Ricciarelli: Chewy Italian Almond Cookies
Ricciarelli are dense, chewy Italian almond cookies originating in Siena. They are a distant, and much less fussy, Italian cousin to the French macaron — perfect with tea or coffee!
It’s about time I shared a recipe with you that was inspired from our trip to Italy last fall!
We had so much good food while we were there that I wish I could relive or recreate: Bistecca alla Fiorentina, or Florentine steak. Tiramisu. Homemade cavatelli pasta with arrabiata sauce from our cooking class in Rome. Allllllll those interesting flavors of gelato. Of course, pizza. More than anything, I wish I could import the amazing cured meats we had or have just one more sandwich from Lo SchiacciaVino.
While we were in Florence, we had the rare treat of meeting up with my European blogger friend Emily of Inside the Rustic Kitchen (an amazing go-to recipe blog for all things Italian!).
We both happened to bring each other identical gifts – cookies local to the cities we lived in. I brought her benne wafers (small, crunchy sesame cookies) from Charleston, and she brought me a box of ricciarelli – chewy almond cookies native to Siena, Italy.
I had never had them before but my husband and I were in love with them from the first bite! It was really difficult trying to save any of the cookies for more than a couple days!
What are ricciarelli?
Ricciarelli are cookies from Siena, Italy, that have a kick-you-in-the-face almond flavor, a lovely dense chewiness, and a beautiful cracked surface. One of these cookies is just perfect alongside a hot cup of Earl Grey or, if you want to live in true Italian style, a cappuccino.
Think of ricciarelli cookies as a cousin to macarons. Technically, I believe, it is actually a type of macaroon – with two o’s – but they made me think of macarons – with one o – as I was making them.
The recipes and techniques of ricciarelli and macarons are actually very similar: In both types of cookie, you fold almond flour and sugar into whipped egg whites, and you leave the shaped cookies on the baking sheet for a while to dry out before baking in order to form a little crust on the outside.
But — and this is good news — ricciarelli dough is much less fussy to make than macaron batter.
In ricciarelli, the ratio of almond flour to egg whites is much higher than in macarons, so you get a dense, chewy almond cookie rather than a light, airy one. Because there’s so much almond flour to fold in, it’s impossible to keep much of that fluffy meringue texture. Instead of lava-like macaron batter, you end up with a sticky dough you can roll into balls with your hands.
However, that hint of a crispy meringue-like exterior is still there before you hit the chewy inside. Letting the cookies rest long enough on the counter before baking is key to getting this texture!
Getting perfectly crackled ricciarelli cookies
That dried-out shell on the cookie dough is also vital to getting the beautifully craggy, crackled effect on the outside as well. With ricciarelli, you roll each ball of dough in powdered sugar before baking. When it cooks, the dough on the inside expands and breaks through the dried exterior, allowing golden cracks to show through the white outside.
However, sometimes the cookies need a little help in getting the crackled effect. The first time I made these, the dough was practically drying out by the time I got them on the cookie sheet and cracked very easily on their own. The second time I made them, even though I left them on the counter for two hours instead of one, the cookies needed some assistance to get the cracked texture.
You can see the difference here – the cookies on the right didn’t have any help, while the ones on the left were pre-cracked before baking.
I lightly squeezed each cookie from opposite corners until I was satisfied with the cracks I could see forming in the tops of the unbaked cookies. Then, instead of relying on the expanding dough to create the cracks, they just have to enhance the ones you already made.
I’ve demonstrated below on the baked cookies how I squeezed the unbaked dough balls to crackle the shells. Feel free to lightly press down on the tops or whatever you need to do to get those cracks started!
It’s basically like when you slice the top of your bread dough before baking. If you don’t, the dough will still expand and crack, but it might not be where you want it to. (In the case of the cookies, I found without pre-cracking the dough, it will mostly crack on the bottoms of the cookies rather than the tops, which isn’t nearly as pretty)
Getting the ideal flavor and texture
I did several rounds of recipe testing to get these just right for you! The first batch was delicious but tasted too much of orange and was too sweet. (The orangey flavor was lovely, just not as close to the original super-almondy ones we had.)
The second batch was much closer to the original cookies we had, but lost that hint of a meringue-like shell. Granted, I don’t remember that being present in the original cookies we had in Italy, but was a really nice attribute of the first batch of cookies I made!
