You’ll find these incredibly easy-to-make Italian Lemon Amaretti Cookies deliver chewy almond cookies bursting with bright citrus flavour
Lemon’s our yellow sunshine in winter
Boy, walking my 5-year-old son to school was a real struggle as we hit 7 degrees this morning 🥶 Kai insists we hold hands whenever we’re walking together, which I love, but gosh, I just wish his tiny hands didn’t feel like ice cubes.
Big boy Kai had his first kindy excursion today. It’s hard to believe that I no longer fret about him being apart from me. Actually, that’s a lie. I discreetly placed AirTag in the pocket of his trousers to monitor his safety every couple of hours on my phone… okay, okay… so maybe, I checked on him more often than I should’ve had, like every 30 minutes 🧐 My husband thinks I’m a nutcase!
Winter is truly here, and the best part is the abundance of affordable citrus fruits. I got carried away and purchased a bunch of lemons. It’s time to make use of them, so here are some gorgeous Italian Amaretti Cookies with lemon!
If you’ve never tried making Amaretti Cookies, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how straightforward they are to make, and the lemon variation is just as simple. I for one, thought they would be challenging to make as they have incredible texture! So soft and chewy with the right amount of sweetness.
Nope, these gluten-free cookies are almost fail-proof! With only a handful of ingredients and a bit of time, we can easily make the addictively chewy cookies at home. The hardest part is waiting for them to chill before baking! They smell wonderful whilst in the oven, the bright aroma of sweet citrus lingering in the kitchen.
They make great edible gifts, or serve them at your next tea party. What’s a tea party? I don’t think I’ve ever been to one… bring back tea parties!
Lemon Amaretti Cookies
What are Amaretti Cookies?
Amaretti cookies are traditional Italian almond biscuits / cookies. They have a chewy and dense texture from the ground almonds (almond meal). This lemon version swaps the almond extract with lemon zest and juice to give the cookies a dominate citrus flavour.
What is almond meal?
Almond meal is made from blanched, ground almonds. It has a coarser texture than almond flour and is available with or without the skins. You can swap almond meal for equal amount of almond flour in this recipe.
How do I know when my Amaretti Cookies are done?
These amaretti are ready when their tops are cracked, but their middles are still soft. A gentle press on the top should yield to slight give, showing doneness. Over-baking will cause dry cookies. Once baked, let the cookies cool completely on the baking tray as they’re soft when warm and may crumble if moved.
Food colouring
For an appealing bright colour to represent the ‘lemon’ in your cookies, I added yellow food colouring to the cookies. However, you may choose to leave this out.
More easy dessert recipes to try:
Ingredients for Lemon Amaretti Cookies
Egg whites – My large eggs weighed 700gm (25oz) per dozen, so roughly 58gm (2oz) each. You can also use those carton egg whites from the supermarket; that way, you won’t have leftover yolks.
Caster sugar (superfine sugar) is just white sugar but with finer granules. For this recipe, you could swap caster sugar with regular white granulated sugar.
Almond meal is basically ground almonds, but a little coarser than almond flour. Supermarket have almond meal with and without their skin. I opted for blanched skinless almond meal because it’s more appealing in this recipe, but either would work. You could also use almond flour.
Lemon zest is the outer coloured part of a lemon peel, containing aromatic oils that provide intense lemon flavour. It’s grated using a microplane or zester to avoid the bitter white pith underneath.
Yellow food colouring: This gives the cookies an alluring bright colour, but adding food colouring is optional and you can just omit it.
Icing sugar: Icing sugar (powdered sugar, confectionary sugar) – We have two types of icing sugar here: pure and icing sugar mixture. Unlike pure icing sugar, icing sugar mixture has cornstarch or anti-caking agent added in which makes it softer and helps prevents lumps. I prefer pure icing sugar because it tastes better.
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How to make Lemon Amaretti Cookies
Step-by-step guide with photos
Grate the lemon zest finely using a microplane or zester. We only need the coloured part of the lemon as the pith is bitter.
Whisk together the egg whites, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and salt in a large bowl for about a minute, or until slightly foamy.
Gently fold the almond meal and lemon zest into the egg white mixture until thoroughly combined. The dough will be very sticky and quite moist. If using, add 1 to 2 drops of yellow food colouring and fold until the colour is even throughout the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let chill in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F). Line 2 large cookie tray with non-stick baking or parchment paper. Make the dough into little balls, about a tablespoon each or 20gm / 0.70oz of dough per cookie. Coat the dough balls generously with icing sugar.
Arrange the balls on the prepared tray. They won’t spread significantly during baking, so close spacing is fine. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until they slightly crack on the top. These cookies taste better slightly underdone than overdone! I bake cookies one tray at a time to adjust the second batch; however, baking both at once is also fine. Leave the cookies on the baking tray to cool; they’ll be too delicate to move otherwise.
How to store Lemon Amaretti Cookies
Leftovers – Allow the Amaretti Cookies to cool completely at room temperature, then transfer them to an airtight container. You can keep them at room temperature for up to a week or freeze them for up to 3 months. Avoid storing them in the fridge, as this makes them stale.
I’ve used a third-party application to calculate the calories and nutritional information, so please use this as an approximate guide only.
Cooking measurements are in Australian standard spoon and cup measurements. For specific details and conversions, visit our Australian Cooking Measurements page.
I would love your feedback and support if you made this recipe. To do this, please rate this recipe and provide a comment by scrolling down this page or by clicking that green circle on the bottom left. An email address is required (for spam), but it won’t be published. I would also love to see your dish, so don’t forget to tag me on my Instagram account ‘3catsfoodie’
Cheers – Cat T
Lemon Amaretti Cookies
Video
Ingredients
- 3 large (102g / 3.6oz) egg whites (NOTE 1)
- ¾ cups (170g / 6oz) caster or superfine sugar (NOTE 2)
- 1 tbsp (20ml / 0.7floz) fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2½ cups (290g / 10.2oz) almond meal or almond flour (NOTE 3)
- 2 tsp (3g / 0.11oz) lemon zest, from a medium-sized lemon (NOTE 4)
- 1-2 drops yellow food colouring (optional) (NOTE 5)
- ¾ cup (100g / 3.5g) icing or powdered sugar (NOTE 6)
Instructions
- Grate the lemon zest finely using a microplane or zester. We only need the coloured part of the lemon as the pith is bitter.
- Whisk together the egg whites, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and salt in a large bowl for about a minute, or until slightly foamy. Gently fold the almond meal and lemon zest into the egg white mixture until thoroughly combined. The dough will be very sticky and quite moist. If using, add 1 to 2 drops of yellow food colouring and fold until the colour is even throughout the dough.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let chill in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F). Line 2 large cookie tray with non-stick baking or parchment paper. Make the dough into little balls, about a tablespoon each or 20gm / 0.70oz of dough per cookie. Coat the dough balls generously with icing sugar.
- Arrange the balls on the prepared tray. They won't spread significantly during baking, so close spacing is fine. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until they slightly crack on the top. These cookies taste better slightly underdone than overdone! I bake cookies one tray at a time to adjust the second batch; however, baking both at once is also fine. Leave the cookies on the baking tray to cool; they'll be too delicate to move otherwise.
