These traditional Italian pignoli and almond cookies are easy to make and utterly delicious. Gluten-free and dairy free, they are a perfect holiday cookie that almost everyone can enjoy.
Ingredients
- 2 7-ounce tubes or 2 8-ounce cans of almond paste
- 1½ cups powdered sugar, unsifted
- ½ t salt
- 2 egg whites, slightly beaten
- 2 T honey
- 1 cup pine nuts
- Parchment paper
Directions
- 1Heat oven to 350 degrees. Break the almond paste up into small chunks with your hands and put it in a food processor. Using long pulses, whirl the paste until the it is broken into fine pieces. Add the powdered sugar ½ cup at a time and the salt. Whirl after each half cup. Sugar, paste and salt mixture will look like fine meal.
- 2Add the egg whites and honey and continue whirling using long pulses until the mixture is well combined and smooth. At this point the batter will be thick and sticky.
- 3Spread 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Put the pine nuts in a shallow bowl. Wet your hands and using a spoon, scoop up a large teaspoon of batter. Use your hands to form a ball of dough. Dip half the dough in the bowl of pine nuts and then invert the cookie, pine nut-side up onto the cookie sheet.
- 4Bake cookies for about 18-20 minutes, until they are puffed and golden. Sometimes I make larger cookies and need to add a few minutes to the cooking time. If your oven has hot spots, you may need to turn the cookie halfway to get uniform browning.
- 5Allow cookies to cool completely before removing the parchment paper. Store in a well-sealed tin.
