Chewy Amaretti Italian Almond Cookies Food

CHEWY AMARETTI (ITALIAN ALMOND COOKIES)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, beat the egg and sugar. Stir in the Amaretto and almond extracts.
• Add the almond flour and stir until combined. Stir in the flour and baking powder until a firm dough is formed.
• Shape scant tablespoonfuls of dough into a ball. Lightly dredge in the powdered sugar, shaking off excess sugar. Place on baking sheet and top with an almond or maraschino cherry, if desired. Continue with remaining dough.
• Bake for approximately 15 minutes until lightly browned underneath and the tops of the cookies are crackled. Cool on a rack before serving.

AMARETTI - ITALIAN CHEWY ALMOND COOKIES

Steps:

• If you're using whole peeled almonds, toast them in the oven until lightly brown. This will give a darker color and more bright flavor to amaretti.
• Once almonds reach desired color, cool them completely.
• Pulse almonds and bitter apricot kernels (if you opt to use those as in traditional Italian recipe) with sugar in a food processor as finely as you can.
• NOTE: if you are using almond flour, use confectioners sugar instead of regular sugar. This way you don't need to use a food processor. Simply mix everything in the bowl.
• Add almond extract.
• Beat egg white with a pinch of salt until completely white and fluffy.
• Start to fold egg white into sugar and almond mix. Add a couple of table spoons at a time. You should reach silky and stiff consistency of the cookie dough. NOTE: You may not need to use all egg whites, just enough to get the dough together.
• Sprinkle work surface with some powdered/confectioners sugar.
• Pinch off some dough and roll it into ⅔ of an inch rope.Using a dough scraper cut the rope into ⅔ of an inch pieces.
• Roll each "pillow" giving it a ball shape (size of a walnut) and roll it in generous amount of confectioners sugar.
• Place each cookie on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.Decorate with an almond nut (optional).
• Bake in preheated to 350F oven for 12-15 minutes, just until inside the crinkles amaretti become lightly brown.

CHEWY AMARETTI SANDWICH COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300°F with racks in upper and lower thirds. Line 2 large (17- by 12-inch) 4-sided sheet pans with parchment paper.
• Pulse almond paste and sugar in a food processor until broken up, then add egg whites and pulse until smooth. Transfer to pastry bag and pipe 3/4-inch rounds (1/3 inch high) about 3/4 inch apart in pans. Dip a fingertip in water and gently tamp down any peaks.
• Bake, rotating and switching position of pans halfway through, until golden and puffed, 15 to 18 minutes.
• Wearing an oven mitt, rest 1 pan in sink at an angle. Lift top edge of parchment and slowly pour about 1/4 cup water between parchment and sheet pan so that all of parchment is lightly moistened (water will steam on pan, moistening bottom of cookies to help them stick together later). Repeat with remaining sheet pan. Cool cookies in pans on racks.
• Peel cookies from parchment and sandwich bottoms of cookies together

ITALIAN AMARETTI COOKIES

Steps:

• 1.Position the oven rack so that it is at the bottom of the oven.
• 2.Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
• 3.Check that your ground almonds are as fine as possible. You can always pass them through a blender to make sure.
• 4.In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground almonds, salt and sugar, mixing well with a fork.
• 5.Next mix in the eggs (all at once - no need to beat in advance), and almond essence.
• 6.Line two cookie sheet with baking paper, and using a tablespoon, make round balls of cookie dough and place them on the baking sheet (leaving 2cm of space between each).Press either an almond or pistachio onto thetop of ech cookie.
• 7.Cook for 10 minutes on the lowest rack in the oven, then move the rack to the middle of the oven and bake an additional 5 minutes.Leave to cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes.
• 8.Using a small sieve, sprinkle each cookie with a light dust of powder (icing) sugar.