Amaretti (almond-flavored wafer cookies) rewards a little know-how: how to choose it, cook it, store it, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 12 recipes to cook with it.

What is amaretti (almond-flavored wafer cookies)?

Amaretti are small Italian almond cookies with a deep, marzipan-like flavor and a faintly bitter almond edge. Light and intensely almond, they are essentially little macaroons made from ground almonds and sugar bound with whipped egg whites, with no flour.

The bitter note is the signature. Traditional amaretti get it from bitter almonds or apricot kernels alongside the sweet almonds, which is what separates a real amaretto cookie from a plain almond biscuit.

They come in two textures. Crunchy amaretti (amaretti secchi) are dry and shatter-crisp, the kind sold wrapped in pairs of colorful paper. Soft amaretti (amaretti morbidi) are chewy in the center, closer to a fresh almond macaroon.

Cooking With Amaretti

In the kitchen the crisp ones are a workhorse. Crushed into crumbs they make a topping or a crust, or melt into a filling, carrying almond flavor that fresh almonds alone cannot.

The classic Italian move is to crumble them over or into baked fruit. Baked Stuffed Peaches packs the hollow of each peach with crushed amaretti so they soak up the juices and turn into a fragrant almond paste as they bake.

They also lift creamy and chocolate desserts. Scottish Trifle layers them in for crunch and almond perfume, and Chocolate Cake with Amaretti folds the crumbs into the batter so the cake tastes of almond from the inside out.

A whole crisp amaretto served alongside coffee or gelato is the simplest use of all.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Almond loves the company of stone fruit, chocolate, coffee, mascarpone, and amaretto liqueur, and amaretti tie all of those together. They are the natural crunch in a tiramisu-style dessert or folded into a mascarpone cream.

The biggest mistake is buying the soft, chewy kind when a recipe wants crisp crumbs. Soft amaretti will not dry into a sandy crust or topping; for crusts and fillings you want the hard amaretti secchi.

The other mistake is crushing them too far ahead. Once smashed, the crumbs pull moisture from the air and lose their snap within a day, so crush them just before you need them.

Substitutes

If you only have soft amaretti where a recipe wants crunchy ones, dry them in a low oven (about 200°F or 95°C) for 15 to 20 minutes until brittle, then crush. They will never be quite as airy but will work.

For a closer flavor swap, crush plain almond macaroons and add a drop of almond extract to restore the bitter-almond note that ordinary macaroons lack. Almond biscotti, crushed, give the right flavor with a denser crumb.

In a pinch, fine almond flour mixed with a little sugar and a few drops of almond extract approximates the taste in a filling, though you lose the crunch entirely.

Buying and Storing

Look for imported Italian amaretti, often the brand sold as crisp cookies wrapped in twos. Read whether they are secchi (crunchy) or morbidi (soft) and match that to your recipe, since the two are not interchangeable for crusts and toppings.

Crisp amaretti are remarkably shelf-stable. Kept sealed in an airtight tin away from humidity, they stay crunchy for months.

A cookie gone stale-soft can be crisped again in a low oven.

Soft amaretti are more perishable because of their moisture, lasting a couple of weeks in a sealed container and best frozen for longer keeping. Whichever type you buy, airtight is the rule, since both go stale fast once air and humidity reach them.

Quick facts

In Chinese

amaretti（杏仁味的晶圆饼干）

British (UK) term

Amaretti (almond-flavored wafer cookies)

en français

amaretti (gaufrettes amande aromatisée)

en español

amaretti (galletas de la oblea con sabor a almendra)

Recipes using amaretti (almond-flavored wafer cookies)

There are 12 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 12 recipes