ll also see other flavorings used such as almond and anise as well as different colored frosting’s and sprinkles, but my family always sticks with lemon.
Instead of colored sprinkles which I normally use, this time I wanted to do a white on white look by using tiny white non-parells and white sparkling sugar and a little lemon zest for garnish, but you can just stir some zest into your frosting instead.
Speaking of frosting, this time I tried a limoncello frosting which was very good but the traditional with extract, lemon juice and zest is just as good!
It’s time to get baking!
- 5 cups of all purpose, unbleached flour
- 5 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- one and one half cups of melted butter that has cooled down, not hot. Or you can use a vegetable shortening of your choice
- 1 cup of milk
- a pinch of salt
- zest of 1 lemon for cookie and zest of 1 lemon for icing
- 1 1oz. bottle of lemon extract
- sprinkles of your choice
- If you prefer, dough can be made the day before which makes it nice and chilled to work with, or you can start scooping them right after you make the dough but probably you will have to chill it for a while as you're making the cookies and the dough stays out. I sometimes stick it in the freezer for a few minutes to get it to firm up again.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy, add eggs one at a time, then the extract and zest.
- In a smaller bowl whisk the flour, salt and baking powder, then slowly add to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk, you might not have to use all the milk.
- When everything is incorporated, let the dough rest for 5 minutes or wrap and chill overnight.
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. and place cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- To form the knots I like to use a cookie scoop so all will be similar in size, then take the scoop of dough and roll it into a log about 5 or 6 inches, it's the length of a bench scraper, that's how I measure mine.
- Then take one side of the log and spiral it into a circle, you can tuck the other end down or up, it doesn't matter.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes according to your oven, mine took exactly 12 minutes, you want the underneath to be golden brown, not dark brown.
- Cool on racks.
- LIMONCELLO ICING
- One and one half cups of powdered sugar
- Five tablespoons of limoncello Liqueur
- zest of 1 lemon
- TRADITIONAL LEMON ICING
- One and one half cups of powdered sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- One half teaspoon of lemon extract
- and lemon juice to get the right consistency.
- I always taste my icing to make sure it has the right amount of lemon, you can always add more, and I also like to brush my icing on instead of dipping., personal preference.
- After frosting immediately put your sprinkles on and then let the whole cookie dry for about an hour.
- You can keep them in tins with wax paper in between, or you can freeze them in an airtight container right after they bake and cool down, then frost them a day or two ahead before you'll be eating them.
I’m Marie, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and gramma of two beautiful girls. My passion is food, clear and simple but especially Italian food, hence the name of my blog, Proud Italian Cook. I want you to feel right at home here so grab a cup of coffee, I’ll get the pastries, take a look around and enjoy your visit! {
