Italian Almond Cookies with Bittersweet Chocolate

Name: Italian Almond Cookies with Bittersweet Chocolate
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Ingredients: Almond paste: 12 oz (340 g); Sugar white: 1 cup (202 g); Egg whites: from 3 eggs; Almonds sliced: 1/8 cup; Bittersweet chocolate chips: 1/2 cup; Almonds crushed: 1/8 cup

You need a food processor to breakup the almond paste enough to mix with the sugar and firm peak egg whites. Prep time does not include the hour the dough is in the refrigerator.

Cuisine:

Italian

Ingredients

12 oz (340 g) Almond paste
1 cup (202 g) Sugar white
from 3 eggs Egg whites
1/8 cup Almonds sliced
Topping
1/2 cup Bittersweet chocolate chips
1/8 cup Almonds crushed

Directions

Gluten-Free Cookies For a Friend!

One of my co-workers has been off work for about 4 months because of an injury. She also has to eat gluten-free foods. For her first day back I did not make gluten-free cookies for my Monday cookie day because I was waiting to make sure she was coming back to work. Besides I wanted her to make the choice of the cookies she wanted for “Monday Cookie Day”.

Well picking out a gluten-free cookie recipe for her was challenging since I love flour when I bake. But this naturally gluten-free Italian cookie I am hoping is a hit with her and the rest of the employees.

Almond paste to me is very sweet so I decided to add a bittersweet chocolate drizzle onto the cookies to offset some of the sweetness. Then just for fun, I dunked the tops of the cookies in a bowl of crushed almonds to give them a little crunch.

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive a small commission from qualifying purchases.

Adapted from Bare Feet in the Kitchen

(Visited 243 times, 1 visits today)

Steps

1 Done	Weigh or measure your sugar into a bowl and set aside.
2 Done	In a food processor (I use a Breville Sous Chef Food Processor), pulse the almond paste till it looks like sand on a beach. Add half of the sugar and pulse a couple of times, then add the 2nd half and pulse till all the sugar has incorporated into the almond paste.
3 Done	Beat the three egg whites for about 3 minutes on high with an (I use a KitchenAid) stand or hand-held mixer. You want the peaks to be firm and not soft. Once it has gotten to that stage, fold in the broken-up almond paste into the firm egg whites. Make sure it is all blended. Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to 1-1/2 hours.
4 Done	Preheat oven to 325° and line 2 pans with parchment paper or a silicone sheet and set aside. You can take a teaspoon and drop the dough onto the parchment paper or silicone sheet, but I prefer to use an OXO Good Grips Cookie Scoop, Small to get the same size mounds that bake evenly. Place a couple of almond slices on top of each cookie before going into the oven.
5 Done	Bake at 325° for 14 to 15 minutes they should start to look a pale brown around the top edges of the cookie. After pulling out from the oven, leave on the baking sheet for a good 5 minutes before moving to the cooling rack.
6 Done	Topping Put the bittersweet chocolate chips into a microwave dish and melt the chips to the consistency that it can be stirred. I did it for about 30 seconds and stirred then heated for about another 20 to 30 seconds. My Breville Sous Chef Food Processor comes with a small bowl in the bigger bowl so I took some of the almond slices and pulsed them till they were crushed. I put them in a wide mouth bowl.
7 Done	I took a spoon and drizzled the chocolate over the top of a cookie then turned the cookie over and gently pressed the top of the cookie into the bowl of crushed almonds. Just so some of the crushed almonds stuck to the chocolate. Do this to each cookie. Take your cookie sheet pans and line them with parchment paper and put the cookies on the sheet then put into the refrigerator to harden the chocolate.