Strawberries & Cream Amaretti
A chewy almond cookie topped with vanilla whipped cream and halved strawberries. A perfect Wimbledon dessert for tennis season.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups blanched almonds
- 1 cup powdered sugar (icing sugar)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp almond extract optional
- 3 egg whites
- 1 cup heavy cream (double cream)
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 10-15 small strawberries hulled, halved
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 300 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a food processor, combine the almonds with the powdered sugar, 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar and the almond extract. Blend until you get a fine almond meal texture (you’ll have to scrape down the sides every now and then).
- In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites whilst slowly pouring in the remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Continue to whisk until you can make stiff peaks in the mixture. Add the ground almond mixture to the whisked egg whites and fold in until fully incorporated (you don’t have to be toogentle, but make sure you don’t knock all the air out of the mixture when doing this).
- Transfer the batter to a piping bag with a wide, plain tip and pipe 2″ diameter domes onto the lined cookie sheet (or you can just drop the batter by heaped teaspoons onto the baking sheet). Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are just starting to become golden.
- When you remove the cookies from the oven, immediately push in the domed centre using the end of a wooden spoon or pen, making an indent about the size of a thumb print. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack.
- In a large bowl combine the heavy cream and vanilla paste/extract and whisk until it become just thick enough to hold its shape. Transfer to a piping bag with a medium star tip, and pipe swirls of whipped cream into the indent of each cookie (again, you could also just use a teaspoon to dollop the cream into the cookies). Top each cookie with a halved strawberry and serve immediately, or refrigerate until just before serving.
Notes
-when blending the almonds and sugar, make sure you don’t over process the mixture as it will start to clump up, and turn into almond butter.
-when whipping the cream, you know you NEED TO STOP whisking if it starts to appear grainy at all (this is a sign you are over whisking it, and you’ll soon have a lump of butter sitting in a puddle of buttermilk! If it does start to become grainy, immediately stir in some un-whisked heavy cream to bring it back together, then stop mixing as soon as it has been incorporated).
-if you’re feeling the extra fancy vibe and want to drizzle on white chocolate to the cookies, go for it! (it doesn’t really translate in flavour, and is more effort, so I haven’t included it in the recipe steps, but for anyone that’s interested here’s what I did…) I melted some white chocolate over a bainmarie, transferred it to a sandwich bag, and cut off the very tip of one corner of the bag. I then used it like a piping bag to drizzle the chocolate over the cookies.
-when whipping the cream, you know you NEED TO STOP whisking if it starts to appear grainy at all (this is a sign you are over whisking it, and you’ll soon have a lump of butter sitting in a puddle of buttermilk! If it does start to become grainy, immediately stir in some un-whisked heavy cream to bring it back together, then stop mixing as soon as it has been incorporated).
-if you’re feeling the extra fancy vibe and want to drizzle on white chocolate to the cookies, go for it! (it doesn’t really translate in flavour, and is more effort, so I haven’t included it in the recipe steps, but for anyone that’s interested here’s what I did…) I melted some white chocolate over a bainmarie, transferred it to a sandwich bag, and cut off the very tip of one corner of the bag. I then used it like a piping bag to drizzle the chocolate over the cookies.