Amaretti di Saronno Recipe - The Mad Scientist's Kitchen (2024)

Amaretti di Saronno or Amaretti is an easy Italian cookie. Gluten-free since we use almond flour, sugar, egg white and vanilla essence. Because of almond flour, the amaretti biscuits are soft and not hard. But, you can customize these cookies to make them like biscotti or more tender and cake-like.

Why bake these cookies? Because they are delicious and easy. Even if, like me, you are scared of separating eggs, you'll enjoy the process after the first hurdle.

Every time I bake amaretti, the aroma that fills the house is amazing. It reminds me of Christmas and is a perfect edible gift for the season.

Wait, did I say the Christmas season?

Hey, no bake theme any time of the year because Amaretti pairs deliciously with your coffee or ice cream. It is the base or topping for so many desserts like ice cream, tiramisu and fruits. To make more delicious cookies, double the ingredients and bake extra. It's hard to resist the tasty variations!

We also love chocolate chip, Soft Oatmeal Cookies, Hoot Owl Cookies, Caramelita Cookies Bars, Easy Sugar Drop Cookies, Gingerbread Cookies, and Samo Rice Savoury Cookies. I plan to redo them soon too.

So what are amaretti?

The name Amaretti di Saronno refers to the almond-flavoured macaron. These are traditional to Saronno, a comune in Lombardy, Italy. The French also make these cookies.

I baked these cookies for FoodieMondayBlogHop and posted them on December 16, 2019. I am updating the post now with better step-wise pictures and a better write-up.

Ingredients

These are your ingredients; for quantities, please check the recipe card.

• Egg whites: This is an Italian/French cookie, so meringue-based cookies are common.
• Sugar granulated: I have used everyday sugar.
• Vanilla essence: Essence:I use it to mask the egg white smell, but then we love the aroma of vanilla.
• Almond flour/meal: You can, like me, use the ready-made almond flour I brought online.
• Powdered sugar: Everyday sugar you can grind some sugar in your mixer/ grinder.

Optional Ingredients:

• Almond extract: I love the aroma it gives the cookies, but it is okay to skip.
• Amaretto Liqueur: I have heard about this liqueur but never tasted it. So no comments.

Instructions

Chill a clean, dry and grease-free bowl (use a big bowl) and the whipping blades of your mixer for at least 30 minutes.

Whip the egg whites and 250 grams of sugar in the chilled bowl. After about 10–15 minutes, the egg whites (called meringue) will increase in volume up to four times. It will also have a sheen on it. Add the essences, and fold gently.

Fold in the almond flour till the flour is well mixed and no streaks of the flour or egg whites remain. Take care, as we do not want to deflate the egg whites.

Now this is an optional step, but in our hot place, much needed, place the bowl of dough in the fridge. This will make handling the dough easy.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F. Lay the parchment paper on the baking tray and grease it. If you have a silpat, place it on your baking tray.

You can use an ice cream scoop or a tablespoon to scoop out the dough into balls. This works fine in cold climates. But in hot weather, even in a chilled room, it is difficult to make these balls. I start out with the scoop and spoons, then finally give up and eyeball the dough. (Happens every time.)

Roll the dough in granulated sugar in a small bowl. Here, I start with the recommended 3 tablespoons but always end up using 8–9 tablespoons of sugar. So start with 3 and then use as needed. I believe this is because of the heat and humidity of my place, so I need the extra.

Roll these coated cookies in the powdered sugar if you want to accentuate the crinkles in the cookie. Yes, this is an optional step.

Transfer to the lined baking tray. Leave about an inch between the cookies as they spread. Tap the tray 2-3 times lightly.

Bake for 15 minutes for soft cookies and 25 minutes for a biscotti-like texture.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool a bit. You can serve them warm or cool, and then place them in an airtight container.

Substitutions

• Sugar: the recipe calls for granulated sugar and powdered sugar. You can replace it with stevia, but I have never tried it. I would rather eat fewer cookies or share them to keep the temptation away. I would rather not add more chemicals to our diet.
• Almond extract: This time I did not add almond extract; I just added vanilla, and the cookies were fine.

Variations

These cookies taste wonderful on plain. But you can raise the bar and experiment with different flavours to make them unique. Just adjust the quantity to suit your tastes.

• Chocolate-Dipped Amaretti: Dip your cookies in melted chocolate. Use any chocolate you favour for us, it is dark, but milk and white chocolate will do the trick. You can also use Nutella or ganache to sandwich the cookies together.
• Nutty Amaretti: Why stop at chocolate-dipped cookies? Sprinkle chopped nuts we prefer pistachios with chocolate, so that is what I do. But you can use desiccated coconut and sprinkles.
• Tiramisu: Coffee and amaretti taste good, so make tiramisu!
• Ice cream, Panna cotta: Before it sets, add crushed cookies to the vanilla ice cream or panna cotta mixture. The flavours will be amazing! You can also crumble some cookies on top; this way, you can customise the servings.
• Truffles: Last time I added all the crumbs in the ganache. The rolled chocolate balls, when coated with cocoa powder are the yummiest. The other coating you can use is shredded coconut or cookies.
• Another Italian biscuit is called Ratafia Biscuits. These are smaller and darker cookies but quite similar to the Amaretti Biscuit. They are crumbled into puddings and trifles and used as after-dinner coffee treats.

Equipment

• Bowls
• Beater for whipping
• Measuring spoons
• Spatula
• Scoops
• Silpat/Parchment paper
• Baking tray

Storage

• Store the cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for 3 days.
• You can put them in the fridge for a longer period, but they lose their crispiness. Beyond 1 week they have never lasted in my place.

Why can baking Amaretti be daunting?

Almond Flour: There are many recipes for these cookies, and all of them use almond flour.

The basic problem I had with these cookies in the past was sourcing the almond flour. I prefer to purchase my almond flour; this time I ordered online, and it works well.

That does not mean you cannot make your almond flour at home. You will need to process the sliced almonds in the mixer grinder and pulse. Be careful, as overprocessing will result in almond butter (I did say I had problems getting the flour). I suggest you pulse ¼ at a time and sieve the flour to remove the big, unprocessed chunks of almonds.

Do we remove the skins off the almonds to make the flour?

For that, I will have to blanch my almonds. I already live in a hot and humid place, so I will not try peeling the almonds. As making the flour at home is difficult, I am fine with the peels; if you wish to peel them, please be my guest.

Almond liqueur: Some of the recipes for these gluten-free cookies call for the use of the liqueur.

But you can, like me, skip it and add almond essence. This time, I skipped that too and used extra vanilla essence.

Heat: Then there is this heat! If you live in a place that is hot and humid, making these cookies is difficult. You need to find a balance, chill your dough, and be quick.

Protips

• In a big dry, chilled bowl and beaters to beat the egg whites. If there is grease or water you will not get stiff peaks. Your only solution is to start all over again.
• Your egg whites must be at room temperature.
• If like me you store your almond flour in the fridge bring it to room temperature.
• Fold the ingredients in the beaten egg white. It is easy to deflate the eggs take care.
• I stay in a hot and humid place so I need to chill my dough and work in a chilled room. Still, I need to find a workaround to make these cookies better.
• I prefer the biscotti-like texture so I bake for 20-25 minutes. For a softer cake-like texture bake for 15 minutes.

Looking for other cookie recipes? Try these:

Pairing

These are my favourite dishes to serve with:

Summary: The delicious and irresistible Amaretti classic cookies and their variations are easy to make and master. Try it today!

My recipe source is Let the Baking Begin.