Pignoli Cookie Recipe
This is my favorite traditional Italian Christmas Cookie. And, this is the best recipe (it has been in my family for many years). I'd like to share it with you. Buon Natale!
8 ounces pignoli (pine nuts)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Dash salt
1 8-ounce can almond paste
2 egg whites, slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Lightly butter baking sheet. Place pignoli in a shallow dish.
Combine granulated sugar, confectioners’ sugar, flour and salt in a medium bowl and lightly toss with a fork.
Break up the almond paste with your fingers and place in a mixing bowl of an electric mixer. Add egg whites and beat on low speed until smooth. (You can also use a hand mixer, but you’ll need a strong arm if you do it by hand.) Add almond extract and flour mixture and beat until flour is blended in, about 30 seconds. Do not over beat.
Using a teaspoon, scoop up a rounded spoon of dough and dip it, upside down, into the pignoli. Slip the dough off the spoon, pignoli side up, using another spoon or your finger tip. Place the dough on prepared cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Stick remaining pignoli onto unbaked cookies. Using your fingers, shape the dough so that all the cookies are round.
Bake cookies for about 25 minutes. Use the shorter baking time if you like soft cookies; the longer baking time if you like them chewy. Cool 1 minute and remove to a rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
8 ounces pignoli (pine nuts)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Dash salt
1 8-ounce can almond paste
2 egg whites, slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Lightly butter baking sheet. Place pignoli in a shallow dish.
Combine granulated sugar, confectioners’ sugar, flour and salt in a medium bowl and lightly toss with a fork.
Break up the almond paste with your fingers and place in a mixing bowl of an electric mixer. Add egg whites and beat on low speed until smooth. (You can also use a hand mixer, but you’ll need a strong arm if you do it by hand.) Add almond extract and flour mixture and beat until flour is blended in, about 30 seconds. Do not over beat.
Using a teaspoon, scoop up a rounded spoon of dough and dip it, upside down, into the pignoli. Slip the dough off the spoon, pignoli side up, using another spoon or your finger tip. Place the dough on prepared cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Stick remaining pignoli onto unbaked cookies. Using your fingers, shape the dough so that all the cookies are round.
Bake cookies for about 25 minutes. Use the shorter baking time if you like soft cookies; the longer baking time if you like them chewy. Cool 1 minute and remove to a rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
posted by Kitty Kitty Peacock | 5:53 AM
2 Comments:
I'll be thinking about you this christmas as well. It sounds like it will be a very difficult one. Trey's grandmother passed away this morning...Christmas Eve morning. It's been very difficult. Although I haven't known her but a few years I know Trey and his mother are both hurting and I'm hurting for them. And I know she cared a great deal for me because Trey chose to love me and I gave her Britton. She fought for over a week and I think her body just couldn't do it anymore. It's been so hard to know what and how much to tell Britton. He's only 2. He keeps asking about her and a few days ago he told me I couldn't talk to his stuffed bear. When I asked why he said that the bear was mad. When I asked what he was mad about he said he was mad about Mamaw. I'm not sure what his little head is thinking about all of this. I don't want to hide it from him either. But he doesn't understand and I'm said that he won't remember her. We'll have to do the remembering for him.
I know you will be hurting this holday season. My thoughts are with you friend. I have no words. I don't think words are much comfort anyway. But I do send you thoughts of love! Thank you for caring about my family during this time. It has meant so much to me!
I made your cookies today to serve as a treat for a class I am teaching tomorrow on Sicilian Cuisine. They came out wonderfully. Thank you.
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