A few weeks ago, I woke up with a hankering for something sweet and nutty. Of course, I had nothing that would remotely fit my cravings in my pantry and though I normally enjoy baking, I really wasn’t in the mood for it that time. Work has been stressful and lately, all I want to do during my time off is nap. In the end, my gluttonous belly got the better of me and I skimmed kitchen cabinets, looking for something very easy and quick to bake, just to satisfy my needs and go back to bed.
I had bags and bags of ground almonds and as I was holding them in my hands, wondering why I bought so many of it, a light bulb lit up in my head. Almond cookies! More specifically, amaretti cookies. I love these. It’s like eating sweet, soft, chewy and moist balls of almond paste. There is a little Italian bakery not so far from my home, with an amazing display of various amaretti cookies of so many different flavors. For special occasions, I would often request to be given one of each of their cookies (as well as a few cannolis).
As it turned out, these cookies are super easy to make, so I made a small batch. They were all gone within 2 days.
Easy amaretti cookies
Makes approx. 15-18 cookies
ingredients
2.5 cups ground almonds
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
optional: no more than 1/2 tsp almond extract
powdered sugar
directions
Preheat oven at 300. Stack 2 cookie sheets one on top of the other (this prevents the cookie bases from browning too much) and line with parchment paper.
Fill a small bowl with powdered sugar. Set aside.
In a bowl, mix together ground almonds, salt and sugar.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk eggs whites with lemon juice until soft peaks form.
Add egg whites to the almond mixture and knead with your hands, until you obtain a soft, sticky dough.
If you’re using almond extract, this is where you add it. Knead it in the almond mixture, with the beaten egg whites.
Roll cookie dough into 1 inch balls and roll them in the powdered sugar until covered.
Place balls on the baking sheets, one inch apart from each other.
Bake for 30 minutes, until the tops are cracked and the bases are slightly golden.
Let rest on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring on a wire racks, to cool completely.
Aren’t they beautiful? This is pretty much what a no-fail cookie recipe looks like. I normally use almond extract in almost all my cakes and cookies but somehow, in this case, I did not feel like it was that necessary, given the amount of almonds used. If you fear that the cookies will not taste enough, add a little bit of almond extract but be careful because too much of it will be overwhelming and unpleasant.
Variations
From now on, you could create whatever variation you like.
For pistachio, replace the ground almond with ground pistachio. This goes for any nut of your choice.
For chocolate, use 2 cups of ground almond and 1/2 of cocoa powder. In this case, I would use a little bit of almond extract, no more than 1/2 tsp so that it doesn’t overwhelm your taste buds.
For lemon, add 1 tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice (instead of 1/4 tsp) as well as the zest of 2 lemons.
For espresso, mix 3 tsp of good espresso powder in 1 tbsp of boiling water.
You get the idea.
Now, have fun and enjoy!