Amaretti With Pine Nuts

Read about this on Cream Puffs in Venice blog & was captivated by the idea of pine nuts in amaretti. The author adapted a recipe from Maxine Clark’s Easy Italian which called for 2 cups of pine nuts in the dough but the author changed to 2 cups of blanched almonds. I plan to make with 1 cup of blanched almonds & 1 cup of pine nuts. I am guessing on how many cookies this will make as it did not say. Will update with my results after making.

• Ready In: 45 mins
• Yields: 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 1  cup  blanched almond, whole
• 1  cup pine nuts
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 3  egg whites, large
• 1  teaspoon  almond extract
• 1  teaspoon  orange extract (optional)
• 1⁄2 cup pine nuts (for sprinkling)
• 1⁄2 cup icing sugar (for dusting)

Directions

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
2. In either a blender or food processor, grind the almonds and 1 cup of pine nuts with about a tablespoon of sugar until they are very fine.
3. In a bowl, beat the egg whites (with a mixer or by hand) until they are foamy. Begin adding the remaining sugar, a little at a time, and continue beating the egg whites until they are very stiff (stiff peaks form).
4. Gently fold in the nuts and then add the almond and orange extract (be careful not to overmix so that you don’t deflate the mixture).
5. Using a tablespoon, carefully spoon or pipe rounds of dough onto the parchment-lined baking sheets. Leave a few inches between each cookie.
6. Sprinkle some of the pine nuts over each cookie and bake for about 30 minutes. The cookies will be firm and lightly golden when they’re done.
7. Let cool completely before dusting with icing sugar and serving.