Love and Olive Oil
Pistachio Amaretti Cookies

Pistachio Amaretti Cookies

Chewy amaretti cookies made with pistachio flour for a buttery, nutty flavor and gorgeous natural hue.

My favorite soft amaretti cookies with a perfect pistachio twist! Dare I say that pistachios are quickly surpassing almonds as my favorite nuts?

Soft, chewy and crinkly: Pistachio Amaretti Cookies

The pistachio obsession continues.

Swapping pistachio flour for almond in my soft amaretti cookie recipe brings an incredible rich and buttery depth of flavor that simply can’t be beat.

The richness of the pistachio tempers the saccharine sweetness that almond tends to intensify; and so, despite the fact that these cookies use the exact same amount of sugar, they don’t taste nearly as sweet as the original.

Pistachio Amaretti Cookies

After a few test batches experimenting with various ratios, I ended up settling on a 50/50 ratio of pistachio flour to almond flour.

Why not use all pistachio flour, you ask?

Well, pistachio flour is crazy expensive, for one thing, but I found that it doesn’t hold its shape quite as well as the almond flour does. Instead, using half and half created a good balance of pistachio flavor to almond structure, resulting in a noticeably pistachio-flavored cookie but still preserved the same shape and chewy character as the original cookies.

Pistachio Amaretti Cookies

Can you use all pistachio flour? Certainly, and your cookies will be ridiculously chewy, with an ultra rich and buttery pistachio flavor. But just know they will spread out quite a bit more as they bake.

I’m guessing the difference in shape is a result of the added moisture in the pistachio flour. Of course, this could vary wildly from brand to brand (I used the pistachio flour from Nuts.com, other brands might have more/less moisture content).

To offset this added moisture, I dried out the nut flours in a 170º oven for 40 minutes to remove some of that excess moisture. Definitely don’t skip this step if you’re using more than 50% pistachio flour.

Unless you have a high powered blender or a specialty nut grinder, I wouldn’t recommend making your own homemade nut flour for this particular recipe. It’s just too hard to get a finely-textured nut flour at home. Also, there’s a very fine line between nut flour and nut butter, and you definitely don’t want to cross it.

Pistachio Amaretti Cookies

Other than the pistachio flour, and replacing almond extract for pistachio extract, this recipe is virtually identical to the original almond cookies.

Once rolled generously in powdered sugar, the cookies will form beautiful cracks as they bake, the rich ochre hue from the pistachio flour contrasting beautifully with the bright white sugar.

Pistachio Amaretti Cookies How to make Pistachio Amaretti Cookies 50/50 Almond/Pistachio Flour to 100% Pistachio Flour

You can see here the distinct difference between the batch using 100% pistachio flour (undried, straight out of the bag) on the right to the oven-dried 50/50 version on the left. The pure pistachio version, despite the spread, was still ridiculously good, so you can feel safe knowing that they definitely did not to to waste!

Soft Pistachio Amaretti Cookie Recipe Pistachio Amaretti Cookies

You may have noticed that the color of these cookies isn’t the same bright pistachio green you might expect if you’ve had one too many cones of fake pistachio gelato.

Rather, the cookies come out of the oven sporting a toasty ochre hue, which is beautiful in its own right but doesn’t exactly scream ‘pistachio’ as we’ve come to expect it.

I suspect different brands of pistachio flour might vary in color from what you see here, so yours might be more/less green based on what specific brand you used.

Needless to say, If you’re baking these for St. Patrick’s Day, might I suggest my matcha amaretti cookies instead? They’re much more vibrantly (and naturally) green.

Of course, you could also use Stella’s trick and add a tiny bit of blue food coloring to offset the natural yellow color of the pistachio. I opted not to, but it’d make your cookies more of a familiar pistachio green.

Pistachio Amaretti Cookies

Pistachio Amaretti Cookies

Chewy amaretti cookies made with pistachio flour for a buttery, nutty flavor and gorgeous natural hue.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup (100g) almond flour or very finely ground almonds, sifted
  • 1 cup (100g) pistachio flour or very finely ground pistachios, sifted
  • 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large egg whites (60g)
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon pistachio extract
  • confectioners’ sugar, as needed

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees F. Spread sifted nut flours on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until dry and toasty (this step removes the excess moisture from the flours, resulting in cookies that hold their shape better). Let cool completely then transfer to a large bowl.
  2. Increase oven temperature to 300 degrees F.
  3. Stack two matching, heavyweight, light to medium colored cookie sheets one inside the other (stacking two cookie sheets together keeps the bottoms of the cookies from getting too brown). Line with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
  4. Add sugar and salt to cooled nut flours and whisk until evenly incorporated.
  5. In a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites and lemon juice until they hold soft peaks.
  6. Add beaten egg whites and pistachio extract to dry ingredients and stir until mixture forms a soft, sticky dough, kneading with your hands if necessary. No need to be gentle here, we’re not making macarons. ;)
  7. Lightly dust your hands with powdered sugar. Use a small cookie scoop to portion dough into 1-inch balls. Roll into a smooth ball, then roll in powdered sugar. Arrange on prepared baking sheet, leaving 1 inch of space between cookies.
  8. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until tops are cracked and bottoms are just barely golden (if you are NOT using doubled cookie sheets, your cookies will brown much quicker and will likely only need 25 minutes, so watch them closely). If you prefer crunchier cookies you can give them an extra 5 minutes or so or until the tops begin to brown too. Remove from oven; let cool a few minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
  9. Cookies will keep at room temperature in an airtight bag or container, for up to 5 days.
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23 Comments

