Pignoli Cookies (Italian Pine Nut Cookies) - made with Almond Paste & Pine Nuts

This recipe is from the Wall Street Journal's Off Duty Saturday section, "Rosemary & Lemon Pignoli Cookies," December 2021, with my added notes. The printed version says it was adapted from "Italian American" by Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli (Clarkson Potter). It took us a few tries to get them right - when we tried them back in 2021-22, they were flat and baked too long. The texture of these cookies, when done right, is really more like candy than cookies.

(Note: If you are in St. Louis, you could just go buy some at DiGregorio's Italian Market on the Hill at Christmas time.)

I'm going to paste in some links to other website's recipes at the end so you can get a feeling for other versions. A few of them show flattened cookies, but the cookies from this recipe are puffy looking. At least one adds some flour to the dough, but this recipe has no flour and is gluten free. One of the links talks about the differences in almond paste, if you want to take a deep dive into that. Only this recipe uses the ground rosemary, which adds a "piney" scent, and goes well with the lemon zest.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 teaspoons ground rosemary (we used a metal mortar & pestle to grind it)

1/2 cup pine nuts (to be processed into the dough - optional) plus 3/4 cups pine nuts (to roll the cookie balls in before baking) -- the first 1/2 cup can be omitted from the recipe, and we found that 1/4 pound of pine nuts was enough to roll the whole batch in

14 ounces almond paste, cut into 1-inch chunks (about 2 cups)

1 cup sugar

2 large egg whites (easier with an egg separator - see pic below)

1 1/2 Tablespoons packed grated lemon zest (zest from one lemon enough)

1 teaspoon kosher salt (we used about 3/4 t. regular salt)

Making the cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 350F, line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Use a spice grinder or mortar & pestle to grind dried rosemary into a coarse powder. If using the 1/2 cup pine nuts in the dough, blend the 1/2 cup in food processor to form a paste. Zest the lemon and have the zest ready for the dough. Separate the eggs.

3. If using food processor: Add the almond paste to the (optional) processed pine nuts and process until smooth. Add the sugar and pulse to combine. Add the egg whites, lemon zest, salt and ground rosemary, and process until smooth.

3. Alternatively, by hand, use a pastry cutter to mix the almond paste, sugar, lemon zest, salt and rosemary until consistency is fine, then add the egg whites and mix with your hands to form a smooth dough.

4. Place the remaining 3/4 cup pine nuts in a bowl. Roll dough into 1 T. balls**, press the top of each (or the whole ball) in the pine nuts, set gently on cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches of space between the cookies. We rolled all sides of the cookie balls in the pine nuts, instead of just the tops.

**The original recipe called for 2 T. balls, which was to yield about 12 cookies, but we had 17 in the first batch. For the second batch, we made them smaller and used a cookie scoop, and had about 28 cookies, baked on 2 pans. We liked the size of the cookies in the second batch better, because they are very sweet and one or two is enough at one time.

5. Bake at 350F, rotating pan half way through, for 18-20 minutes.

6. Let cool completely before moving or eating them (or they may fall apart). Left overs can be kept about 4 days at room temperature (per the WSJ) or carefully wrapped and frozen. Microwave a single cookie for about 10 seconds to thaw.