I love all things almond, and amaretto cookies are right up there at the top of my list.
With a crispy, crumbly exterior and a chewy inside, these cookies, which are made mostly with almonds and which bedazzle you with their almond-y flavor, are a delicious treat from Italy, the subject of my It's A Vegan World event for the month of February. So this just seemed like a perfect time to share these with you.
Veganizing these cookies was a bit of a challenge. Amaretti cookies are usually flourless, and the almonds, ground into a flour (or sometimes paste), are bound by frothy egg whites which also give the cookies their light airiness. Since egg whites are not for me, I used a small amount of whole-wheat pastry flour, just half a cup, and some egg replacer powder to bind them. They worked perfectly.
In addition to It's A Vegan World: Italian, I am also sending these to Madhuram for her Egg Replacer event. Her egg substitute for the month is egg replacer powder.
Enjoy, everyone!
Vegan Amaretti CookiesIngredients:
1 1/2 cups almond flour (around 1 cup of almonds, processed to a powder in a food processor)
1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (can substitute with all-purpose)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
3 tsp EnerG egg replacer powder mixed with 4 tbsp water
3/4 to 1 cup confectioners' sugar (I like mine a little less sweet but add a whole cup if you like them sweet)
Method:
Mix together the almond flour, pastry flour and baking powder.
In a food processor, or by hand, add to the flour mixture the sugar, the two extracts, and the egg-replacer mixture. If using a food processor, pulse a few times to mix the ingredients.
The dough will be sticky. With a teaspoon, place rounded mounds of the mixture on a cookie sheet greased well, or covered with parchment paper and then greased.
Bake in a preheated 300-degree oven about 25-30 minutes until the tops are lightly browned, and the bottoms are a deeper, richer golden-brown.
Place the sheet on a rack to cool about 10 minutes. Then, using a thin spatula, remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and place directly on the rack to cool thoroughly.
When cooled, sprinkle tops with some powdered confectioners sugar.
These look really nice! When I veganised amaretti it took me quite some trials. They came out well after all, but then I realized that I actually should have put some real almonds into them. I need to get back to the recipe.
ReplyDeleteWOW!! Inside shot looks so yum. Enjoy! :)
ReplyDeleteCookies look sooooo good Vaishu.I am extremely tempted to try.. but i don't have egg replacer...will see if it is available in grocery store next time i go.
ReplyDeleteVegan amaretti came out really superb! Love the inside of ur cookie!
ReplyDeleteAmazing what you can do without the eggs! Those look great with the almonds in them (and not just almond extract).
ReplyDeleteThey look very very good.I think only energ can be used to replace egg whites
ReplyDeleteBeautiful shot.. cookies looks amazing and healthy too...
ReplyDeleteI love these Italian cookies,with my favorite nut ,I must try these:)
ReplyDeleteBTW vaishali,the vegan challah bread link is not reachable.
Simply delicious....looks heavenly almond-y ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou know wht till few months back,cakes,cookies etc belonged to two families for me...veg or nonveg.But after visiting blogs like yours ,i came know about third family too...its amazing how u can stick to ur vegan diet..way to go girl...Kudos !
I am becoming a total fan! It is amazing what you can do without egg. I dont have egg, and always feel handicapped with cakes and cookies! Most experiments yeild hard or tough results!!
ReplyDeletewow..lovely recipe..and the cookies look so good..
ReplyDeleteCOokies looks gorgeous n tempting one...
ReplyDeleteWow sounds yumm. Looks gr8. Almong powder is something new to me.
ReplyDeleteI love Amaretti cookies...a healthy vegan version of these cookies...I should try this one..Thanks for sharing the recipe Vaishali :)
ReplyDeleteMmm I love almond cookies too! And these look great, nice and fluffy on the inside.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for the tips on the pie recipe. I couldn't find any trans fat free vegetable shortening, so it looks like I will have to use Earth Balance..I hope it still comes out well.
Those are so good. I had planned on doing Amaretti for Meeta's Spice Cookies, but could not get myself to make them... Love the texture..
ReplyDeleteThe texture of your cookies is just great.
ReplyDeleteWhat could I use instead of EnerG? Would flax seeds do the job, do you think?
Mihl, Asha, Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMahimaa, you could try substituting an equal amount of cornflour.
Cham, Karma, Curry, Madhu, Thanks!
Yasmeen, thanks, and I've fixed the link.
Alka, Dibs, Sowmya, Priya, Kitchen Flavors, Gita, Purple Stick, Soma: Thanks!
Aparna, Thanks, and I'd advise substituting an equal amount of cornflour or -- at a pinch -- even rice flour (very, very finely ground) instead of the egg replacer. The nuttiness of flax could be just a tad overpowering in these delicately-flavored cookies.
You should have named them Amazing Amaretti Cookies. Wow and I also notice that it does not have oil or butter either. That's really something. Was the water from the EmerG alone enough to make the dough?
ReplyDeleteI also have a packet of almond meal and was wondering what to do with it. Thanks so much for this simply amazing recipe.
i decided to use bob's gluten free all-purpose flour blend instead of whole wheat pastry flour and they came out great. just thought i'd pass it along in case anyone can't eat gluten.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this wonderful recipe. I recently switched from a vegetarian to a vegan diet and was looking for a simple cookie/dessert(I am not much of a baker). These fit what I was looking for and are delicious!
ReplyDeleteHi Vaishali as I had said that it is time for some action; since I have no access to APF I baked these cookies using maida and didnot add any cornstarch. I can only say that the cookies were not bad. I really liked the texture and the flavour of these cookies. Also, I feel that these cookies need less sugar else the sweetness of sugar overpowers the natural sweetness of almonds.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my first trial on this was out a complete failure the biggest error that i made was pouring all the water together. I ended up with a loose batter and ended up adding more maida to get the right consistency of the batter. I can never get the texture and flavour of ur cookies in mine for 2 main reasons:
1. M using maida.
2. I have the synthetic vanilla and almond essence, and not the pure extracts.
God Bless
Nisha.
woow! Vegan's amaretti. never seen before. I will try. :)
ReplyDelete