These tender, bakery-worthy cookies practically make themselves. The secret? Almond flour. With its sweet nuttiness and natural oils, it just needs sugar, eggs, and a little flavoring to form the perfect cookie. And Inta’s chewy almond cookies are indeed perfect—sitting at the rare intersection of easy, delicious, and beautiful.
Inta Wood recently wowed everybody at a big family celebration with trays of these go-to almond cookies. The Italian side loved them so much they claimed them as Italian. (They may be right—these do look a lot like classic Sicilian almond cookies.)
The almond extract question
Inta splashes in a hefty tablespoon of almond extract. Ordinarily, I don’t care for its bitterness. But here, the intense blast turns the cookie into an event.
I love almonds, so what’s my problem with almond extract? Surprisingly, almond extract has little in common with the flavor of sweet almonds, the kind we snack on and grind into flour.
Almond extract comes from the oil of bitter almonds or the pits of stone fruits like peaches and apricots. The oil gets distilled down to pure benzaldehyde, a chemical compound barely present in sweet almonds, but responsible for the potent, cherry-like, almost medicinal punch of almond extract.
I’m not a big fan of this strong flavor. So when I see almond extract in a recipe and don’t want it to take over, I substitute vanilla, my all-purpose baking flavor-enhancer. And lots of it. (See my ode to vanillin.)
Flavor to your taste
But if you do like almond extract, please follow Inta’s lead and go full throttle. Or dial it back and add some vanilla extract. Whatever you do, you’ll still taste the lovely flavor of sweet almonds, thanks to the miracle of almond flour.
And feel free to call these Italian.
A tip: Keep almond flour in your freezer and use it to make the perfect cake and perfect chocolate cookies, too.
Inta’s Chewy Almond Cookies
Makes about 30 cookies
- 3 ¼ cups almond flour, unbleached, finely ground
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 3 teaspoons almond extract (or to your taste), or vanilla extract, or a combination of both
- Pinch of salt
- Slices of untoasted almonds for decorating (optional)
- Confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (put a dab of oil on the pans to keep the paper from slipping off) and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together eggs, granulated sugar, and almond and/or vanilla extract with a spoon or spatula.
- Stir in almond flour and salt.
- Scoop about a tablespoon of dough for each cookie using a small cookie scoop or spoon, then roll into balls. Place onto the cookie sheets about 1-2 inches apart.
- Decorate with sliced almonds if desired.
- Bake 15-17 minutes or until tops are dry to the touch and the edges and bottoms are golden brown. Cool on baking sheet.
- Dust with confectioners’ sugar if desired. Store in an airtight container for a few days, or freeze.
