italiano Amaretti cookies recipe
as seen in TasteSpotting #28577, 09.12.08 & Photograzing, 18.12.08
Learnt from Rosa’s Yum Yum’s post on Pecan Sandies that there is a worldwide cookie event called “Eat Christmas Cookies” by Susan at “Food Blogga” (USA), so I thought I can submit my amaretti too. This is already Season 2 of this event, you can see the round up so far here. The deadline is 21 December so there is still time to submit for all of you!
The chewy cookies quest has got me went on to explore how to make amaretti. Amaretti is my husband favorite, he was so happy when the first batch of the amaretti came out of the oven to be a success. I have never thought that they are so easy to make. The beauty is that I can buy the ground almond easily in Switzerland, saves a lot of time from grounding. The Swiss loves almond flavored desserts, the ground almonds was run out from Coop and I have to run to next door Migros to buy them, Migros has almost run out too so I immediately stocked up 6 packs of 100g in case I fail in my first attempt. Now that they come out so nicely, I have already received a pre-order from my in-laws to take over to Holland when we visit them over Christmas. This will keep me busy in the next days in the kitchen : )
Many thanks to Garrett McCord from Simply Recipes and ElenaC from Comida De Mama for the lovely recipes. I have adapted and combined their recipes somewhat to the following version:
Ingredients
- 300g ground almond (200g blanched & 100g non-blanched)
- 280g fine sugar (confectioners sugar)
- 3 egg whites (use large eggs)
- 1 tbsp white flour
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- pinch of salt
- a little of lemon juice
- 1 tsp bitter almond essence
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- Powdered sugar for dusting
- butter and flour for baking paper
Make: 32-36 pieces
Method:
- Line the baking sheets on the baking trays, butter and flour them accordingly .
- If you cannot find ground almond, you will need to ground the almond (with skin removed) using a food processor. Otherwise mix the ground almond with the sugar in a bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt and a few drops of lemon juice until you get a dense white foam.
- Gradually fold in the almond sugar mix, flour and corn starch using a spatula. Make sure there are no lumps, use a colander where necessary.
- Add in the bitter almond and vanilla essence, blend well until it is throughoutly mixed.
- You should now have a very nice almond dough. Place teaspoon size of the dough in the buttered and floured baking sheets. The doughs can be quite close together about 2cm aparts, as they will not rise much. Each amaretti will be about 5cm x 5cm. Use your finger to help shaping the amaretti a little if necessary.
- Dust the dough with powdered sugar and leave them in a cool place for 4-5 hours before baking.
- Preheat oven to 170°C, half an hour before baking.
- Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 25 mins or until subtle golden brown. This will give you crispy sides and nicely chewy in the middle. If you like them more crispy, you can add a few more minutes accordingly to your preference.
- When out of the oven, let them cool on the baking tray for a few minutes before transfer them to the cooling rack.
- Serve when cooled or store them in air-tight metal cookie tins.
- Don’t forget to prepare a nice coffee or expresso to go with them.
Note. My first attempt turned out to be so good that I went to make a second batch but this time I have left them overnight and it turned out that they only need to be baked for 20 mins, and they turned to golden yellow and still soft inside so I turned them to cooling rack straight away. Alternatively, you can turn the oven to 150°C for 24 mins . It’s really a matter of adjusting between time and temperature and of course knowing your oven : )
Enjoy ;P
PDF 
Yes, at the moment Migros’ stock is a little poor! I haven’t been able to find any walnuts since weeks…
Those Amaretti look gorgeous!
cheers,
Rosa
These look really delicious!
This is the recipe that my family uses. they are the first Christmas cookie I make each year because they are so simple that they break my mental barriers against the thought of a lot of baking with a DEADLINE!
Hi Julie, I think very likely I will make them every year from now on too : )
Are you sure the dry ingredients are correct . It doesn’t seem like enough dry ingredients but I am going to try it anyway . hopefully it will be buon appetito. Ciao.
Hi Anne, they are enough and should work, I have cut down the sugar content only, if you blend them together, they are just right. After rethink I know why you wonder if it will work, the trick is the waiting time for 4-5 hrs. At first I wonder why need waiting for that long, I have a recipe which said leave for overnight. This step should not be skipped whatsoever, you will see those doughs will look different from when you have just line them on the baking sheet after 4-5 hrs. Let me know how it goes. They are just so divine that they have run out and now I will need to make another batch tonight : )
Oh Janet…Amaretti are a delight and this post reminds me that I have to make the Greek version of these almond cookies.
Cool Peter, can’t wait to try your Greek version.
Janet
Thanks for sharing those Amarettis with me today. They are simply DIVINE!!!!!! I devoured every crump!
Cheers
GG
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These look delightful!
I made these cookies yesterday and followed the directions and ingredients exactly but my cookies did not rise! The dough wasn’t like regular cookie dough (thicker) and so when I put it on the baking sheet it spread like a thick sauce. I kept them cook for 5 hours and then baked and they never grew. I had these amazing amaretti cookies in Rome a couple of months ago and know they look like the picture you have and though mine tasted like them, they are super flat! Any ideas?
Regarding to your amaretti, after you mix all the ingredients together, you should form a thick sticky dough. You wrote you kept them cook for 5 hrs, do you actually mean COOL for 5 hrs. The way you described that they spread like a think sauce, it sounds like your dough is not thick enough, it should not be like liquid/ sauce. Have you whisked enough the egg whites to almost peak, it should like a thick foam. When you rest the unbaked amaretti for 5 hrs, they may look a little moist but after 5 hrs, they should look like my second picture in my post, dried surface. the amaretti should not change much in the oven, it will only rise slightly.
Also did you ground the almond yourself or you used the ready ground one, make sure you used 300g ground almond (not 300g almond before ground, as the almond may have lost by sticking the utensils, in that case, you have to ground more almonds to get the 300g.)
I have made a second time and still worked perfectly. Hope this helps and it will work when you try again.
Let me know how it goes.
Best wishes and Happy Baking,
Janet
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I love these kinds of subtly sweet and soft-in-the-middle cookies, Janet. Thanks so much for sending them my way!
Those look good. Making your own sounds like fun.
I love amaretti! These look delicious.
Hello! Beautiful blog! We were wondering if you had any recipes and pics to share with us for Lunar New Year? They could link back to your blog, of course. We’d love to see them on the site, and are planning on featuring Lunar New Year recipes later this month. Please do let us know!
All the best
Diana
http://allrecipes.co.uk
What gorgeous amaretti and just like we ate in Italy! Perfect!
Jamie´s last blog ..THE RETURN OF THE CANNOLI
Hi Jamie, thanks for your compliment. Once tried the homemade version, the industry ones tasted awful, very artificial.