Almond paste cookies, one of the most well-known and ancient recipes of Sicilian pastry. They are slightly crunchy on the outside and very soft inside. The process of making almond paste cookies is easier than you might imagine: they are prepared in about 15 minutes and bake in the oven for no more than 12 minutes. Nice, right?! If you like, follow me into my kitchen, and we’ll prepare these delights together.
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4 – 5 people
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Regional Italian
- Region: Sicily
- Seasonality: All Seasons
Ingredients for Almond Paste Cookies
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- 1.5 cups almond flour
- 0.55 cups sugar
- 1 oz egg white
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1/2 vial almond flavoring (1 ml)
- as needed powdered sugar (about 40 g)
- as needed candied cherries
- as needed almonds
Preparation of ALMOND PASTE COOKIES
Line a baking tray with parchment paper. To keep the paper in place, I put small pieces of butter on the tray and then place the parchment paper over it.
Preheat the oven to 356°F static or 320°F fan.
In a bowl, mix the almond flour and sugar well; add the lightly beaten egg whites, honey, and almond flavoring.
Mix everything together, first with a spatula, then with your hand until you get a well-blended and compact mixture.
Take small portions of the dough and form balls weighing 0.7 oz each (keep a kitchen scale handy). Roll the balls in powdered sugar and place them on the prepared baking tray.
Decorate the cookies with candied cherry halves and almonds. I used both shelled and blanched almonds.
Bake in the preheated oven, at 356°F static or 320°F fan, for 10 or at most 12 minutes; they should just start to color. Be very careful, because if you let them color too much, you’ll get hard cookies. We know each oven has its character, so the cooking time is indicative. I baked my cookies at 320°F fan for 11 minutes.
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool completely without touching them, otherwise they might break. Only when they are cool can you remove them from the tray.
Your almond paste cookies are ready. Enjoy!
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Notes
With the described doses, I obtained 14 cookies.
When purchasing almond flour, make sure it is of excellent quality and made of 100% almonds, without any other added ingredients.
If you don’t have almond flavoring, you can replace it with a sachet of vanilla.
The suitable honey for this recipe is Acacia honey, but millefiori honey will also do.
Sicilian almond paste cookies keep for about a week in a closed container.
The almond paste cookie recipe is included in the recipe collections of:
Easter Lunch Sweets
Christmas Gift Cookies
Mother’s Day Sweets
Sweets with Almond Flour
