Yield: Makes about 48 cookies
These cookies from the almond-growing region of Siena date back to at least the 15th century. They’re melt-in-your-mouth tender, but with a nice chew. Their cracked, snowy-white tops make a beautiful addition to a cookie platter, and they’re a great option for those on a gluten-free diet.
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These are good traditional Italian cookies, and, with a little tweaking, the recipe could be great. I found them a trifle too sweet and next time will make with a few tablespoons less granulated sugar. I also found it impossible to "pinch" the cookies into a diamond shape as the recipe directs. Instead, I used a salad fork to flatten the dough balls into discs. This produced small button-shaped discs that were about 1 and 3/4 inches in diameter--much smaller than the diamond-shaped cookies pictured above. I had to bake mine for about 16-17 minutes at 325 degrees to get them completely done. Since I did not have blanched almond meal on hand, I used regular almond meal which worked fine, although I admit that blanched almond meal would have made a prettier and more traditional-looking cookie.
This is a tough recipe to reduce by half due to the odd number of egg whites, but it is easy to reduce by thirds. I cut the amount of ingredients called for by one third and ended up with only 24 cookies--not the 36 predicted by the recipe.
Thanks for sharing this sweet recipe. Liked it!
Thanks for sharing this sweet dish!
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