Pignoli Cookies

By KimberlySeverino

Ingredients

• ● 8 ounces pignoli (pine nuts)
• ● 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• ● 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• ● 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• ● Dash salt
• ● 1 8-ounce can almond paste
• ● 2 egg whites, slightly beaten
• ● 1/2 tsp almond or vanilla extract

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with Teflon bakeware liners or lightly butter the sheets. Place pignoli in a shallow dish.
2. Combine granulated sugar, confectioners' sugar, flour and salt in a medium bowl
3. Break up the almond paste with your fingers and place in a mixing bowl of an electric mixer. Add egg whites and beat on low speed until smooth.
4. Add almond extract and flour mixture and beat until flour is blended in, about 30 seconds. Do not over beat.
5. Using a tsp, scoop up a rounded spoon of dough and dip it, upside down, into the pignoli. Slip the dough off the spoon, pignoli side up, using your fingertip
6. Place the dough on prepared cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Stick remaining pignoli onto unbaked cookies. Shape the dough so that all the cookies are crescent
7. Bake cookies for about 25 minutes. Use the shorter baking time if you like soft cookies; the longer baking time if you like them chewy. Cool completely.



Hints:
● Always begin with almond paste, not almond marzipan which is a combination of almond paste and sugar.
● Unlike the traditional pignoli recipe, this one contains a small amount of flour which keeps the batter from running
● Baking them longer will make the cookie darker, chewier and more toasted.
● Bake 1 tray of cookies at a time
● The cookies do not store well—by the third day, they started to harden. I would suggest you keep them in the freezer if you want to hold them longer than a couple days.