Baci di Dama are Italian cookies made with two melt-in-your-mouth hazelnut cookies held together with some good dark chocolate. Italian cookies would make an excellent addition to the Christmas cookie platter!
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I hope these Italian Cookies will become part of your holiday traditions. They’re so good!
Baci di Dama Recipe
Originating in the northwest region of Italy, these Italian Cookies are filled with tons of roasted hazelnuts. Combined with the dark chocolate, they remind me of Dacquoise Cake (or this Ferrero Rocher Cake from Let the Baking Begin). Their texture is both crunchy and melt-in-your-mouth tender which makes it so hard to stop at just one!
The Italian Cookies are perfect to serve next to a hot cup of strong coffee or espresso in the morning, or as an afternoon treat. The name, Baci di Dama, means “lady’s kisses” since the two halves of the cookies resemble two lips that come together for a kiss.
Helpful Reader Review
“Best cookies ever! Made these for the first time this year and they quickly disappeared. Looks like I’m going to have to add them to the traditional Christmas cookie list. And I think I’m going to have to make another batch sooner than for Christmas 2019 — like maybe as a special request for someone’s birthday dinner! My only challenge is finding hazelnuts. Have to make a special trip to Trader Joe’s for them, because they are not readily found in local supermarkets. Never mind, the trip is well worth it.” – Barbara ★★★★★
The secret to Perfect Italian Cookies:
One of the most important things which ensure proper shape and texture of the Italian cookies is to use well-chilled butter. Then, once the cookies are shaped the dough must be chilled once again to prevent melting or spreading in the oven, as well as cracking. The rest of the process is smooth sailing!
Ingredients for the Italian Cookies
- This recipe can be made with both hazelnut and/or almond flour/meal, depending on your preference. Using store-bought hazelnut or almond flour will give a more tender resulting Italian cookie, so feel free to replace whole hazelnuts with the same amount of hazelnut or almond flour (by weight, 240g). I prefer the cookies with little pieces of hazelnuts still felt throughout the cookie though. For this, I pulse the hazelnuts in a food processor or a coffee grinder until mostly flour-like.
- Use only well chilled, unsalted butter for this recipe.
- Scroll to the bottom of the recipe card for the gluten-free version.
How to Make Baci di Dama Italian Cookies
- Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk. Add the cubed butter, vanilla extract and beat with a mixer until a dough forms.
- Shape the Italian Cookies by using a small ice cream scoop, or just pinch away about 2 teaspoons of dough, then roll into a ball and place on a baking sheet about 1.5 inches apart. Refrigerate for about 1 hour.
- Then, preheat the oven to 325 degrees with the baking rack in the middle. Bake the cookies for about 17-18 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
- In a microwave-safe bowl melt the chocolate chips by heating it in 10-15 second intervals, stirring occasionally, until melted.
- Sandwich two cookie halves with about 1 tsp of chocolate and allow to set for about 30 minutes before serving.
How to Roast and Peel Hazelnuts:
If you aren’t able to find peeled hazelnuts, they peel easily after roasting. The best way to roast hazelnuts is to spread them on a baking sheet and bake @ 325F for about 12-15 minutes, tossing often. Start checking on them from around 10 minutes and remove them when they’re to the desired doneness.
To peel the hazelnuts: remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Transfer the nuts to a ziplock bag and rub them from the outside to remove the skins. Now shake the bag until all skins fall to the bottom. Remove the nuts from the bag leaving the skins behind.
More Cookies to Try
- Almond Snowball Cookies
- Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Angel Wing Cookies
- White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
- Cranberry Bliss Bars (Let the Baking Begin)
- Russian Tea Cakes
- Oreshki Walnut Cookies (Let the Baking Begin)
Baci di Dama Italian Cookies
Ingredients
Italian Cookie Ingredients
- 2 cups hazelnuts, roasted, skinned (2 cups = 240g)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 4 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 5 oz cold unsalted butter, cut to small pieces
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Baci di Dama Chocolate Filling
Instructions
How to Make Italian Cookies
- Line 2 baking sheet pans with parchment paper, set aside. Pulse the hazelnuts in a food processor or a coffee grinder until mostly flour-like with some pieces that still retain texture.
- In a large mixer bowl whisk together ground hazelnuts, flour, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add the cold cubed butter, vanilla extract and mix until a dough forms with no visible butter chunks.
- Using a small ice cream scoop, portion the dough into about 2 teaspoon chunks, then roll each one into a ball. You'll get about 40 dough balls. Set Italian cookies onto the prepared baking sheet about 1.5 inches apart. Slightly tap on top of each hazelnut cookie ball to flatten. See *recipe notes* for how to shape and bake smaller sized cookies.
- Chill cookies in the fridge for 1 hour. About 45 minutes into it, preheat the oven to 325 degrees with the baking rack in the middle. Bake cookies for about 17 to 18 minutes, or until just starting to brown on top. Remove from oven and cool completely.
