Experience the ultimate indulgence this festive season with our exquisite selection of Italian Christmas desserts. Delight in 35 delectable recipes tailor-made for the holiday season.
Italian Christmas Desserts
These traditional Italian Christmas desserts will be the perfect sweet treat for your family to enjoy. Christmas time is the perfect season to make Italian dessert recipes.
These authentic Italian recipes include something for everyone. From fried dough and sweet bread to Italian Cream Cake and more, there is so much to choose from.
1. Italian Donuts
This deep fried treat is topped with powdered sugar for the best Christmas sweet treat. You can add dipping sauce and whipped cream if you prefer.
Italian Donuts
Italian donuts are fried to perfection and rolled in sugar. This Zeppole recipe is light and fluffy while being easy to make.
These are the best Italian Cookies and have a tasty glaze on top with lots of sprinkles.
Italian Cookies
This Italian cookies recipe is buttery and delicious with an amazing glaze that just brings it all together. The sprinkles make the cookies extra festive.
This classic dessert is a must have during the holiday season with candied fruit and so easy to make with these step by step instructions.
Italian Panettone
Step into the world of traditional Italian cuisine with this mouth-watering Panettone recipe! Perfect for any Christmas table, once you make it, I guarantee that you won’t want to go a single holiday without it! It’s truly that delicious!
This dainty dessert with sponge cake, chocolate and more is the epitome of Italian desserts.
Italian tiramisu
One of Italy’s most popular desserts, tiramisu is an elegant, rich layering of bold espresso and cocoa, creamy mascarpone, sweet Marsala wine, and delicate ladyfingers, a low-density sponge cake-like cookie.
The filling is rich and delicious in this Cannoli recipe. The chocolate make it even better.
Italian Cannoli
This recipe makes a crisp and flaky cannoli shell enclosing a lusciously creamy, sweet ricotta filling which is dotted with decadent dark chocolate chips.
Nougat candy is so delicious and this Italian version is so wonderful. It has nuts and more for the perfect crunch.
Torrone Italian Nougat
Torrone isn’t your average nougat candy – it’s better than any other!! It’s light, sweet, and soft, with heavenly floral and citrus notes. Tiny bits of pistachio and almonds add just a slight crunch.
From the creamy middle to the fruit topping, this Christmas Italian dessert recipe is unforgettable and so pretty.
Panna Cotta
Rich and creamy Panna Cotta! It’s an easy to make dessert that is undeniably delicious. Especially when it’s enhanced with a vibrant and gorgeously red, tempting, fresh raspberry sauce!
With only 5 ingredients, it is super easy to make Italian Almond Cookies. Each bite is delicious.
Italian Almond Cookies
These 5 ingredient Italian almond cookies (amaretti cookies) are such an easy recipe to make, and so delicious! They are also known as Sicilian almond paste cookies, paste di mandorla, and ricciarelli
These cookies have the perfect hint of lemon for a delightful shortbread cookie.
Canestrelli Delicious Italian Cookies
Canestrelli are a wonderfully delicious Italian Cookie, an almost shortbread type cookie but with a crunch, fast and easy. The perfect afternoon tea cookie. A touch of Lemon makes them irresistible.
Not only does each cookie smell heavenly but it tastes splendid as well. The cookies consist of finely ground almonds and the perfect blend of seasoning.
Italian Mostaccioli Cookie
These soft, two bite cookies are chock-full of finely ground almonds and filled with a lovely aromatic essence from both ground cloves and cinnamon.
Layers of luscious cake with cream cheese frosting in between each layer make the perfect Italian Cake.
Italian Creak Cake
Italian Cream Cake is a southern-style cake is bursting with pecan, coconut, and almond flavors. It’s frosted with a cream cheese frosting and beautifully decorated to make one impressive and ridiculously tasty dessert!
The colorful layers in this cookie recipe make a gorgeous dessert and it tastes great too.
Italian Rainbow Cooking
These Italian Rainbow Cookies are soft, fluffy almond cake layers with tart raspberry jam in the middle, all covered in a smooth layer of rich chocolate.
Candied fruit, nuts and honey make this cake sweet and delicious. The cake is easy to make and everyone will enjoy it.
Homemade Panforte
Panforte is a delicious Italian fruit cake from Siena, made with honey, nuts and candied fruit. The perfect Christmas cake to share with friends and family.
If you love the flavor of lemon zest, this Italian Lemon Cake is the one to try. The cake is moist and delicious with the best frosting.
Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Everyone needs a vibrant, light, fluffy, moist lemon cake recipe up their sleeves. Easter is coming up and it wouldn’t be complete for me without a beautiful, seasonal lemon cake.
Display these gorgeous layers in a trifle dish and enjoy the array of flavors. It is packed with chocolate, pastry cream and more yummy ingredients.
Zuppa Inglese
a classic Italian trifle made with Savoiardi biscuits (ladyfingers) soaked in liqueur and layered with a heavenly vanilla pastry cream and a rich and fudgy chocolate custard. Super easy to make and perfect for special occasions.
These delectable dough balls are fried to perfection, coated in honey and decorated with sprinkles.
Struffoli Italian Honey Balls
These Italian honey balls are nothing more than small fried balls of dough, caramelized in honey and decorated with rainbow sprinkles and candied fruit.
If you are looking for a cake that looks stunning, this will definitely be the star of the dessert table. This star shaped treat is beautiful.
Pandoro Verona Christmas Cake
The famous star-shaped sweet Christmas bread from Verona, Italy! This pandoro recipe takes some time to make but the effort is well worth it to enjoy this delicate vanilla-infused cake-like bread with its beautiful appearance, delicious flavor, and wonderful texture!
This is also called Roman Yellow Bread and is typically prepared on the Winter Solstice.
Pangiallo Romano
The Pangiallo Romano Recipe, literally “Roman Yellow Bread,” is a Roman dessert typically prepared on the Winter Solstice day as a good omen hoping that the sun will return soon. For this reason, it has a golden crust. It has a lot of ingredients, but it is effortless and fast to prepare.
Each bite is chewy and crunchy all in one for the best cookie ever.
Italian Pignoli Cookies
Classic Italian Pignoli Cookies Recipe – soft, chewy almond flavored centers with a crispy, crunchy exterior that’s covered in golden, toasted pine nuts.
Gingerbread Tiramisu is perfectly spiced and so amazing. The sweetened coffee mixture is divine.
Christmas Gingerbread Tiramisu
Give your holiday dessert table an elegant spin with this show-stopping Christmas gingerbread tiramisu! Italian ladyfingers are soaked in a dark rum-spiked, sweetened coffee mixture and then layered with a perfectly creamy spiced mascarpone filling.
Each layer of this rum cake is soaked in flavor and topped with decadent icing.
Italian Rum Cake
This fabulous rum soaked layer cake is a great dessert for any festive occasion. If you need a showstopper, look no further. This Italian rum cake recipe is the one for you!
With basic ingredients, this is an easy dessert comes that comes together quickly without much work.
Zabaglione
Zabaglione is a marvel of a dessert—with three basic ingredients and a bit of practice at whisking over a water bath, you are rewarded with a warm, boozy, egg-y cloud of deliciousness, the down comforter of the dolci universe.
The combination of gelatin and cooked cream create this yummy Panna Cotta with raspberry. The presentation is stunning.
Raspberry Panna Cotta
Panna Cotta is a simple Italian dessert made by adding gelatin to cooked cream. Our version is sweetened with lots of fresh raspberries, a bit of sugar, and a hint of lemon juice.