Amaretti

 

The upcoming Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Chocolate Amaretti Torte, includes Amaretti cookies in the ingredients list. 

The store I went to didn't have any - not the kind Dorie recommended and not any other kind, either - and yes, if I'd started looking earlier (I'm such a procrastinator) I might have found them at Whole Foods, or I could have ordered them online.  But I figured I could just go ahead and make them, as other TWD members have done.

Now...I don't usually read the P & Q (Problems and Questions) section on the TWD website.  I just don't think to.  But for whatever reason, I did this time.  And - now this was before I went grocery shopping - I saw that a few people had made their own Amaretti cookies, and somewhere in there I thought I'd seen a recipe or mention of making the cookies with almond paste.  So, since I couldn't find the cookies, I bought two tubes of almond paste.  Then when I got home and looked up the recipe, it didn't call for almond paste.  It called for almonds.  Clearly I am going senile.

Anyway, I poked around online and found a couple recipes and ended up combining elements of a couple of them. 

So here's my version of an Amaretti cookie recipe.

8 oz almond paste

1 cup superfine sugar

2 egg whites

1 tsp almond extract

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Break up or cut up the almond paste and put that in the food processor along with the sugar. 

Process until well combined.  Add the extract, and then the whites in a couple of additions, processing and scraping down the bowl in between each addition.  Process until smooth.

Using a piping bag fitted with a large (1/4") tip,

fill the bag with the almond paste mixture and pipe 1" rounds on two parchment lined sheet pans.  (You could also use teaspoons to spoon the mixture onto the pans.)

I baked these for 15 minutes at 300, then dropped the temp to 250 for about five minutes, then shut the oven off and left them in for another 20-25 minutes.  I wanted the cookies completely dry and crisp, so I had checked them after about 15 minutes by removing one cookie, letting it cool, and then breaking it in half.  It was still a tiny bit chewy in the center, so I left the cookies in a bit longer until I had them the way I wanted them.  Crispy and delicious. 

Comments

[jomamma]

those look so delish!

[Amanda]

Perfect! Glad you got it taken care of. That torte didn't last long in my house, looking forward to seeing everyone else's :)

[jomamma]

I hate to change the subject, but you are the only one I can think of to answer this question (I tried to ask Martha Stewart, but she's not even taking questions anymore, we knew she enjoyed hearing herself talk, but hey, at least get a question in now and then.) What exactly is crème fraîche and do you think it's the same as Crema Casera?

[Jayne]

Wow, ranking me up there with Martha?  Now I'm nervous.  I know that creme fraiche is basically a soured cream, thicker than our US traditional sour cream, and not as sour.  I've never had Crema Casera, so I can't compare them...What is Crema Casera?

[Rec(ession)ipes]

Cool masthead!