Outstanding cookie. A couple of hints I discovered. Combine the granulated sugar and almond paste in a food processor first, until it looks like sand. Place in a mixing bowl and mix in other dry ingredients and lastly add the egg whites. Chill 20 - 30 minutes and use a small ice cream scoop to get uniform portions. When rolling in almonds, flatten the cookies pressing into the almonds which helps them adhere to the cookie. Forget oiling the pan and use parchment paper instead. However, after removing from the oven, let the cookies cool at least 10 minutes before trying to remove. The cookies harden and easily slide off the parchment. If you have a shortage of pans, slide the entire parchment off the pan to let the cookies cool.
Update on original review (12/1/18)
I continue to make these cookies and always get rave reviews. I have further added helpful hints, particularly for novice bakers.
1. I have purchased almond paste can be in 7 oz. tubes (Odense brand) and 8 oz. cans (Solo brand). Don’t worry about being perfect on the amount. For half of the recipe (which I usually make) two tubes (14 oz.) or two cans (16 oz.) are both fine. Difference in amount is negligible in taste and texture.
2. When working with the dough after refrigeration, work with wet hands. I re-wet them every 5-6 cookies which helps keeping the cookie dough from sticking to hands.
3. I only make 1/2 recipe. I use an ice cream scoop which measures 1 TBS. The cookies, when placing on the
Without a doubt the BEST chewy almond cookie I've found!! My daughter and I thought we had tasted the best one in Europe on a recent trip but these are even better! Good tips.... begin by putting paste and white sugar in the food processor. Also beat egg whites to soft peaks before adding them and add them LAST. Also chilling the dough 30 min when assembled. Parchment paper solves any sticking problem and let them cool 10 min before remove to the wire rack. They are DIVINE!!!!!
Excellent but dough is so sticky that it's better to mix in stand mixer and pipe out using a pastry bag into the sliced almonds. Use a Silpat matt or teflon matt to bake on. Cookies just slip off when done. I find the ones from the Italian bakery in Toronto seem to have a lot more flour so will add more next time. Did add a bit of almond oil also.
Holy cow these were awesome. I split the recipe in half and still got a about 36 cookies. Made them the day before and they were still great the next day. I ran out of sliced almonds very quickly - halfway through (I was probably making the cookie s way too large) however I just made the other half without them and they were just as good. As a matter of fact I may do that again next time because I thoguht it made a good presentation to have both on a platter. These are a little chewy but the contrast is nice - crispy on outside and chewy and soft on the inside. As the recipe says the dough is very sticky so just pop it in the fridge for a few minutes before working with it and that helps.
I've been making these for 6 years now and they are ALWAYS a hit! I use a Kitchen aid stand mixer and put the almond paste and egg whites in with the flat paddle and mix until smooth. I then add the white and powdered sugar and the flour and mix until blended.
I put the sliced almonds in the blender or food processor to just "chop" them a little smaller (not powdery). I then, using two table spoons, drop spoonfuls of the dough into the chopped almonds, and roll them in the almonds until coated using the almonds to protect your fingers! I make them into crescent shapes. No sticky hands, no dirty pastry bags etc. I used to try to mix by hand but they were never mixed thoroughly. I've been using this mixer method for the last 3 years and they are always perfect. No chunks of almond paste and no mess!
I also ALWAYS use 1 cup of liquid egg substitute ( regular or whites) for the 8 egg whites...PERFECT,
Excellent Excellent Excellent. Only thing I like to mention is when using egg white make sure they are @ room temperature and beaten soft peeks. Fold in with ingredients and when finally mixed together and if you still find chuck of paste then my suggestion is with a rubber spatula press down the pieces until you don't see any chuck.
These were so WONDERFUL!!! They remind me of the cookies available at a local Italian bakery (the Missouri Bakery in St. Louis). I skipped the last step of rolling in almonds and I also mixed the cookies with my electric mixer. I was kind of nervous about doing so but the cookies were fantastic!
These cookies are really special... they cook up crispy on the outside and so very chewy on the inside and they keep that way for DAYS if you can keep yourself from eating them. My boyfriend's family is classic Italian and they grew up in Bensonhurst Brooklyn where EVERYONE knows the "only" way to make something. My cooking always seems to fall short but when I brought these cookies over one day the family raved that it was "better than the bakery" and they BEGGED me to make more. His notoriously picky father called days later to request a batch. Guys no joke these are a winner. Make them to give as gift to anyone you're hoping to impress. Baking tips chill the dough for 30 mins before rolling. Use parchment paper. If you buy sliced almonds crush them up even smaller and you'll need more than the recipe says. I like to flatten mine a little before baking. If you don't they come out a little boulder-shaped. For a prettier cookie flatten the dough balls before baking. When they look a little underdone they're done. Good luck!!
These are excellent cookies. I followed the advice of David Spaulding and they came out perfectly. The processing adding the eggs last chilling 30 minutes and using parchment paper were all great suggestions. These cookies tasted great and looked very appealing. I will make these again.
I had been looking forward to creating a batch of these due to the reviews it had been given but I was very disappointed with the result. These cookies clung on like limpets to the baking trays. I cooked in very small batches after the first one came out glued to the cookie sheet - I baked in groups of four - and experimented with a more liberally greased baking sheet baking parchement more standing time on the cookie sheet after baking less standing time on the sheet a longer cooking time a sorter cooking time..and finally I discovered that if I floured the sheet in addition to greasing it well they came off a little easier but still gave a lot of resistance and I ended up with plenty of 'casualties'. I think that if I were to make this again I'd cook them on edible rice paper so I could just cut the cookies off of the lining paper. The cookies themselves were quite nice warm but once cold my family found them simply too sweet and quite flavourless. I also felt that they really did benifit from a coating in sliced almonds as I made some coated some uncoated and I felt the lightly toasted flavour really lifted the blandness of the cookie itself.
