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Amaretto Amaretti Thumbprint Cookies

Wouldn’t you know, my always popular soft amaretti cookies work surprisingly well in thumbprint form, filled with amaretto-spiked jam or chocolate ganache. Amaretti cookies are a reader favorite for a reason: these soft and chewy almond cookies are incredibly easy and ever-so versatile, not to mention naturally gluten free! This fun thumbprint version can be […]

The post Amaretto Amaretti Thumbprint Cookies first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

Wouldn’t you know, my always popular soft amaretti cookies work surprisingly well in thumbprint form, filled with amaretto-spiked jam or chocolate ganache.

Amaretti cookies are a reader favorite for a reason: these soft and chewy almond cookies are incredibly easy and ever-so versatile, not to mention naturally gluten free! This fun thumbprint version can be filled with just about anything, and makes for a perfect addition to your holiday cookie plate.

Rows of Amaretti Thumbprint Cookies in neat rows on a wire rack, alternating between three kinds of filling.

You all can’t get enough of my amaretti morbidi, or soft amaretti cookies. I mean, I wouldn’t have 11 variations in the archives if you didn’t.

I mean, talk about a versatile recipe… so far we’ve tried all sorts of flavors from chocolate to ube, swapped the almond flour for pistachio and hazelnut, mixed in sprinkles, vegan-ified them, and even stuffed them.

But the question today is… will they thumbprint?

I was optimistic they would, considering they usually hold their shape quite well when baking.

The only potential issue I could foresee was the cracking, which I usually encourage in the regular versions (the cracks being what make these cookies so stunning to begin with!) But I worried the cracks would be too big and the filling would ooze out.

Amaretto Amaretti Thumbprint cookies on a gray background, with bowls of the various filling options messily scattered around

I was, however, pleasantly surprised at just how well they transformed into thumbprints (not all cookie recipes can claim such versatility you know).

The cracking is still a concern, but is manageable with a slightly different technique than you may be used to for other thumbprint cookie recipes. Basically, you just need to be very gentle when you’re shaping the thumbprints not to let the cracks get too big, especially if you opt for a looser filling.

The thumbprint version bakes more quickly than the original cookies (give them a few more minutes if you want a bit of crunch on the bottoms), and I still recommend using two stacked cookie sheets to keep the bottoms from browning too quickly.

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Ube Amaretti Crinkle Cookies

These soft and chewy, cheerfully crinkly and perfectly purple ube amaretti are a delight for the senses. Easy to make and naturally gluten free, amaretti cookies are an almond-lover’s delight. This violet variation features ube extract (purple sweet potato) for a unique color and flavor. Amaretti or not, here I come… …with yet another flavor […]

The post Ube Amaretti Crinkle Cookies first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

These soft and chewy, cheerfully crinkly and perfectly purple ube amaretti are a delight for the senses.

Easy to make and naturally gluten free, amaretti cookies are an almond-lover’s delight. This violet variation features ube extract (purple sweet potato) for a unique color and flavor.

Silver wire baking rack with even rows of ube amaretti crinkle cookies coated in powdered sugar

Amaretti or not, here I come…

…with yet another flavor variation of my favorite soft and chewy amaretti cookies: this time featuring ube!

I know, I know. I’ve already got 10 other amaretti cookie recipes, and ube makes 11.

But truly, how many is too many amaretti? Is there such a thing?

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Clover Club Cocktail

I’ll admit to being the kind of guy that likes a pink drink every now and then, but I don’t like to admit that I’m the kind of guy that buys raspberries in the winter. Writing cookbooks with deadlines that don’t always flow with the seasons, if I need a few cherries in the winter to test a recipe or a few cups of blueberries, I’ll resort to frozen or, uh…”fresh” if I really have to get the job done. I used to look down on people that bought out-of-season fruit at the markets or grocery stores, or the ones who inspected every single piece of fruit on offer like it was a rare gem, until I realized they were all recipe developers or food stylists and they were just doing their jobs.

I’ll also admit after making this Clover Club cocktail, which has a dash of raspberry syrup added for color and flavor, perked me up this winter. Although vacation is off the table for a while, I felt like I was taking a little trip to somewhere exotic when I took that first ruby-color, raspberry-flavored sip. To be honest, it felt a bit illicit. And I loved it.

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Candied Pecans

My favorite classic candied pecans recipe is easy to make with 7 ingredients. Perfect for gifting or sprinkling on everything from salads to yogurt, casseroles, ice cream and more! Raise your hand if you love candied pecans as much as I do! ♡ These sweet treats have always been a favorite of mine, especially around […]

My favorite classic candied pecans recipe is easy to make with 7 ingredients. Perfect for gifting or sprinkling on everything from salads to yogurt, casseroles, ice cream and more!

Candied Pecans in Mason Jar

Raise your hand if you love candied pecans as much as I do! ♡

These sweet treats have always been a favorite of mine, especially around the holidays, and this is is the old-fashioned candied pecans recipe that I fell in love with years ago and have made since more times than I can count. By contrast to my recipe for naturally-sweetened maple candied pecans, this retro recipe unapologetically features a thick and crunchy cinnamon sugar coating made with two kinds of sugar, plus the perfect hint of sea salt and cayenne to balance out the sweetness. And when baked up until perfectly toasty and crunchy in the oven, I’m telling you, these candied pecans are absolutely irresistible.

