Most people know Amaretti cookies by their very distinguishable tin.

Growing up, we always saved the tins and used them for storage of all types of things. My sister has a ton of them as accents in her kitchen and they look fantastic! For those who don't know about Amaretti cookies, they are a crunchy almond paste based cookie... very sugary sweet, and delicious. Check out the site where the picture came from for the story behind the cookies.

Anyway, I love these tins, however the grocery store here in Rochester doesn't sell them in the cool (16 oz) tins, they only sell them in small (2.3 oz.) little boxes... This became a problem when I decided to make an Amaretti-Amaretto Chocolate Cheesecake... yeah you heard me right *drool* The cheesecake calls for 14 oz of the cookies.... yeahhh I wasn't about to spend a good $50 on small cookie boxes so I could smash them all to pieces and put in a cake... so what's a girl to do? To the internet to find an Amaretti cookie recipe!!!


I found the recipe over at Joy of Baking. It's incredibly simple... just one thing... USE THE PARCHMENT PAPER! I didn't have any on hand and my silicon mats were over at Johns so I said whatever they can't stick too bad... wrong... they stuck bad... well most of them. But it really didn't matter since I was just baking these to smash them up anyway :) So if you are making these to eat and serve... use the parchment paper!

Amaretti Cookies
process adapted from Joy of Baking
8 ounces (225 grams) canned almond paste (NOT marzipan)
1 cup (200 grams) superfine or castor sugar
2 large (60 grams) egg whites

Extra granulated white sugar for dusting cookies

Using KitchenAid Mixer: Break the almond paste into small pieces and place in bowl of electric mixer along with the sugar. Mix on low speed until very fine. Lightly beat egg whites until foamy in separate bowl. Add the egg whites in three additions, mixing well after each addition. Continue mixing the dough until very smooth, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Drop teaspoon-fulls of dough onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper (seriously do it!! otherwise you'll have a big mess). Bake at 375 for 10 minutes, then lower tempurature to 325 and continue baking for 10 more minutes, or until the cookies have risen, are a deep golden color and have tiny cracks. Remove from the oven and place baking pan on a rack to cool. When cool gently peel cookies from parchment. If they stick to parchment, turn the paper over, take a damp paper towel and gently wipe the bottom of the parchment paper to loosen the cookie.

These cookies are a little chewy when still warm, and become nice and crunchy after they cool.


Come back tomorrow to see and drool over the cheesecake that... quote from a coworker "that cheesecake has ruined me to any other cheesecake, it was amazing!"

Chow!