I wasn’t sure why less sugar and orange zest would affect the texture, but I theorized that it was related to the humidity on the day I made the second batch.
What else could I do but test the same recipe with a third batch? This time I had our new dehumidifier on. Voila! Nice slightly crispy thin meringue-like shell, with the dense, moist, chewy interior. Perfecto!
Granted, they were still AMAZING in the second batch – just know that the humidity of your climate may affect the exact texture of your cookies. You can always leave them out longer before baking to help them out if you are in an especially humid environment!
Anyway, the best thing you can do to make sure these cookies come out well is to TRY THEM. They’re very easy to make — and even with subtle variations on exactly how the surface or flavor of each batch turned out, the consensus for each and every cookie was that they were awesome.
Hands down: holy amazingness. These have become one of my favorite cookies now!
Ricciarelli: Chewy Italian Almond Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 egg whites
- 1 dash lemon juice
- 2 1/4 cups almond flour
- 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp orange zest about half a large orange
- 1 tbsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar for coating cookies
Instructions
- Whip egg whites and lemon juice together with a stand mixer or hand mixer until stiff peaks form.
- Using a fine mesh sieve, sift in almond flour, 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar, salt, and baking powder and fold into egg whites. I don’t do it all at once but maybe in 2-3 batches. Try to keep some air in the egg whites, but at this point it will form a pretty sticky dough rather than a fluffy meringue.
- Add orange zest, vanilla extract, and almond extract and fold in until combined.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using clean hands, roll dough into balls about 1″ in diameter, then roll in powdered sugar until well coated. Shape into an oval, then arrange on baking sheet with some space between them for spreading, and flatten slightly.
- Leave at room temperature for about an hour or until the tops have dried out and formed almost a little shell. (This may take longer in humid areas.) Pre-crack the shell by squeezing the cookies slightly from opposite corners. (Not doing this won’t affect the taste, but pre-cracking them makes them much prettier if you want that beautiful white-gold contrast!)
- While cookies are drying, preheat oven to 300 degrees. When the cookies are ready, bake for about 20 minutes. Cool and store in an airtight container. These are even better the next day and are great with coffee or tea!
A perfect recipe, I can’t count how many compliments I’ve got for these. Thank you!
These are great! I made them with egg whites that had been uncovered in the fridge a couple days and the dough was very easy to handle.
Awesome, thanks for your comment!
I am truly shocked by how amazing this recipe turned out and how easy it was! So easy to follow and the cookies came out perfectly! We loved these from Siena and so happy to have found this recipe that recreates these delicious cookies flawlessly !! Thank you!!
Thanks so much for your lovely comment, and I’m so glad you enjoyed these! Definitely brings back fond memories of Italy.
Hi Caroline,
This recipe reminds me of almond cookies from Sicily which are soft and have an all almond taste.
Can I substitute almond extract for the vanilla extract and have all almond extract in the cookie instead of both?
Can I omit the orange zest ?
Can I also omit the 1/2 tsp lemon juice?
Would I have to replace the lemon juice with something else ?
Thank you!
Hi Anne! This recipe is already pretty almondy as written, so if you’d like to leave out the vanilla I wouldn’t replace it with more almond extract. Functionally speaking, you can omit the orange zest and it won’t affect the final texture but the orange is a really lovely counterpart to the almond flavor. As for the lemon juice, the acid helps the egg whites hold more air and get fluffier. You can replace it with about 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar if you wish and that serves the same purpose.
These are great, I had tried our local bakery’s version but these are even better! Nice and chewy.
Yay, so glad you liked these! They’re some of my favorites!
Our go-to cookie; we keep coming back.
I’m so glad! It’s a good one for sure!
Hi, I made these Almond cookies and it was delicious!!! My whole family loved it! I’m definitely going to make them soon again.
Thank you so much for the recipe! And I love your idea of pre cracking the cookies 😊
Yay! So glad you and your family loved them! Thanks for your comment!
Thanks for your prompt reply. Would it make much difference to the consistency of the dough if I left out the almond extract (not keen on the flavour)? If the dough needs the 1 tbsp of liquid, maybe I could replace it with a tablespoon of orange juice? Thanks, Judy
Also, I forgot to ask if there is an option for metric measurements for these cookies. In Australia we measure by weight. Our cup and spoon measures are slightly different to USA. Thanks, Judy
Hi Judy, this has been a frequent request on this recipe and I plan to do some additional testing very soon to make sure the metric measurements I include are accurate! I’ll keep you posted on when weight measurements are added. Thank you so much!
