Amaretti

By Joschef

Italian Amaretti almond cookies

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 16 oz sugar
• 1 small bottle [45 ml] essence of Mandorle Amaro*
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon Magic baking powder
• 1 kilo almonds, with their skin on, ground fine**
• 1/2 cup icing sugar for coating cookie dough
• A bitter almond extract from Italy sold in small bottles in Italian specialty shops; one can substitute bitter almond extract if unavailable.
• Raw almonds [NOT roasted] with their skin still on and freshly ground at home in a food processor will result in better-tasting cookies than store-bought ground blanched almonds.

Preparation

Step 1

•Beat first 6 ingredients.
•Add the ground almonds using all if possible.
•Form small balls coating them with icing sugar and placing on aluminum baking sheet.
•Bake at 350° F for 12 minutes.
•You can use a small-sized ice-cream scoop to get the desired shape and size.