Chocolate Amaretti Cookies

I have always been a huge fan of baked goods with almond paste.  In my pre-Celiac days, I used to love to eat almond croissants and pignoli cookies.  I can't eat croissants anymore unless I am willing to bake them, which I am not, but pignoli cookies are easy to make.  Yesterday, I saw a Carol Kicinski recipe for Gluten Free Pignoli Cookies on Simply Gluten Free's Facebook page.  The recipe only had 5 ingredients, all of which I had in the house, and seemed super easy, so I decided to make them.  Sometimes, the best laid plans go awry, and this was one of those times, but in a good way.  I cut back on the sugar, and added some honey and cocoa to transform the original recipe into a recipe for Chocolate Amaretti Cookies. 

I order all of my certified gluten free nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and almond paste from Nuts.com. 

My can of almond paste was 10 ounces, but I only needed 8 ounces for the recipe, so I got out my handy dandy kitchen scale. 

I only bake with organic cane sugar from Whole Foods, and lately I have been buying raw organic honey.  The raw stuff is supposedly better for you. 

I love Rodelle Dutch processed baking cocoa.  Many cocoas have cross contamination warnings, but Rodelle's website says their cocoa is gluten free.  I purchase it from amazon.com. 

That cookie scoop I bought is finally coming in handy! 

My first tray of cookies ready to go in the oven 

I added mini semi-sweet chocolate chips and pine nuts to the cookies on my second tray. 

The smell of baked goods with almond paste and chocolate is heavenly!  

Here's a close-up of the finished cookies with chocolate chips and pine nuts. 

It's almost Christmas, so I had to break out my Pottery Barn reindeer plates for the final shot!  :-)

Ingredients

8 ounces of almond paste

1/2 C organic sugar

1/4 C organic raw honey

1/4 C Dutch processed cocoa

2 egg whites from extra-large eggs

Pinch of kosher salt

Optional -- pine nuts and/or mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put the almond paste, broken into small pieces, in the bowl of a food processor.  Process until smooth before gradually adding the sugar, then the honey, followed by the cocoa.  Add the egg whites and salt, processing until everything is well combined.  

Using a one tablespoon cookie scoop or spoon, drop the dough onto your prepared cookie sheets, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart.  Optional -- press pine nuts or mini chocolate chips onto each cookie.

Bake for 13 minutes until the cookies are firm and lightly cracked on top.  Allow the cookies to cool on your pans for 5 minutes before placing them on a wire rack or large plate to cool completely.  Store cookies in an airtight container.  

Makes 20 cookies 

I entered this recipe in the Gluten-Free Cookie Swap sponsored by Jules Shepard.  Please check out my recipe here and click "LIKE" to vote for my cookies.  Much appreciated! 

January 7, 2013 Update

I just made a batch of cookies to send off to the Gluten-Free Cookie Swap for judging.  Locally, I found Solo Pure Almond Paste at The Fresh Market.  All the almond paste I saw at Whole Foods contained wheat.