Pignoli Cookies are soft, chewy almond cookies that are rolled in a generous coating of pine nuts!
Almond paste is my favorite thing on Earth. I mean it. You could put it in anything and I would devour it!
Waaaaaay back in my early days as a pastry chef, Chef Marc was opening a new Italian restaurant and he asked me to be the pastry chef for the new spot as well. Part of opening a new restaurant is a colossal amount of recipe testing and development. In addition to the full dessert menu and bread program that I was developing, Chef also wanted an Italian Cookie Box including all your big-hitter favorites. I’m looking at you Rainbow Cookies!
In my research on Italian cookies, I came across Pignolis. I saw the ingredient list and knew immediately that I had to have one. The best part about being a pastry chef is being able to instantly give into your pastry cravings and then sharing them! Honestly, that is the part I miss the most.
These are soft, chewy cookies with a little crunch from the pine nuts.
Tips for Success with Your Pignoli Cookies:
- Egg whites: Egg whites are the real heroes of this recipe: they are the binder for the actual cookie and then they are also the glue that sticks on the pine nuts! ?
- Almond Paste: Almond paste is a paste of 50% blanched almonds and 50% sugar. Don’t be tricked by marzipan almond paste, which varies but has a higher percentage of sugar.
- Mixing: I mixed this in a food processor because almond paste is one of those things that is a beast to work with by hand. Blame my carpel tunnel if you must, but I like to let a machine do all the work here. You don’t have to though. I applaud you. Forget the egg whites, you are the real hero.
- Scoop: In the video I used a scoop to portion these cookies because they are a bit sticky. I reduced the sugar from my original recipe because I prefer the flavor, but it does make them a bit trickier to work with. The result is well worth it!
Pignoli Cookies
Ingredients
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 12 oz Almond paste
- 113 g Granulated Sugar
- 110 g Confectioner's Sugar
- 4 Egg Whites (divided in half)
- 1 ½ cups Pine nuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300°F
- Mix paste and granulated sugar in a food processor.
- Add 10x and 60g whites and process until smooth.
- In a bowl whisk whites until they are fluffy.
- Roll dough into 1inch balls, coat in whites, then in pinenuts.
- Place on parchment lined baking sheet and flatten slightly.
- Bake 15-18 minutes until lightly browned.
Video Instructions
I am so glad I found your YouTube channel and this recipe…my dough came out exactly like yours in your video. I made other Pignoli cookies earlier this week and threw all of them away. They were like lumps of chew…these cookies are PERFECT!!!!!
I do have a question, though…if I have left over dough, can it be frozen for about 1 month? I ran out of nuts and don’t really want to waste it.
Hi Helen! I'm so happy to hear they turned out perfectly! Thank you so much for coming back and commenting. You can freeze the baked cookies for up to 2 months, or freeze the cookie dough balls. Then you can bake them fresh at any time!