Low Sug Italian Almond Cookies Recipes

ITALIAN ALMOND COOKIES (RICCIARELLI) - GLUTEN FREE!

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F (170°C fan). Line 2 trays with baking/parchment paper.
• Combine Dry Ingredients: Place the almond meal, sugar, zest, almond extract and salt in a bowl. Whisk together until zest and almond extract is evenly distributed. Add the cherries and set aside
• Beat eggs whites: Using an electric mixer or a whisk, beat the egg whites and honey to soft peaks (Note 5). About 2 minutes on Speed 8 of a handheld beater, or 1 1/2 minutes on Speed 6 of a stand mixer.
• Fold the beaten egg whites gently into the almond mixture. You will seemingly knock most of the air out of the meringue, that's ok! (You actually haven't :) ).

ITALIAN ALMOND COOKIES

Steps:

• Put half the almonds and half the sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Process to obtain a coarse meal. Repeat with remaining almonds and sugar.
• Put egg whites and almond extract in a medium bowl. Using a wire whisk, beat whites until soft peaks form. Add the almond-sugar mixture to the whites and use a rubber spatula to incorporate the egg whites until you obtain a doughlike consistency.
• Use a spoon or small ice cream scoop to make 24 little blobs weighing about 1/2 ounce/20 grams. Roll each between 2 palms to make smooth spheres, then flatten them slightly. Roll them in a bowl of confectioners' sugar to coat well and place 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
• Use the end of a wooden spoon to make little round dents in each cookie. Fill dents with whole, unblanched almonds or Amarena cherries, if desired. Alternatively, leave cookies plain with smooth tops. Leave the tray of unbaked cookies at room temperature, uncovered, for 1 hour.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake until lightly browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

ITALIAN ALMOND-ICED COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 baking pans. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), mix the eggs and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy. With the mixer running, drizzle in the oil, vanilla, almond extract and mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Using your hands, form into logs 1-inch in diameter. Working in batches if necessary, cut into 3/4-inch-thick slices and arrange the cookies on the sheet pans. Bake until light golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on wire racks.
• Icing: In a medium bowl, whisk the milk, egg white, confectioners' sugar and almond extract until smooth. Divide the icing into one large and two smaller batches. Leave the large batch of icing white; color the other 2 to your liking.
• When the cookies are cool, dip the tops into the white icing. Use a fork or a squeeze bottle to drizzle the cookies with the other colors. Let set in a cool place 1 hour.

LOW SUG ITALIAN ALMOND COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine almond flour and 1 1/2c powdered maltitol in mixing bowl with fork until consistent.
• While mixer is on low, add egg whites one at a time.
• Add the rest of the maltitol, the almond extract, and the flour. Mix until consistent.
• Drop onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper using a small cookie dough scoop or by the rounded iced-teaspoon full.
• Bake 15 to 20 minutes until starting to brown. Remove from oven and let sit a couple more minutes on cookie sheet. Carefully remove to cooling rack.
• I was missing one ingredient. Next time I will press each dough ball slightly into a bowl filled with 1c sliced almonds before placing on cookie tray. This really makes the cookie! I didn't have any. They're not included in the nutritional value at the moment.
• This made 20 servings last night and is calculated as such. Should make 24. I used too much dough per scoop.
• This recipe was based on "Italian Almond Cookies II" at AllRecipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Italian-Almond-Cookies-II/Detail.aspx
• I had to more or less figure out how to make my own substitute for the almond paste, and it cut down a bit on regular flour at the same time. Ignore the picture there. These should be almost coated with a layer of the sliced almonds. I found the AllRecipes recipe when trying to recreate the famous Italian Almond cookies found at Giolitti's in Annapolis! Trust me -- they need the sliced almonds to be truly great. :).
• Number of Servings: 20.
• Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user PRAIRIEHARPY.
• Number of Servings: 20.