This week I made 2 peach tarts in 2 days, a recipe that uses 2 egg yolks and no egg whites in the crust. That left me with 4 spare egg whites that I knew I could do something with. I looked through all my cooking magazines and decided on this almond macaroon recipe from Cook's Illustrated 2007 Holiday Issue. It seemed like a very simple recipe, and something I'd never tried before.
The proportions of this recipe were for 3 cups almonds, 3 egg whites, and 1.5 cups sugar. Since I had 4 egg whites, I upped the volume to 4 cups almonds, 4 egg whites, etc. It was a little too much for my 11-cup food processor, so I ended up having to blend the almonds and sugar in 2 batches. After I added 2 egg whites to the first half however, it became much more sticky and cohesive, and it was easy to then add the 2nd half of the almonds, sugar, and egg whites.
The recipe was a surprise hit. I like the flavor of almond cookies, so I was happy with them. The hubby said he loved them too, and said that he liked them even better than chocolate chip cookies. Pretty great review!
Italian Almond Cookies
4 cups slivered almonds
2 cups powdered sugar
4 egg whites
1-1.5 tsp almond extract
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Process almonds in food processor for one full minute, until very fine.
Add the sugar and process for ~15 seconds, till mixed well.
Add the egg whites and almond extract and process. Mixture will be sticky.
Shape dough into 1 Tablespoon balls and place on the baking sheet. (Note: cookies will not spread, so they can be placed relatively close together). Bake for ~19-20 minutes, turning halfway.
Made 37 cookies.
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| 4 cups of slivered almonds |
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| Finely ground almonds |
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| The macaroon cookie dough -- very sticky |
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| Unbaked cookies |
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| Macaroons halfway through baking |
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| Macaroons out of the oven |
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| 36 macaroons (one eaten before picture taken!) |
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