I always love baking up a few batches at the end of the year to pass out as fun holiday gifts. But they taste great anytime of the year as a sweet snack, or sprinkled on everything from salads to yogurt, casseroles, baked sweet potatoes, ice cream and more. They are also incredibly easy to make with just 7 simple ingredients, the recipe is naturally gluten-free, and these candied pecans have the added bonus of making your home smell absolutely heavenly as they bake in the oven.

I’m warning you now — one you start snacking on these little guys, it’s hard to stop. ♡ You’re going to love them!
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Confetti Amaretti Cookies

Soft and chewy and ready to party, these birthday cake amaretti cookies are studded with rainbow sprinkles and flavored with almond and cake batter extract. Rainbow sprinkles make everything better, and my popular amaretti cookies are no exception! With pops of bright color peeking through the sugary cracks, and a nostalgic cake batter flavor with […]

Soft and chewy and ready to party, these birthday cake amaretti cookies are studded with rainbow sprinkles and flavored with almond and cake batter extract.

Rainbow sprinkles make everything better, and my popular amaretti cookies are no exception! With pops of bright color peeking through the sugary cracks, and a nostalgic cake batter flavor with a hint of almond, there’s no denying these confetti amaretti are little bites of fun!

Messy arrangement of funfetti amaretti cookies with broken and bitten into cookies to show texture

With the half dozen different amaretti flavors I’ve posted so far, I’m actually kind of shocked I didn’t think of this sooner. Especially considering my obsession with wordplay and recipe names (funfetti fours, strawciatella, cookies ‘n cream puffs, the list goes on. I often name a recipe before I develop it for this very reason.)

I mean, if there was any cookie more destined for a funfetti/confetti adaptation, it’s amaretti. Funfetti amaretti. Confetti amaretti. Spaghetti amaretti? (Ok, nix that last one).

It’s virtually impossible to look at these cookies and not feel just a little bit better about the world.

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Cheese Souffle

The word soufflé used to strike terror in the heart of cooks far and wide. I never got that memo, though, and one of the first things I ever baked was a chocolate soufflé when I was less than sixteen years old, from my mother’s copy of The Settlement Cookbook, the 1951 edition. The ingredient list is pretty concise; looking at the book now, there…

The word soufflé used to strike terror in the heart of cooks far and wide. I never got that memo, though, and one of the first things I ever baked was a chocolate soufflé when I was less than sixteen years old, from my mother’s copy of The Settlement Cookbook, the 1951 edition. The ingredient list is pretty concise; looking at the book now, there are two chocolate soufflé recipes in it – one with four ingredients and the other with six.

The author explains how to put the soufflés together with only four or five concise sentences. There are no mixing bowl or baking dish sizes given, and chocolate is just listed as “chocolate.” There’s no mention of whether it’s bittersweet, semisweet, or unsweetened chocolate. (There are also no substitutions for any ingredients offered, and storage instructions weren’t included, presumably because people just figured that out for themselves.) It’s fascinating how times have changed in terms of how recipes are written today.

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Low(er) Fat Banana Bread

I know I’m late in the game and I have a gazillion excuses. Banana Bread became the recipe of the lockdown. It seemed everyone had some overripe bananas that needed to be used up, which isn’t all that uncommon even in the best of times. While I’ve had my own Banana Bread recipe on the blog for a while, but with many people had trouble…

I know I’m late in the game and I have a gazillion excuses. Banana Bread became the recipe of the lockdown. It seemed everyone had some overripe bananas that needed to be used up, which isn’t all that uncommon even in the best of times. While I’ve had my own Banana Bread recipe on the blog for a while, but with many people had trouble finding butter and eggs, a lot of us were baking and cooking with, and eating, whatever we could scrounge up in our pantries, refrigerators, kitchen cabinets, and freezers.

I usually have plenty of bulk chocolate for baking on hand, but was caught short when even grocery stores unexpectedly ran out of bars of baking chocolate. Fortunately, a local bakery came to my rescue with chocolate, but I had a small bag of chocolate chips on hand, which aren’t easy to come by around here (they sell them at G. Detou,) and decided to put those to use, along with some rapidly ripening bananas.

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Neapolitan Amaretti Cookies

Not one, not two, but three delicious flavors swirled into one supremely soft and chewy almond cookie. Here’s a fun Neapolitan twist (literally) on your favorite soft amaretti cookie – with swirls of almond, strawberry, and chocolate doughs in one delightful bite. At this point I’ve made five different flavors of my popular soft amaretti […]

Not one, not two, but three delicious flavors swirled into one supremely soft and chewy almond cookie.

Here’s a fun Neapolitan twist (literally) on your favorite soft amaretti cookie – with swirls of almond, strawberry, and chocolate doughs in one delightful bite.

Plate with Neapolitan Amaretti Cookies, and bowls of strawberries, cocoa poweder and almonds.

At this point I’ve made five different flavors of my popular soft amaretti cookies.

It’s about time we mash some of them together.

Or, to be more precise, elegantly marble them into a triple flavored swirl.

Cooling rack with rows of Neapolitan Amaretti Cookies

These Neapolitan amaretti cookies combine the original almond and chocolate varieties, along with a pink fruity variation (I used freeze dried strawberries instead of raspberries this time, though either would work).

The result is a sweet swirl of almondy goodness with a hint of chocolate and strawberry that would be perfect for your sweetheart.

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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? The pistachio obsession continues. Swapping pistachio flour for almond in my soft amaretti cookie recipe brings […]

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.

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.

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