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 corn starch
- 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
Love your recipes but sometimes is frustrating converting from American cups or pounds in to Australian cups.Everything in grams would be much easier
Pleeeeeeees🙏🏻
Hi Maria, my new recipes have the feature so you can convert the ingredients to grams if you click Metrics.
I used almond flour using the weight suggested. Put 1 tsp almond extract and 1 tsp vanilla. My dough was also crumbly so I added additional butter til it looked like it would hold together. Probably about 12 tbs butter total. The balls never flattened at all so I tapped them flat when I removed from the oven. Have a nice almond flavour.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
I had the same problem. Next time I’m going to use hazelnut flour so they have that brown look.
I’ very happy that you do collabs like this Natasha. Definitely going o try this. Happy Thanksgiving Natasha’s family and Marina.
Happy Thanksgiving!
im soon going use make the cookies but im trying to make a way out of it to make them soon my mom always needs my help and im going to make them today!
I hope you both love these cookies, Leah!
We did half almonds and half hazelnuts. We loved the cookies, but we are curious why the batch made with hazelnuts collapsed while baking. They were chilling for the same amount of time (1 hour) before baking.
Hi Maggie, I haven’t seen that happen but I wonder if it had to do with how finely the nuts were ground?
Hi Natasha, my brother and I tried the gluten free recipe and we absolutely LOVE IT. We couldn’t stop eating the cookies. Thank you so much for working so hard to come up with these recipes!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review! I know our readers will find this helpful!
Excellent cookies Natasha, they turned out to be very fragrant, I used homemade nutella for the filling, very tasty, thanks for the recipe
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the wonderful review!
how much ml cup do you use?
Hi Anuradha, we use a liquid measure cup. Please see our post on measuring here for more help and details with ml and measuring.
Good afternoon. Want videos not recipes
Hello there. You can check out my YouTube channel too for the video tutorials
Hi Natasha
If using 1 to 1 gluten free flour do you still need to use the cornstarch??
Hi Cindy, I haven’t tested this with GF flour so I can’t say for sure how it would affect the recipe or if changes in corn starch would have to be made.
Hi Natasha
I can only find natural unpeeled hazelnuts. I’ll roast them but do they need to be peeled?
Thanks
Amina
Hi Amina, resharing the message from Marina on these: “The best way to roast hazelnuts is to spread them on a baking sheet and bake @ 325F for about 12-15 minutes, tossing often. I start checking on them from around 10 minutes and remove them when they’re to the desired doneness. 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.”
Great recipe, I used almond and hazelnut meal together.
That sounds lovely! Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
Can i bake it in advance, like 1-2 days before? If so how to store them . Thank you
Hi Natallia, Since the filling is just pure chocolate, the cookies can be filled and stored at room temperature covered for up to about a week. They are best eaten fresh, within a couple of days though.
The storage time does not change regardless if they’re filled or not.
I have to override my previous comment, Natasha! I made these cookies second time, and they turned out delicious! I used orange extract instead of vanilla because orange flavor works great in combination with hazelnuts, and I used hazelnut spread for filling. It’s beautiful. I think they turned very dry last time because I didn’t use enough butter ( 5 oz is 10 tbsps not 5! ) I believe I wasn’t the first person to make this mistake… 😉😄
I’m so happy that worked well for you, Yelena! Thank you for the updated and wonderful review!
Can i use almond flour instead of hazelnut flour?
Hi Viktoriya, yes! There are notes on this substitution in the recipe above. I hope you love these Italian cookies!
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. Thank you, Natasha, for sharing this recipe!
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful review!!
My dough was crumbling. Is that ok?
Hi Nikki, I haven’t experienced that, at which point was it crumbling? after baking? Did you make any changes to the recipe?
This is the perfect treat for the holidays.
Hi Natasha,
Thank you for this wonderful cookie recipe. I was wondering if you could also post a recipe for Christmas butter cookies to make cutout cookies.
Thank you!! Happy Holidays!
Hi Suzy, we have several recipes here that you may enjoy. 🙂
Hi Natasha, thanks for posting this recipe. Just want to ask the equivalent of 5oz of butter in tablespoons.
I appreciate your response,
Nikki
Hi Nikki, one stick of butter is 4 ounces. Those 4 ounces are divided into 8 tablespoons. Based on that, 5 ounces would equal ten tablespoons. I hope this helps.