Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

amaretti cookies

Back in 2002, I went on a two-week tour of Italy. As a “souvenir,” I brought a big bag of amaretto biscuits home to my family, and oh were they good — soft and crumbly, with an unmistakable (but never overpowering) hint of amaretto.

I recently came across a recipe for amaretti cookies by Garrett McCord at the Simply Recipes blog, and I decided to give it a go this afternoon. I’m not sure if they measure up to the cookies I brought back from Italy five years ago, but these little almond morsels were pretty yummy nonetheless.

The recipe:

2 ½ cups of almond flour -or- 3 cups of blanched slivered almonds, finely ground up
1 ¼ cup of baker’s sugar (superfine sugar)
3 egg whites
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of almond extract
Extra sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 300 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a food processor mill together the almond flour and sugar. Add the vanilla and almond extract and pulse for a few seconds. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to process until the dough is smooth.
3. Place teaspoons of the dough on the parchment paper and dust with sugar. Bake for 24-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely before serving. They will be slightly chewy at first, but they will be nicely crispy as a day or two goes by. Store in a cool, dry place. (Note: I usually underbake mine since I like them chewy. If that’s your preference, bake them for about 20-24 minutes.) Makes about 30 cookies.

A couple notes:

• I wasn’t able to find almond flour at my nearby Harris Teeter, but I was able to find it at Whole Foods. It was a bit pricey — to the tune of $13ish (which makes this something of a “special occasion” cookie). I didn’t price out blanched slivered almonds, so I don’t know if getting those and grinding them up myself would have proven less expensive.
• My local grocery store also didn’t stock superfine sugar. Some folks pointed out in the comment thread for the recipe that you can make your own superfine sugar by pulsing regular sugar in the food processor until it’s a little finer. (I didn’t see that until after I made the cookies, though, so my cookies were made with ordinary sugar.)
• The recipe recommends waiting until the cookies cool completely before serving. Lacking any sort of self-restraint when I have fresh cookies and a heavenly-smelling kitchen, I can say that the warm cookies are still pretty good. (Though they’re even better when cooled.)