These classic gluten free Amaretti biscuits are crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and delicious bite-sized almond flavoured treats; the perfect accompaniment to any tea or coffee!
Italian Amaretti biscuits, also known as Amaretti morbidi, are bite-sized treats made mainly with ground almonds (almond flour), sugar, and egg-whites. With their super soft and chewy marzipan-like centers, they are Italy's answer to French Macarons, and way easier to do as well! Serve these delicious Amaretti biscuits as a coffee or tea-time treat to your guests, and you will be doing these again in no time! If you want to nail this recipe, there are a few tips which might be helpful to follow.
Ingredients for Gluten Free Amaretti Biscuits
For these Gluten Free Amaretti Biscuits, you will need 6 ingredients:
- Almonds OR Almond Flour (keep reading for more info on this!)
- Granulated Sugar
- Icing Sugar
- Almond Extract
- Egg Whites
- Bicarbonate of Soda
Almonds vs Almond Flour
One way of making these Gluten Free Amaretti Biscuits (and the easiest way) is to use store-bought almond flour. The other way to do these is by making your own almond flour using raw red-skin almonds. I will walk you through the latter method, which takes a bit more time and a few tricks, but still leads to delicious Amaretti Biscuits! This is my favourite method to do these biscuits as I feel more comfortable knowing I'm using real ingredients. Best of all, these Gluten Free Amaretti Biscuits can be made ahead, so I can always afford the time to make these from scratch using raw almonds.
How to make your own Almond Flour For Gluten Free Amaretti Biscuits
Making almond flour for this recipe is super easy. It only takes one ingredient, a saucepan, a colander, and a food processor!
If you're starting off with raw almonds with the skin on, you will need to blanch the almonds to be able to remove the skin easily. Start off by bringing 2 cups of water to a complete boil in a small pan. Then, place your almonds and cover the pan, leaving the heat on (boiling). Boil the almonds for 1 minute. Once ready, drain the almonds in a colander placed in a sink and run them with cold tap water. From here, it will be easy to squeeze the almonds out of their skin. Discard the skins and place the almonds in a single layer on a flat baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Preheat your oven to 170 °C and roast the almonds for 10 minutes in the oven. Please do not skip this step. The slight roasting helps to "dehydrate" the almonds so that your almond flour will not be too wet.
Once the almonds are dehydrated, place them in the food processor, and mix for 1-2 minutes until the almonds are finely ground. You don't want to overmix here as the almond flour would start sticking together, turning into almond butter! For this step, I like to blend the almonds and sugar together so that they are combined.
How to Make Gluten Free Amaretti Biscuits
Whether using store-bought almond flour or making your own (see instructions above), the next few steps are really easy!
Mix your almond flour with granulated sugar in a large bowl (you can also mix the sugar with whole almonds if making your own almond flour in a food processor, see above).
In a separate bowl, use an electric or hand-held whisk to whisk the egg whites until stiff white peaks are formed. Do not skip this step 🙂
Fold your beaten egg whites into the almond-sugar mixture, add a bit of bicarbonate of soda, and a dash of almond extract. Mix your ingredients together using a spatula until a sticky mixture is formed. You do not need to chill the mixture. I tried doing these biscuits after chilling the mixture overnight, with the same result as using the mixture immediately after making it 🙂
Preheat the oven to 150°C and line a large flat baking sheet with parchment paper.
For each biscuit, use 1 teaspoon of mixture, roll it into a ball, roll the ball into powdered sugar, and place it on the lined baking sheet. Do this for the rest of the mixture, leaving 1 inch of space between each ball (You may need to do this in two separate batches)
Bake in a preheated oven for 20 - 28 minutes until the top surface of the biscuits begins to crack and the bottom surface is slightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes (the biscuits will be soft when out of the oven and will harden as they cool down). Then, transfer to a cooling rack for another 15 minutes. Sprinkle with more icing sugar and serve with tea or coffee!
How to Store Gluten Free Amaretti Biscuits
These Gluten Free Amaretti Biscuits can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
If you've tried these Gluten Free Amaretti Biscuits, let me know your thoughts in the comments below and don't forget to rate the recipe! Also, don't forget to follow me on Pinterest, and Instagram to stay updated with any new recipes!
Gluten Free Amaretti Biscuits
Ingredients
- 200 g almond flour or raw almonds see notes if using whole almonds
- 180 g granulated sugar 1 cup minus 2 tbsp
- ¼ tsp. almond extract
- 2 egg whites
- ½ tsp. bicarbonate of soda
- 100 g powdered sugar 1 cup
Instructions
- Please refer to notes below if using raw almonds
- Preheat the oven at 150 °C and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place almond flour in large mixing bowl, add sugar, and mix to combine using a spatula (skip this step is using home-made almond flour which was already mixed with sugar using the food processor)
- In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff white peaks form.
- Fold egg whites in almond and sugar mixture, add bicarbonate of soda and almond extract and mix to combine using a spatula. The mixture will become sticky and slightly wet.
- Take 1 tsp. of the mixture, roll into a ball, roll into icing sugar and place on baking tray lined with parchment paper, leaving 1 inch of space between each cookie.
- Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until top surface start cracking and bottom surface is slightly golden brown.
- Remove from oven, cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes (cookies will be very soft when out of the oven, they will harden as they cool down!). Transfer to cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Sprinkle with more icing sugar if desired.
Notes
- Preheat the oven at 170 °C (350F). Prepare a large flat baking tray
- Blanch the almonds: Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a small saucepan. Gently place almonds and boil, with lid on, for 1 minute.
- Drain almonds and quickly rinse them with cold water to cool down. Gently squeeze each almond out of its skin.
- Place skinned almonds on a flat baking tray and slightly roast in a preheated oven for 10 minutes.
- Place slightly roasted almonds and granulated sugar into food processor and mix until almonds are crushed and combined with sugar (about 1 minute). Transfer to large mixing bowl. Continue recipe from instructions starting from Step 1 above 🙂
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
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