Amaretti

Y's brother and the brother's fiancee came to stay with us last weekend. I made a big dinner for us on Saturday night and was looking for an Italian dessert with which to finish the evening. I looked in my Italian cook book and found a recipe for Amaretti. I'd never even heard of these before, but they sounded so nice.

As usual, there were a few ingredients that proved challenging to find here, so I googled it and found a recipe that seemed much more doable. It also reminded me of French Macarons - one of my all time favs. I love a chewy cookie!

The recipe was really simple to put together. The author says how it took practice to get the right consistency, and I suppose I don't know what that is, but mine were hard on the outside and chewy in the middle. Perhaps it was beginners luck. On the other hand, perhaps they simply aren't right. Either way, I think they are delicious!




The recipe called for a silver dragée on the top of each one. The only ones I had on hand had a slight pink tint to them. I put them on regardless, but they ended up bleeding a bit.




I left them off the next few trays and I think they look much better. I also doubt the taste was highly compromised.




The only other changes I made to the recipe were to only mix up 2/3 of the suggested amount since I only had enough almond flour to squeeze out that much, and to make 11g balls instead of 13g balls. The only reason I did this was because the first scoop using 1/2 tablespoon yielded 11g. It seemed simpler.




Although a tad time consuming - weighing, rolling, coating, baking - these cookies were really nice. I imagine I'll do them up again when the mood strikes!


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