How to Assemble Italian Cookies
- In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate chips in 10 to 15-second intervals, stirring occasionally until the chocolate chips have melted half way (about 2 minutes). Then, continue stirring until the rest of them have melted completely.
- Spread 1 teaspoon of melted chocolate onto the bottom half of the cookies. Cover with the other half and press to adhere. Allow to sit undisturbed until the chocolate has set, about 30 minutes.
Notes
To Make Gluten Free Italian Cookies:
Replace the all-purpose flour (1 cup) and the cornstarch (4 Tbsp) with the same amount of rice flour (1 cup 4 tbsp).Whole Hazelnut Substitution:
Start out with 2 cups of whole hazelnuts and grind them yourself, or replace whole hazelnuts with the same amount by weight (240 g) of hazelnut or even almond flour.To make smaller Baci di Dama:
Cut the dough into 8 pieces and refrigerate. Remove one piece of dough from the fridge and roll it out to about 10-inch long rope, next cut it into about 10 pieces. Roll each piece into a marble sized ball. Reduce baking time to about 10 minutes. Fill with only about 1/2 a tsp or less of chocolate.Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
I put the nuts in the food processor and ground them then added the cold butter. Helped bring it together when put in the mixer. Its the only non solid so my thought it it should be room temp and not cold to bring the dough together.
These were very good. But I ran into the same problem many other people had, the dough was dry and crumbly at first; seemingly too dry to create a ball. I panicked and thought I’d have to add more butter. After waiting, though, I realized it was only because the butter was cold. Once the butter started to warm up, the dough came together fine without adding anything additional.
Hi there!
Is it possible to make these cookies in advance and freeze them without compromising the taste/texture of the cookie? If so, how long could they potentially freeze for?
Hi Jessica! I haven’t tried freezing these to know how the texture could be effected but I think so. Here’s what I found online, “To freeze, place in an airtight container for up to 1 month. To defrost, remove the container from the freezer and allow thaw in the refrigerator overnight.”
I hope that helps!
My dough was too dry to come together and shape, so I drizzled in water, probably 1/3 cup by the time I was satisfied it would hold. Also, only the ones I did NOT gently flatten had the characteristically rounded shape. I added 1/8 tsp espresso powder to the chocolate. The finished cookie is delicate and delicious, a new favorite.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
Silly question, but for the chocolate filling, could i just substitute nutella? I suppose other than freezing it, there wouldn’t be a way to stiffen the nutella, which is why you’re using chocolate chips? I just think the chocolate hazelnut flavour would work better. Has anyone tried it this way?
Hi Jade! I think that would be fine to use Nutella instead.
Have you tried making this using vegan butter? Will it work?
I have not, so I am not sure how it would turn out. If you experiment, I would love to know the results.
I think the amount of butter in the recipe is incorrect. I believe it needs to be doubled. I added a full stick of butter and the cookies are still dry. I will double
butter next time. But the flavor is outstanding
Hi Esther, 1 stick of butter = 8 Tbsp or 4 oz. The recipe calls for 5 oz of butter which is 1 1/4 sticks of butter so it does sound like you were short on some butter if only using 1 stick. A good way to double check is to click on the metric button in the recipe card and you will see gram measurements. 1 stick of butter is also 113 grams and this recipe calls for 141 grams of butter.
Can I freeze these cookies without the filling and fill them after they thaw out? Will the taste ot texture be affected?
I haven’t tried doing it that way to advise.
When you say 40 cookies, is that 40 whole cookies or 20? I only want to start off with maybe 20 to see how they come out so should I halve the recipe?
Hi Lori, you may click serving in the recipe card to half and adjust the recipe and ingredients.
Hi Lori, they are 20 sandwich cookies and 40 halves. Thank you for asking. I will clarify in the recipe.
Finding a good baci dama recipe is so hard! I always try new recipes with no luck and this recipe was just like all the others. Several of my cookies melted. The smaller versions took way longer than 10 min to cook. I wish there was a simple way to make these because they’re my favorite!
HI Cooper, I’m not sure why it would ‘melt’ unless there was something happening with how the ingredients were measured. Check out our post on how to measure ingredients for baking which may help.
Sounds like you need to put an oven thermometer in your oven because it obviously isn’t the right temp. I have an oven thermometer so I can know for sure my oven is the correct temp and this recipe was perfect. I love all the people who have failed recipes and blame it on a recipe that is getting great reviews!
These cookies are fantastic morsels of Italy bundled into a tiny cookie. Delicious! For technique, I used a method I found elsewhere that allowed for more uniformity. Line an 8×8 pan with parchment. Press processed dough evenly into pan, freeze for 10 min. Using a ruler, cut into 1” strips; turn and cut again. You end up with 64 (32 cookies) squares to roll into uniform little balls, which makes them easy to pair. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
good idea, mine are baking now and using my smallest scoop they are larger and I won’t press them together with another cookie, just top with chocolate