Pignoli cookies

Photo: The Clever Carrot

Almond paste, sugar, egg white, rolled in pine nuts. Chewy, not too sweet, and with almond flour instead of flour Emilie's are gluten-free, so the friend who can't eat anything else on the table can eat these.

From Emilie Raffa at The Clever Carrot · @theclevercarrot

Almond paste blended with sugar, almond extract and frothy egg white into a sticky dough, rolled in pine nuts and baked chewy.

You need

• 7 oz (200 g) almond paste (not marzipan)
• 1/2 cup (120 g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1 large egg white
• 1/2 cup (55 g) almond flour (or all-purpose flour, if gluten doesn't matter)
• 1 1/2 cups (227 g) pine nuts
• Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

How to make it

1. Heat the oven to 325°F and line a sheet with parchment.
2. Break the almond paste into chunks and blend it in a food processor with the sugar and almond extract until it looks like fine sand.
3. Whisk the egg white until very frothy, add it to the processor with the almond flour and run just until a smooth, sticky dough forms. Let it rest 5 minutes.
4. Tip the pine nuts into a shallow bowl. Drop tablespoons of dough into them and roll to coat the top, bottom and sides. Set them on the sheet.
5. Bake about 20 minutes (check at 18) until light golden around the edges for soft, chewy cookies.
6. Cool 10 minutes on the sheet, then on a rack. Dust with powdered sugar if you like.

For a swap: Packs well. Chewy for days.

Written in our own words from Emilie Raffa's recipe, with their quantities. The original: Pignoli cookies, The Clever Carrot.

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