All in favor of making almond a mandatory ingredient in all desserts, say aye! # 137: Amygdalota

I could probably go through a bag of almond flour per week if it wasn’t so expensive. Honestly, it costs an almond a leg! (Don’t worry, nobody saw that quickly-stifled laugh snort.) These delicious cookies are from Greece, where almonds are associated with happiness, prosperity and good luck. Truly the felix felicis of nuts.

They have the consistency of marzipan in the middle, with a fancy facade of shaved almonds. The dark chocolate coating wasn’t in the recipe, but just seemed natural. I love love love both orange and almond with chocolate individually, so it was a no-brainer to combine all three.

These delights only call for 6 ingredients. I know, I know – magic! The translation of the name is “sweets from almond” and it’s truly just that: almond flour, sliced almonds, sugar, orange zest, salt and egg whites.

Side note: aren’t these flowers amazing? Farmers’ market gems.

While sifting is not as important in this recipe as say, French macarons, I’d still recommend it. Almond flour is particularly prone to clumps.

Have you ever noticed how when you zest an orange, the air suddenly smells like citrus heaven? I’m pretty sure that when you use a microplane on citrus rind, it releases the scented oil trapped in the zest. If anyone knows more, educate me! I tried looking it up and went down a rabbit hole of citrus-scented cleaning supplies.

With only egg white as a binder and no added rising agents, it turned out to be a very dense dough.

Rolled in chopped almonds and flattened before heading to the sauna.

I’m pretty sure you could shape them into fun designs successfully. They stayed exactly the same pre- to post-bake!

Make sure to wait until the chocolate sets before stacking them into a container, or you’ll end up with one solid cookie tower.

Happy munching!

Recipe from: https://flavorthemoments.com/greek-almond-cookies-amygdalota/