  1. Rating: 5

    I have made the recipes for amaretti cookies several times in the last two years. Pistachio, chocolate, strawberry with the powder my son got for me in New York. They are so easy to make. Great gift for my friends who are gluten intolerant. Today I made them adding the zest from one lime (5 tsp) in the dry ingredients and lime juice instead of lemon juice in the egg whites.  They are wonderful!  The lime with the almond flour is very nice.  Thank you for this so easy and versatile recipe! 

  2. Rating: 5

    These cookies are INCREDIBLE!!! Literally gone in 24 hrs. The double cookie sheet thing is so smart. I had 2 too many for 1 sheet so put them in a separate pan that I didn’t double up and they were too browned on the bottom. I used almond extract instead of pistachio (since that’s what I had) and it was amazing. I did add natural green food coloring, but all it did was make the batter darker, not greener. Making these again very soon!!

  3. Rating: 5

    In ❤️! Just made my 2nd batch. I live at a higher elevation cooked the 1st batch at 300 they spread out more then yours. Cooked the 2 ND at 325 they are picture perfect. At 6,300 ft I have to go up in temp to keep most cookies from spreading.

  4. I’ve made the chocolate version and regular almond version .. AMAZING! Will be making this pistachio version as soon as my pistachio extract arrives. I make the chocolate version often and use the Valrhona cocoa power and Nielsen Massey almond extract and they come out so delicious. Thank you for these amazing recipes and variations of amaretti cookies . I hope you post new varieties, maybe cardamom rose or whatever you have . Happy Holidays! Thanks again 😊

  5. Delicious – I’ll double the mixture next time as I couldn’t stop ‘testing’ them!

  6. Hello, these look delicious.. I have some roasted pistachios that I’m planning to grind and use.. will that work or do they have to be the raw ones? Thanks 

    • I think roasted would work, though I haven’t tried it personally. The spread/crackle may vary just because of the difference in residual moisture in the nuts, but I bet they’d be delicious still!

  7. AMAZING SO DELICIOUS  SO EASY TO MAKE 

  8. Delicious!!!!!
    Reminds me of the amaretti I used to buy in Sicily!!!!

  9. These cookies were absolutely delicious! My coworkers asked me to make another batch and my husband was mad that I gave some away.  I couldn’t find pistachio extract so used almond extract instead. Thanks for sharing!!  They’ll now be part of my Christmas cookie and special occasion tradition. 

  10. You should definitely add a star rating system to your site so that on Google searches rating results appear (currently shows as no ratings) and believe me, based on this recipe and results therein, more people need to experience and enjoy the results of this, and other recipes!
    The texture is perfect – like the best chocolate crinkle cookies I had as a child, and wasn’t expecting here (but will be trying your chocolate ameretti recipe now!) and i loved the half and half nut flour mix! I grew up not liking almonds, but am growing to like now but love pistachio- the pistachio addition gives it a warmer, nuttier flavor as opposed to how floral almonds can be.
    We ground our own pistachio flour and then toasted as recommended….was very easy to do.
    These are great cookies, make a decent, but not huge quantity- much enjoyed!
    Thank you for sharing!!!

  11. These are amazing and very similar to what we had in Italy. Thanks for sharing! Can I freeze these?

    • I haven’t frozen these cookies personally but I don’t see why not! They might not be quite as soft and chewy, but I imagine they’d still be tasty!

  12. I never seen pistachio flour! Sounds so interesting. I adore pistachios. This may be an expensive batch of cookies to make but they seem worth it.

  13. Yummm I can’t wait to try this. Is this cookie the same as crinkles? 

    • Despite the appearance these are not the same as a traditional crinkle cookie (which has flour). You’ll just have to try them for yourself!

  14. thank you for testing this recipe, I wouldn’t have ever known how to use pistachio flour and like that it helps reduce the sweetness that would otherwise be apparent, especially since I like cookies but not sweet ones!

  15. I am making these now and can’t find the temp for baking the cookies. I looked at the recipe for your chocolate Amaretti cookies, which gives an oven temp of 300. So that’s what I’m going to do! Hope that’s right…

  16. I just love Amaretti cookies and these pistachio Amaretti looks amazing! Can’t wait to try this recipe ♥

  17. I’ve been looking for a new cookie recipe and this one looks so good! :)

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