Chocolate Zuccotto – Day One – Amaretti Cookies
If you’re an Almond Lover, you’ll wanna make these easy Italian Almond Cookies. They are naturally Gluten Free and full of yummy almond flavor. To jazz them up, I rolled a few in powdered sugar, added a few Luxardo Maraschino Cherries to some
If you’ve got an Italian Grandma, chances are that she’s made these for you at least a dozen times.
They are relatively easy to make, however, it took me a long time to find a recipe for them. It seems that there are a lot of different ways that people make them. Ultimately I decided to go with the most accurate one. I am in love with site Eat The Love and I think that Irvin takes beautiful photos and makes wonderful recipes and his addition of apricots to the cookies sounds amazing!
I’m sure these would be a welcome addition to your Christmas Cookie platter as well.
They remind me of Wedding Cookies, but with the flavor of sweet almond extract… Ok, they just look-alike… Whatever. I guess their closer cousins would be a Macaroon (Southern coconut cookie) or even a Macaron (french cookie sandwich).
The Macaroon is made with whipped egg whites and coconut flakes then baked. They are naturally gluten-free and very easy to make.
The Macaron is made with stiffly whipped egg whites and almond flour. Again, naturally gluten-free, however, they can be temperamental to make.
This Amaretti Cookie Recipe is pretty much fuss-free. No egg whipping required. But I will warn you to watch your almonds in your food processor. You could end up with almond butter if you don’t pay attention and process it too long. You don’t want to try to use almond flour in this recipe because you’re looking for a thicker consistency with a little bit of grit to it.
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
- 450 g (3 cups) blanched almonds
- 200 g (1 cup) white sugar
- 65 g (1/2 cup) powdered sugar
- 2 tea almond extract
- 3 egg whites
- Optional -
- Powdered sugar to coat
- Whole almonds to top
- Maraschino Cherries to top
- Preheat the oven to 300℉ and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
- Place the almonds into a food processor and pulse until course. Add the sugars and pulse until a fine crumb forms. Add in the extract and then pulse in the egg whites until a thick dough ball forms.
- Use a 1 Tablespoon cookie scoop
to measure out your cookies. Roll the dough in your palms and place them on a cookie sheet.
- Leave them round or flatten gently. Top with a maraschino cherry or almond.
- Roll in powdered sugar for a sweeter cookie.
- For softer, chewier cookies, bake for 25 minutes. For a crisper cookies, bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.
- Enjoy!
Aw these cookies are super sweet! I love the ones coated in powdered sugar. I need to try this!
They were really yummy and not too sweet! They also freeze great to make now and save for Christmas.
These look awesome! I’m going to save this recipe for my Christmas cookie list. 😀
Found you on Say G’Day. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
These look so delicious. I think I will add them to my Christmas baking list this year. Pinned.
visiting from Say G’day.
Great! They look great on a Cookie Platter!