During a recent trip to Sicily with Tavola Tours , my culinary and cultural travel company, I fell in love with Sicilian almond paste cookies all over again. These cookies can often be found in Italian bakeries across America. They are typically shaped as round cookies piped with a star tip, featuring a cherry or an almond in the center. They are very traditional and extremely tasty.
The recipe I’m sharing with you here is a simpler version that is just as delicious and easy to make. There’s no need for a fancy star tip on your piping bag; in fact, you won’t even need a piping bag at all. You can form the cookies by hand, allowing for some creative expression. Children will enjoy shaping and working with this almond paste dough too!
I like to shape some cookies as little pyramids and others in the traditional round shape. The almond paste dough is very easy to work with, and you’ll see how simple the process is once you start forming the cookies. They make a great accompaniment at the end of a meal with coffee or can be enjoyed as a quick treat at any time of the day. Try them and bring a bit of Sicily into your home. I particularly enjoy making them around the holidays to add them to my Christmas cookie list. Enjoy the recipe in all its simplicity and deliciousness!
Sicilian Almond Paste Cookies
Recipe
(Makes 13-15 cookies)
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups almond flour, sifted
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 egg whites (large eggs)
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest very fine (optional)
- pinch of salt (just a pinch!)
- Powdered sugar for dusting the cookies before baking.
To Make
- Preheat your oven to 325 °F
- Sift the almond flour, sugar, and salt.
- Now use a whisk to combine the sifted ingredients well. Add the lemon zest at this point if using and stir it well in the ingredients to evenly disperse it.
- Separate the egg whites into a clean and dry bowl.
- Whisk the egg whites until light and frothy. This should take 3-5 minutes by hand.
- Now whisk in the almond extract.
- Add the egg mixture to the flour and mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
Tip : It might look like a little bit of egg white to create a dough with but it will. Do not add additional egg whites or water to rush it. Once the dough comes together use your hands to bring it all together to create your almond paste dough.
Almond paste dough.
- Now weigh out one-ounce pieces of dough and roll them into balls.
- Place them evenly spaced out on a parchment-lined baking tray.
- To make the round shapes simply flatten the balls of dough carefully to about 1/4 of an inch thick.
Tip : If you want to make the pyramid shapes simply flatten the dough ball a little and then dimple the four edges to get the raised shape.
-
- Almond paste dough balls.
-
- Shaping the cookies.
- Once you have created the shapes dust them all with a nice coating of powdered sugar.
- Place in the oven for 15 minutes.
- The cookies should be lightly cracked and just beginning to color.
- The bottoms of the cookies should be lightly golden.
Tip : The cookies might look a little underdone at 15 minutes. If so cook for an additional two minutes. But no matter what remove them immediately after the additional time. The cookies are supposed to be soft and chewy. If you overcook them they will become hard and not have that delicious almond paste texture that we’re looking for.
- Let the cookies cool and serve them immediately. You can store extras in an airtight container. But if you make them right there will be no cookies left to store away for another day.
Sicilian almond paste cookies.