Hot baked biscuits in less than 30 minutes? Yes please! Here’s a simple recipe for Italian Almond Biscuits. They are chewy, delicately sweet and packed with the rich flavour of roasted almond.
Why We Love This
A lot of Italian almond biscuit recipes require you to whip the egg whites before mixing and baking. We skip this step and the results are perfection in a biscuit and a lot of saved time!
Having no wheat flour, the texture is so different to regular biscuits. We love the use of almond flour in this for the rich nutty flavour and texture.
Related: Koulourakia Greek Easter Cookies / Italian Cuddura Biscuits
What are Italian Almond Biscuits?
A type of macaroon, these light and nutty biscuits are sometimes referred to as Ricciarelli or Amaretti Cookies. There are many variations, but they’re essentially crispy, light cookies with a chewy, soft centre.
While these are traditionally eaten in Italy at Christmas, and accompanied by a dessert wine might we add! We say they’re good any time of year.
If you want to use almonds and make your own almond flour, we’ve whittled the preparation process down to less than 10 minutes to crush the almonds, blend with sugar, egg whites and almond essence, and roll up into little icing sugar coated cookie ball morsels. Just as a time comparison.
For a crunchy almond biscuit, try our cantucci (Italian almond biscotti) instead!
What You’ll Need
Almond flour
and almond essence
are probably the two ingredients you may not already have on hand, otherwise the rest are pantry staples!
How to make Italian Almond Biscuits:
Preheat oven to 180˚C (350˚F) and line your baking tray with baking paper. Place your almond flour, egg whites, caster sugar and essences in a bowl and mix well with a fork.
Sprinkle your icing sugar on chopping board or plate. Spoon a small scoop of mixture onto the board and coat generously with icing sugar while gently rolling into a ball.
Bake for around 15 minutes, until the outsides are nicely crispy yet the cookies are still soft inside.
Wandercook’s Tips
- Crispy Tip – If you want crispier biscuits, cook them for a few minutes longer.
- Runny? -The mixture will be quite runny, and that’s completely normal.
- Leftover egg yolks? Make Italian almond crescent cookies next!
FAQs
You don’t have to whip the egg whites in this recipe. You can if you like, but it’s not necessary if you want to save time. Why not try both ways and see what you prefer?
Yes, almond flour is finely ground almonds. So you can use either. The first time we cooked it we ground the almonds ourselves, and the second time around we used almond flour. Both work!
Yes! You can freeze Italian almond biscuits and thaw them out as you want them or you can keep them in a sealed container for up to a week either on the bench or in the fridge. We kept ours out on the bench in our biscuit jar.
Yes! As it uses almond flour instead of wheat flour, this is okay to cook for you or gluten-free friends.
Variations
- If you can’t find almond flour, you can finely ground almonds instead. In a pinch, you could also sub for pecans or walnuts however the outcome and flavour would be quite different.
- You can pop a whole almond in the centre of each biscuit to make their presentation a little fancier.
More delicious recipes to try next:
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment & star rating below!
Ingredients
- 1½ cups almond flour or finely ground almonds
- 2 egg whites lightly whisked
- ¾ cup caster sugar / superfine sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp almond essence
- ¼ cup icing sugar / powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180˚C (350˚F) and line your baking tray with baking paper.
- Place your almond flour, lightly whisked egg whites, caster sugar and vanilla essence and almond essence in a bowl and mix well with a fork.1½ cups almond flour, 2 egg whites, ¾ cup caster sugar / superfine sugar, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 1 tsp almond essence
- Sprinkle your icing sugar on a chopping board or plate.¼ cup icing sugar / powdered sugar
- Spoon a small scoop of mixture onto the board and coat generously with icing sugar while gently rolling into a ball.
- Bake for around 15 minutes, until the outsides are nicely crispy yet the cookies are still soft inside.
Video
Recipe Notes
- If you want a crispier result, cook it for a few minutes longer.
- The mixture will be quite runny, and that’s completely normal.
- Do you have to whip the egg whites? You don’t have to whip the egg whites in this recipe. You can if you like, but it’s not necessary if you want to save time. Why not try both ways and see what you prefer?
- Is almond flour the same as ground almonds? Yes, almond flour is finely ground almonds. So you can use either. The first time we cooked it we ground the almonds ourselves, and the second time around we used almond flour. Both work!
- Can you freeze these cookies? Yes! You can freeze them and thaw them out as you want them or you can keep them in a sealed container for up to a week either on the bench or in the fridge. We kept ours out on the bench in our biscuit jar.
- Is this a gluten-free recipe? Yes! As it uses almond flour instead of wheat flour, this is okay to cook for you or gluten-free friends.
