Italian Almond Cookies
Published March 3, 2021
- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus 1 hour’s resting
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2cups/290 grams blanched almonds
- ⅔cup/130 grams granulated sugar
- 2egg whites
- ½teaspoon almond extract
- Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
- Amarena cherries or whole unblanched almonds, for garnish (optional)
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)
95 calories; 6 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 8 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 6 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 6 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Put half the almonds and half the sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Process to obtain a coarse meal. Repeat with remaining almonds and sugar.
- Step 2
Put egg whites and almond extract in a medium bowl. Using a wire whisk, beat whites until soft peaks form. Add the almond-sugar mixture to the whites and use a rubber spatula to incorporate the egg whites until you obtain a doughlike consistency.
- Step 3
Use a spoon or small ice cream scoop to make 24 little blobs weighing about ½ ounce/20 grams. Roll each between 2 palms to make smooth spheres, then flatten them slightly. Roll them in a bowl of confectioners’ sugar to coat well and place 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Step 4
Use the end of a wooden spoon to make little round dents in each cookie. Fill dents with whole, unblanched almonds or Amarena cherries, if desired. Alternatively, leave cookies plain with smooth tops. Leave the tray of unbaked cookies at room temperature, uncovered, for 1 hour.
- Step 5
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake until lightly browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Private Notes
Comments
I've used 1-1/2 cups of almond flour in an Amaretti recipe with the same amount of the other ingredients and the texture is perfect, "crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside".
This is the kind of basic question to which David Tanis can and should respond, please. Almond flour is ground blanched almonds, and is much easier to come by than whole blanched almonds. Mr. Tanis, please respond, and please give the flour equivalent of the 2 cups whole blanched almonds. Perhaps you recommend the coarse flour rather than the fine. Thank you.
Curious if one could just use almond flour and the sugar instead of blanched almonds -- and the gram amount. May attempt tomorrow.
Make these every Christmas but sub almond flour (the super fine type) for the blanched almonds.
Comments that listed to bake at 325 for 20 minutes were more correct. My top rack came out great. I forgot to rotate top and bottom racks and the bottom ones burnt. The original temp and bake times were way too high. I think almond flour would be better as the almond meal was too grainy for my taste.
I was looking for a cookie with a gently crunchy exterior and a soft interior. This was pretty close to the example I was emulating. A finer amount of processing could have gotten there, maybe, but I really enjoyed the slightly crumbly interior texture. And the blanching process was fun—something I hadn’t tried before. These were delicious!