Amoretti Cookies

A while back, a neighbor came over with Amoretti cookies and when wanted me to try to find a recipe to make them. She has way more confidence in my baking skills than she should have! 🙂

There’s a bakery in St. Louis that is apparently known for their Amoretti cookies and the neighbor loves the cookies from that bakery, but, even she will not drive to St. Louis just for cookies.

I had tried a couple of recipes and wasn’t happy with them, compared to the ones she brought me. This afternoon she had called me about something else and after we hung up, I decided to go try a new recipe.

This is the recipe I used. I questioned the lemon zest but, most any time I make a recipe for the first time, I will follow it exactly. I did use it and the cookies were fine but I won’t use the lemon zest next time I make them.

Also, I had several things going at once (don’t I always??) and I beat the egg whites more to a stiff peak than a soft peak and I think that made the cookies a little dry. I did not weigh my egg whites and I’m betting they were on the smaller side of medium. Next time I make this recipe, I will weigh the egg whites and I will be sure to stop the egg whites at soft peaks.

I took some over to the neighbor. She called and said they were great. She thinks, like I did, leave out the lemon zest and they will be perfect. Also, I used almond flour from Walmart. Next time I will be using this fine almond meal/flour and see if that makes a difference in the texture.

Overall, I was very pleased with these cookies but I do think I can improve just a bit by using the finer ground flour and paying attention to the weights of the egg whites and the time I beat them.