With a soft and chewy marzipan-like texture, infused with molasses and gingerbread spices, these gingerbread amaretti would make a fabulous addition to your holiday cookie boxes. Even better, they're made with almond flour so they are naturally gluten-free!
Yield: 26 cookies
Cook Time: 30 minutesminutes
Total Time: 45 minutesminutes
Ingredients
2¼cups/ 200galmond flour or very finely ground almonds, sifted
⅞cup/ 175ggranulated sugar
1teaspoonground ginger
½teaspoonground cinnamon
⅛teaspoonground cloves or allspice
pinchground nutmeg
pinchfine sea salt
2large/ 65gegg whites
¼teaspoonlemon juice
1tablespoon/ 15gmild/light molasses
confectioners’ sugar, as needed
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. 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.
In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, sugar, spices and salt until evenly incorporated.
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.
Add beaten egg whites and molasses to dry ingredients and stir until mixture forms a soft, sticky dough, kneading with your hands if necessary.
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 parchment or silicon-lined baking sheets, leaving 1 inch of space between cookies.
Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until tops are cracked and bottoms are just barely starting to brown (if you are not using doubled cookie sheets the bottoms will brown much quicker, so watch them closely). Remove from oven; let cool a few minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Cookies will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.