Baking

My mento gave me a small book of cookie types, Anita Chu's Field Guide to Cookies, with the hint that it would be great if I practiced every one of them over the summer so that I could give him some when I saw him next year. Well, I replied, number one, I don't even know if I'm going to want to do this next year, and number two, if I do work with you next year, I'm going to be a little more demanding than I was this year. Perhaps you won't like that. He thought about it. But I'll still get cookies, right? I nodded. Of course, I said, I could just drop some by your house during the summer. He didn't like that idea. A guy giving a kid cookies? Too creepy. I agreed.

I'm not going to make every one, but tonight I made the first, Amaretti, a sort of Italian macaroon, thin, crisp, and chewy. Not at all bad.

1 cup blanched almonds
2/3 cup sugar
5 tsp all purpose flour
2 egg whites
3/4 tsp almond extract
(optional) confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Using a food processor, grind almonds, sugar, flour and salt to a fine meal. Note: Grind the almonds to as fine a consistency as possible — sift out any large bits. Grinding them with the sugar prevents the nuts from being pulverized into a paste, as the sugar absorbs some of the nut oils.

Place ground almond mixture in a large bowl and add the egg whites and almond extract. Mix with a rubber spatula until combined.

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. If desired, sift confectioners’ sugar over cookies before baking.

Bake 18 to 20 minutes, rotating cookie sheets halfway through; when Amaretti are done baking, the edges will be golden brown.

Cool sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes before transferring cookies directly onto wire racks with a metal spatula to finish cooling.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.