Amaretti Thumbprints
YumAmaretti Thumbprints : Italian almond pearls, so easy to make. Perfect for holidays !
This simple and delicious, traditional dessert recipe is quite an old one and perfect for holidays.
Three weeks storage characteristic is due to almond based, cantuccini like batter, once cooked; crunchy and dry. It is well kept in airtight container.
With time, Amaretti Thumbprints become softer and you don’t need vin santo to support chewing 🙂
That kind of holiday treats were the only ones prepared at my grandmother’s house for holidays since there were no fridges; pantries were made in cold, stony or earthy basements below ground level and were perfect to keep the food during winter, without spoiling.
Once, I think maybe two years ago, I said I could add new category to my posts and it would be named „ kitchen disasters“.
There were and still are so many situations when things just don’t develop the way I want, because of so many reasons. The only problem is that, when disaster happen, I don’t think about how nice it would be to make a photo; instead, steam gets out of my ears and I try to repair the damage as soon as possible. So, around Easter time this year, I decided to make a batch of Amaretti Thumbprints to take to my mothers’ but I have forgotten to add flour to the mixture.
I discovered the bowl with flour waiting aside while Amaretti Thumbprints were already in the oven, looking like this :
Paul Hollywood would fire me immediately. Would Davide Oldani do the same ? I believe so 🙁
Luckily, it happened just when Katherine published her Grain – Free Chocolate Coconut Tart so my contribution at my mother’s was done in perfect manner thanks to Katherine.

Amaretti Thumbprints
Amaretti Thumbprints : Italian almond pearls,so easy to make. Perfect for holidays !
Ingredients
- 1 cup ground almonds
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 egg whites
- 1 tsp honey
- 2 drops almond extract
- 5 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 3 Tbsp icing sugar
- 10 tsp red fruit jam ( red currant is the best )
Instructions
-
On clean and flat working surface, combine,using your hands, almonds, sugar, egg whites, honey, almond extract and flour. You'll get sticky dough. Leave aside.
-
Preheat the oven to 170 C / 338 F.
-
Cover two sheet pans with baking paper and leave aside.
-
Put icing sugar into the shallow bowl.
-
Cut the dough into 20 balls to be about the same size.
-
Roll the balls into icing sugar and place on the baking paper ( 10 balls on each pan ).
-
Dent each ball center using thumb.
-
Bake each sheet pan for 12 minutes. Leave to cool.
-
Fill each thumbprint with ½ tsp of red currant jam.
Leave a Reply