Italian Amaretti Cookies Recipe

The Dough

1. Line a baking pan with baking paper and spread the almonds well apart. Now toast them. It only takes 5 minutes in a preheated oven at 200°C (392°F). This step is to dry the almonds and thus to have a finer flour. In addition, roasting gives them a distinctive and special color and aroma. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
2. Now transfer the toasted almonds and Armelline (bitter almonds) to the bowl of a mixer. If you don't have the bitter almonds but only bitter almond extract, add it at the end of step 4. Then add the granulated sugar.
3. Add the powdered sugar and grind everything very finely. You may want to run the mixer at intervals so as not to overheat the almonds too much. In fact, with the heat, the almonds release some oil that would make the almond flour moist and heavy.
4. Once you have made a fine flour from almonds and sugar, transfer it to a bowl. Now add ammonium bicarbonate (or baking powder) and egg whites. If you don't have the Armelline, now is the time to add the bitter almond extract.
5. Mix well. First with a spoon and then, when the mixture has compacted a bit, finish kneading with your hands. You should get a soft but firm and homogeneous dough. Let it rest for 10 minutes at room temperature.

Make the Amaretti Cookies

1. Take some of the dough with your hands and form rather small balls, between 2 and 3 cm in diameter (about ¾ to 1 inch).
2. Arrange the balls on a baking sheet covered with baking paper, flattening them slightly in the center. Be careful to make equal-sized balls and arrange them a little apart because they will increase a little in volume during baking. With the given doses you should get about 50 Amaretti Cookies.

The Baking

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (338°F) and bake for 15 minutes.
2. Remove the Amaretti cookies from the oven and let cool completely before removing them from the baking sheet. As they cool, they will harden completely. Here are the crispy Amaretti cookies ready to be enjoyed!