Amaretti Biscuits

I love anything with marzipan or almonds, for me it denotes Christmas whether on an English Christmas cake, in Stollen or just in bars covered in chocolate.

I have found a supply of German chocolate covered marzipan bars in New World, one of our local super markets, it’s the first time I have seen this product available and I’m not ashamed to admit I have purchased and consumed quite a few bars in the last few weeks. Each time I go to the supermarket the shelf containing them doesn’t seem to have diminished so I feel I should try and deplete their stock so they feel it is a popular product and buy it again next year ;o) All in the name of a good cause of course, someone might have to roll me into the New Year though!

Since I have the almond craving at the moment I decided to make Amaretti biscuits, I have always liked them and in the back of my mind I knew I had seen somewhere that there was a recipe for ‘chewy’ biscuits rather than the crunchy one I have bought in the past. I found this recipe from Smitten Kitten, who has such a beautiful website. I have modified my recipe since I was using ground almonds not paste and added the Amaretto liqueur to help create my own paste. It is an incredibly easy recipe.

200g ground almonds
2 tblsp amaretto liqueur
1 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 large egg whites at room temperature for at least 30 minutes

Method

Preheat oven to 150°C and place racks in the upper and lower thirds of your oven. Line two large sheet pans with greaseproof paper.
Pulse ground almonds, sugar, salt and amaretto in a food processor until blended.
Add egg whites and pulse until smooth. Transfer batter to pastry bag fitted with a 3/8-inch tip and pipe 3/4-inch rounds (1/3 inch high) about 1-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.
Mine didn’t puff up as much as Smitten Kittens did but maybe because I used egg left over whites which I had defrosted. Although they turned out the shape I would expect for amaretti biscuits. They were crisp on the outside and chewy in the centre.
Let me know how yours turn out if you make them.

Let cookies cool almost completely in their pans. Once cool, they?re much easier to cleanly remove from the parchment. You can make them into sandwich cookies but spreading some jam (I used raspberry) between them or ganache (3 ounces of semi-sweet chips melted with 1 to 2 tablespoons of cream, then left to thicken a bit would be enough to sandwich the whole batch).

Cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for a day or two or frozen up to one month.