Whyyyyyyyy are these so good?
You guys. These are not normal cookies. They’re the chewiest, almond-y-est, crisp-on-the-outside-but-so-effing-chewy-in-the-middle est cookies ever. No really. Like EVER.
My friend Tina recently had a baby shower and these cookies made an appearance. Well, technically not these exact ones. Her cousin’s mom owns an Italian bakery. They also make a Nutella filled cake which you probably don’t want to hear my opinion on that pure heaven on earth. But these cookies, ugh. They call them “S” cookies because of the way they shape them I’m guessing. I am not patient enough to shape my cookies into letters and make them look beautiful. I was content enough to nail down the texture and flavor.
Her shower was over a month ago and I have been having tunnel vision about them. I need the recipe. I set out on a mission to find it, so I started googling and Pinterest searching for these friggin things. Well, I found the recipe after hours of hunting. Only problem was the recipe was in Italian. I typed it into Google Translate and did my best. Then I changed the recipe a little because like always, I didn’t buy everything on the ingredient list. Yolo.
Make. These.
Whip up your ingredients (there are only 6).
Drop the dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet, then let it snow! The dough is super sticky, so you’ll need a lot of powdered sugar on top of them. Press a few indents into the dough. This will create super chewy spots in the cookie which is key for texture. Don’t be shy with the sugar either. It will prevent your hands from becoming a sticky mess.
Bake until they’re that magical golden brown on the edges . Let them cool on the pan. The cookies are really soft until they cool, they’ll flop if you try to move them. I discovered this while attempting to eat a warm cookie. It totally fell apart. These are best left until they are cool.
Clearly Max couldn’t resist the sight of the sugar. And I don’t blame him for taking a good swipe at it.
Ingredients (Makes about 1 dozen large cookies or almost 2 dozen small cookies)
- 8 ounces almond paste
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 egg whites
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- powdered sugar to top with
Directions
- Pre-heat the oven to 325 F
- Combine the almond paste, sugar, salt, and extract together in a stand mixer
- Add in egg whites one at a time
- Drop the dough onto parchment lined baking sheets
- Sprinkle each dough ball with powdered sugar and make deep indents with your fingers
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until the edges start to brown
- Cool completely before serving
These got RAVE reviews from everyone that tried them. I may just be making them for our annual cookie swap.
In your instructions you indicate: “Drop the dough onto parchment lined baking sheets.” How much do you drop… a teaspoonful, a tablespoonful??
If you want large cookies, divide the dough into 12 scoops, for 24 smaller cookies about 1 Tbsp scoop.
Excellent cookies! I love Italian cookies and these were outstanding.
So glad you liked!! They’re my kids’ faves too 🙂
is almond meal okay to use for these cookies. I don’t have almond paste or almond flour.
It won’t work I’m sorry! The paste gives the dough the correct consistency.
Almond Paste is not the same thing as Almond flour or Almond Meal. It is made from almond meal or ground almonds being mixed with sugar, cooking oil, beaten eggs, heavy cream or corn syrup. It is similar to marzipan but coarser in texture. (Wikipedia) So as you see not at all the same thing.
Looks delicious!!
What kind of almond paste did you use? Odense 45%?
I used Solo brand
Oh gosh these were so watery. They don’t have any flour. Is that correct?
Correct, no flour! The dough is very squishy. They will turn out super chewy, just trust the process! Be sure to let them cool completely -these are not the type of cookie to eat warm or they’ll fall apart. They need time to set.
Hope this helps!
Xx