#Almond cookies with almond paste cracked

Traditionally, they can be found formed into a crescent otherwise, they are round or disc-shaped. These delectable nutty cookies are moist, soft, and chewy, and jeweled with golden pine nuts or slivered almonds. These cookies born in the middle ages can be found in bakeries throughout Italy and the world.

#Almond cookies with almond paste cracked

These cookies belong to a type known as “amaretti” which refers to a type of pastry made with almond paste, sugar and egg whites, characterized by a rough and cracked surface but not to be confused with amaretto – the almond-flavored liqueur. Pignoli, which literally means pine nuts, is pronounced and can also refer to a fussy person, one who is excessively precise or meticulous. It’s a Sicilian type of almond macaroon with two main ingredients of almond paste and pine nuts. Pignoli Cookies are the quintessential ‘crown jewel’ of Italian holiday treats that originated on the southern island of Sicily. There’s also a paleo option! I used coconut sugar in them, reduced the sugar quite a bit, and they were still surprisingly almondy. If you make them totally from scratch, you just mix together all of the above stuff, in addition to almond flour, powdered sugar and almond extract. Then you use a cookie scoop to make dough balls, and then you cover them in pine nuts. To that, you add granulated sugar, egg whites and salt. If you make the almond paste version, you use two full packets of the store-bought version or one full recipe of the homemade almond paste recipe. Even if you make these pignoli from scratch, they’re super easy.