- If you can’t find almond flour, you can finely ground almonds instead. In a pinch, you could also sub for pecans or walnuts however the outcome and flavour would be quite different.
- You can pop a whole almond in the centre of each biscuit to make their presentation a little fancier.
Nutrition
52 Comments
Helen Rodriguez
09/02/2023 at 10:34 pmSo delicious. But are they really 165 calories per cookie?
Wandercooks
10/02/2023 at 12:55 pmGlad you enjoyed Helen! I’ve just ran the nutrition calc again and it’s come down to 140kcal per cookie. It would depend on how many cookies you get out of your batch – so if it is 12, then that’s correct. The reason for the higher calorie count is because it’s a nut based flour, which are naturally higher in calories than traditional wheat flour. 🙂
Donna
21/01/2023 at 7:31 amI am back to let you know that I tested this recipe with brown sugar. I used 1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar ( equals 1/2) and 1/4 cup granulated. The taste is awesome! I am very happy with the results!
Wandercooks
21/01/2023 at 9:35 amOh that’s awesome! Thanks for sharing how it went. We’ll have to trial that on our next batch too. Any excuse to cook them again haha!
Donna
20/01/2023 at 7:55 amI made these this morning and they were delicious! I even used part sugar substitute. I am wondering how they would be using brown sugar.
Wandercooks
20/01/2023 at 9:20 amHey Donna, that’s awesome. We haven’t tested with brown sugar, but I feel that would give them a nice caramel tone to the flavour. If you do test it, let us know how they turn out!
KatsyB
26/06/2022 at 8:37 pmAbsolutely delicious and so simple to make! Thank you for such a wonderful, yummy recipe 🙂
Wandercooks
27/06/2022 at 4:11 pmAwesome, thanks so much for letting us know. 🙂
Rosalie
20/06/2022 at 6:02 amVery yummy thanks for the recipe ☺️
Wandercooks
20/06/2022 at 4:32 pmYou’re most welcome Rosalie!
Shayma
03/04/2022 at 2:47 amAmazing texture and taste!!
Wandercooks
05/04/2022 at 11:32 amGreat to hear!
Smitha
23/02/2022 at 12:44 amMade today, chewy and very tasty.
Wandercooks
23/02/2022 at 10:14 amGreat to hear! 🙂
Elizabeth
06/04/2022 at 9:46 amExcellent, they taste very yummy!
I added almond flavoring and orange zest! Love it!
Wandercooks
06/04/2022 at 2:48 pmThat’s great Elizabeth! Love your spin on it with the flavouring and zest too. 🙂
Jo
27/10/2021 at 1:33 amHaving recently gone wheat and dairy free these cookies ticked all the right boxes and were just so easy to cook. I absolutely loved them.
Wandercooks
27/10/2021 at 11:54 amAh that’s great Jo! So happy you enjoyed them and thanks for the feedback. 🙂
Lucie
29/09/2021 at 11:33 amso easy to make and so delicious and light and fluffy
Wandercooks
29/09/2021 at 12:08 pmAww thanks for the feedback Lucie! So happy you enjoyed them. 😀
Manjiri C
29/04/2020 at 11:14 pmooo these look delish! I love the fact that they can be made like next to no time at all!
Wandercooks
30/04/2020 at 1:02 pmYes, a quick cookie recipe is always a winner for us!
Bintu | Recipes From A Pantry
29/04/2020 at 9:01 pmThese biscuits look so chewy and delicious and the perfect sweet snack! Might have to whip up a batch myself!
Wandercooks
30/04/2020 at 1:03 pmThanks Bintu – enjoy!
Danielle Wolter
29/04/2020 at 8:50 pmI am a huge fan of anything with almond. These cookies were fantastic. And came out absolutely perfect!
Wandercooks
30/04/2020 at 1:03 pmCheers Danielle! 🙂
Chris Collins
29/04/2020 at 6:44 pmI love almond cookies so much!! Can’t wait to tuck into the recipe 🙂
Wandercooks
30/04/2020 at 1:03 pmEnjoy!
Nart at Cooking with Nart
29/04/2020 at 4:42 pmThese look so good, girls! I love almonds and anything chewy so I can’t wait to try them!
Wandercooks
30/04/2020 at 1:04 pmAww thanks Nart! Yes, the almond flavour and chewy combo is a fave of ours!
Marisa Franca @ All Our Way
11/01/2018 at 10:35 pmOh I do love the taste of almonds! This recipe reminds me of a cookie I had a long time ago and really enjoyed. I will definitely make the recipe although I may be tempted to eat the whole batch myself.
Wandercooks
18/01/2018 at 3:12 pmOh yay! Food memories are the best! Good luck resisting once these little babies come out the oven hahaha 😀