Amaretti

When I was little, my favorite treat when Susie got coffee was to get an Almond Steamer (basically warm milk and almond flavoring, for everyone who hasn’t tried one). Though I don’t really like almonds, I love fake almond flavoring (I blame Susie). So, when I got my latest Graze box, I was thrilled that it included a snack that had these tiny, almond flavored cookies called Amaretti. After tasting them, I knew I had to make them at home.

These cookies are super simple to make. They involve only 5 ingredients (a few more if you want to add in the optional flavors), and take only about half an hour start-to-finish. They’re the perfect quick cookie snack!

Ingredients:

100 grams (1 cup) almond meal (or almond flour)
100 grams (1/2 cup) sugar
1 egg white
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
Optional: 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 tablespoon flour (regular or gluten free all purpose, if needed)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whip egg white and salt until stiff peaks form.

While the egg white is whipping, mix almond meal and sugar. If your almond meal has lumps (like mine did), make sure the lumps are all out and you have a smooth mixture. Add cinnamon to this mixture, if using.
Once the egg white is finished, add in almond extract (and vanilla, if using), and whip for a few more seconds. Mix in almond meal/sugar mixture until well combined. If the mixture seems to sticky, you can add in up to a tablespoon of flour (gluten free all purpose flour works if you want it to be gluten free).

Roll tablespoon-size amounts of dough into balls and place on prepared pans. If you want smaller cookies, you could make them smaller for sure, just make sure you reduce the cooking time by at least 5 minutes.
Bake cookies for about 24 – 27 minutes. You want them to start to brown, but not burn, so make sure you watch them.

Take out of oven, remove onto cookie racks. Let the cookies cool completely before eating – they’ll be crunchy, but delicious!

NOTE: you could easily increase this recipe by doubling everything. I just happened to only have this much almond meal, but I’ll definitely be making bigger batches in the future!

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