It’s Christmas cookie time!

There’s these little Italian amaretto cookies that a friend of mine fell in love with a couple years back. So this year, I found this recipe that I think is more or less the same cookie, and made them for her…but I got sick and had no means to deliver them, and I was pretty sure she wouldn’t want coughed-on cookies anyway, so we’ve been bravely eating them ourselves. The sacrifices we make for friendship.

The recipe is almost just the same as macarons: meringue-based, add almond flour/ground almonds and powdered sugar. The resulting texture is pretty similar, but you add a considerable amount of almond extract, so the taste doesn’t rely on sandwiching something in between them. And, also, since you aren’t making sandwiches out of them, they don’t all need to be the same size, so I didn’t bother piping them. They aren’t quite as pretty that way, but I am a disaster with a pastry bag, and I’d already made a huge mess, so it seemed safer if I just spooned them on to the baking sheet.

Amaretti

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Position racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven. Combine the almonds and powdered sugar in a food processor. Process until the almonds are finely ground, pulsing to avoid turning the mixture into a paste and scraping the sides as necessary. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form when the beaters are lifted. Add the almond extract and continue to beat, gradually adding granulated sugar, until the egg whites are fluffy and very stiff with a dull sheen.

Pour the almond mixture over the meringue. Fold with a large rubber spatula just until the dry mixture is fully incorporated. Scrape the batter into the pastry bag. Pipe low domes about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 3/4 inches high, 1 inch apart, on the lined cookie sheets. If your domes are pointy, smooth them with a wet finger. Without a pastry bag, use a spoon to scoop tablespoons of batter 1 inch apart onto the pans. While the first two pans are baking, pipe or scoop any remaining batter immediately onto a third lined sheet or onto a parchment liner to be transferred to a baking sheet when the oven is free.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the cookies are golden. (Or, if you prefer them crunchy on the outside and a little soft and chewy within instead of thoroughly crunchy, bake them for only 12 minutes at 350°F.) Rotate the pans from top to bottom and from front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. Set the pans or just the liners on racks to cool. Let the cookies cool completely before storing. Repeat with the remaining cookies. May be kept in an airtight container for weeks.

Find this recipe on Springpad: http://sprng.me/9mfen