I followed this recipe exactly. Dough was sticky but I just kept going. Everyone who tasted the cookies loved them. I’m making another batch again. If I reduce the sugar, should I substitute with more flour?
I’ve made these with more sugar before when I was testing the recipe and didn’t find I had to compensate with more flour when I reduced the sugar. However, if you find the dough is too sticky to work with feel free to add a little extra almond flour until it feels ok! The dough should be pretty sticky though and definitely coats the palms of my hands as I’m rolling it into balls, so just be aware that’s normal.
I was so looking forward to making these! They really look beautiful and I have even tried them from a bakery before, so I know how delicious they are. But oh, how disappointed I am right now. I have quite a lot of baking experience and unfortunately something just seems completely off with the measurements – I even double checked all measurements, just to be on the safe side. I’m now left with dry balls of something similar to marzipan, to which nothing happened after 20 minutes in the oven.
However, Happy New Year!
Hi Louise! I’m so sorry you had that experience with these! Normally the dough is on the stickier side so my only thought is maybe the almond flour was too densely packed when you measured it out? I’m planning to re-test these using weighted measurements to help with that issue and for my European audience so I hope you will try again using the weights when I update it! If you do make it again before then, maybe try adding a little less almond flour initially just to see how the consistency is and add just enough so the dough is not-sticky enough to where you can roll it into balls (usually the palms of my hands end up coated in a thin layer of the dough as I’m rolling balls, and that’s about the consistency you should be looking for!). Happy new year to you as well, and please let me know if you make these again!
Can I substitute SOME all purpose flour for the almond flour? I was thrilled to find an originally gluten-free recipe for our grandson at Christmas. The cost of the flour/or almonds is really expensive, but definitely worth it. It makes them a seldom baked treat for us (we are not gluten intolerant]. Just a few at Christmas for us to share is ok, but I would like to make them more often just for us. They are addictive !!!
Oof, I know almond flour isn’t cheap and honestly that stops me from making them more often too! I haven’t tested them using any all-purpose flour so unfortunately I can’t give you a straight answer right now on how that would work but I’ll let you know if I do!
5 star rating…these cookies are totally delicious! We’ve been to Italy and these cookies will help us reminisce of those magical memories! Thank YOU for sharing.
I’m so glad these brought back good memories of Italy for you! They do the same for me and my husband. Hopefully we can all visit Italy again someday!
great recipe
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed them!
fantastic recipe. made several batches already to give as presents. big hit!
Awesome, so glad these were a hit! Thanks for your comment!
i followed your recipe and loved it! this is now my favorite cookie. i am making these again tomorrow to bring to some neighbors for the holidays, and the only thing im doing differently is adding a little more orange zest to get more of that awesome citrus taste. thank you for your hard work!
Thanks so much for commenting! These are great with a little extra zest (I had it that way and it was great! But less zest was closer to the original cookie I had) Hope your neighbors enjoy the cookies too!
Delicious cookies, easy recipe! Thank you very much, this will be a new Christmas tradition from now on.
Thanks so much for your comment and rating! I’m honored to be part of your Christmas traditions!
A perfect cookie and a perfect recipe and technique! Yum!!!
So glad you liked these! Many more delicious cookies to you in the future!
Also had an issue with the dough not forming balls. Saw in the comment section that weighing it by grams might fix the issue rather than by weight. I am wondering if measuring by weight is better for this recipe why its not actually included in the recipe. I understand this is a delicate cookie, but I think I will skip this one.
Hi Gillian! If the dough is too sticky to work with you can add a bit of extra almond flour until you can roll it into balls. It will still be very sticky (I find I have a thin layer of dough coating the palms of my hands by the time I’m done rolling the balls) but should be workable. I wrote this in cups for my primary audience in the U.S. since I know most people here, especially casual bakers or home cooks, don’t own a kitchen scale, but I plan to add weighted measurements to the recipe in the future. I hope you will try this recipe again when I update with weights!
I was looking for an almond cookie recipe and I came across your website. I’m so glad I tried them- these are amazing! My only regret is that we didn’t double the recipe when we made them! Thank you
So glad you loved these! Thanks for your comment and rating!