Holy shit, fam! I feel like I just discovered something that clearly a ton of Italians have known before me, but I’m still going to be excited about it. These cookies are my favorite in the whole world, and they’re easy AS FUCK. 

My family has been buying these cookies since before I was a baby at this little bakery in Brooklyn called Aliotta. It’s on Avenue N in South Brooklyn near Marine Park if you happen to live there. We buy them for every holiday, and any other time I could convince my grandfather to take me next door when we bought bread on Sundays after church (the bread shop is next door, Moretti’s, also delicious). When we moved to Arizona, and now Washington, besides pizza, we missed Italian bakeries the most. When we fly home for visits, we rush to the bakery and spend upwards of FIFTY FUCKING DOLLARS on these expensive little delights, and then devour them in all of five minutes, usually in the car. It's sort of like setting money on fire, only the fire makes your pants tight. #worthit 

Well….NO MORE. Err...at least not fifty dollars worth. Honestly don't think I could go to Brooklyn and not buy cookies at Aliotta - it would feel wrong. My cousin is getting married in PA next fall, and I'm already trying to figure out which airport to fly into so it would make sense to drive into Brooklyn for pastry two states away. I swear it's a sickness. (Update: we flew into JFK, rented a car, and ate our way through south Brooklyn before driving to Princeton. We regret nothing.)

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. almond paste (not marzipan, PASTE)

• 2 egg whites

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

• 1/4 flour

• 1 cup pignoli nuts

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

2. Place the pignoli nuts into their own bowl, and crack egg whites into another bowl. Lightly beat the egg whites with a fork just to combine, not to froth. 

3. In a food processor, crumble the almond paste and pulse until it resembles course crumbs. Add the sugars, then the flour, and pulse until it’s ground pretty fine. 

4. Slowly add the egg whites while pulsing until the dough just comes together. You might not need all the egg whites, depending on location/humidity/etc. We’re looking for a wet paste (pictured). I made two batches, and used a little over 1 egg white for the first, and about 1 1/2 egg whites for the second - they're all delicious, but the second batch is chewier (ideal). If you live somewhere dry, you'll probably want to add both egg whites. 

5. Using a spoon or a small ice cream scooper, scoop balls of dough slightly larger than a tablespoon into the bowl of pine nuts. Toss the dough to cover with the nuts, and then place them on the cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. They won’t spread out too much as they bake, so with your hand or the bottom of a glass, press them down into discs about 1/2 inch thick.

6. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. You want the edges of the cookies to be turning golden, but not dark. 

7. Let the hot cookies cool on the cookie sheets for a minute or two and then transfer to wire racks. Dust with a little powdered sugar before serving.

The recipe should make about 2 dozen, depending on size. 

Note: these cookies shouldn't stay on the counter for weeks, so either make them and eat them, or you can freeze them in an air-tight container. My fam is flying in for the holidays a week from today, so once these cool, I’m going to toss them all in a plastic container and freeze them until Thursday morning. (I am also well aware that if they're on the counter, I will eat all of them. It's good to know your limitations.) If you’re freezing them, wait on dusting with powdered sugar until you're going to serve them. 

Like I said, these are hands down my favorite cookie - hope you like them!