Italian Style Almond Cookies
This week I shared three amazing dishes in my Insta account, all related to my Italian “heritage”, and here I laugh at loud, cause that heritage comes from being married to an Italian husband and his family for nearly 15 years.
Being part of this Italian family makes me feel so special, there’s so much you learn from hanging around the streets of Italian cities every time we go visit family, and from listening to their stories and of course oh my god trying their food! Travelling to Italy had been one of the best culinary experiences I’ve ever had, I feel that a huge part of my cooking style had been influenced by this love story, sharing half my life with my beautiful husband, and being able to share cooking stories with his Nonna, Zia, cousins and immersing in their Camporese life.
Of course not all I’ve explored had to do with Campora San Giovanni where my husband’s family is from, I’ve also learnt a bit about other parts of Italy and I always enjoy researching and getting to know a bit more of this vast culinary destination.
Going from town to town soon you realise Almonds or Mandorla (in Italian) are an important ingredient in their cuisine, especially in the Southern part of Italy, where they are grown. You will soon indulge in all sorts of Almond cakes, biscuits ranging from hard ones like biscotti to soft and chewy ones, and even the Brioche alla Mandorla or Cornetto alla Mandorla.
So going all Mandorla route I bring you today some Chewy Soft Almond Cookies Italian Style. They are super easy to make, delicious and best of all free from Gluten and Dairy.
This is a short post as there’s not much that can go wrong with this recipe, the only thing to take into account is to use blanched Almond Meal, which is light in colour as the almond skin is removed before blending it to make this into a powder. If you can’t find an Almond meal, make your own buying raw almonds and blanching and then crushing in a food processor till you get a fine powder.
Almond Cookies (GF and Dairy-free)
Course: Dessert, PastryCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy8
cookies10
minutes15
minutesIngredients
1 c Almond meal (almond flour)
1 egg white
Zest of half lemon
1/4 c caster sugar (up to 1/3 c if you prefer them sweeter)
pinch of salt
1/4 c flaked almond
icing sugar
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C
- Mix together almond meal, egg white, lemon zest, a pinch of salt and sugar.
- Divide dough into 8 pieces, roll in balls and pass through flaked almonds.
- Flatten balls a bit to about 2cm thick. Place in a prepared baking tray with baking paper.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15min until lightly golden. Let cool 5 min before lifting.
- Let cool and dust with icing sugar.
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