Lemon Amaretti Cookies
You'll find these incredibly easy-to-make Italian Lemon Amaretti Cookies deliver chewy almond cookies bursting with bright citrus flavour
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.
Notes
(NOTE 1) 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.
(NOTE 2) 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.
(NOTE 3) 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.
(NOTE 4) 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.
(NOTE 5) Yellow food colouring: This gives the cookies an alluring bright colour, but adding food colouring is optional and you can just omit it.
(NOTE 6) 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.
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.
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Cheers – Cat T
Nutrition
Serving: 1 CookieCalories: 106kcalCarbohydrates: 13gProtein: 3gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 0.4gSodium: 29mgPotassium: 8mgFiber: 1gSugar: 11gVitamin A: 0.1IUVitamin C: 0.5mgCalcium: 24mgIron: 0.4mg