Amaretti

The name amaretti is the diminutive of the Italian amaro, «bitter», a reference to the bitter-almond flavour rather than to the Amaretto liqueur, which carries the same root. Amaretti belong to the wider family of flourless almond-and-egg-white macaroons whose roots trace to medieval almond-paste sweets of the Arab world, brought to Sicily and made in Italian convents where the absence of flour suited fasting days; the Italian word maccherone is recorded from the late 13th century, and by the 18th century the bitter-almond versions were distinguished as amaretti. The crisp tradition centres on Saronno in Lombardy, where the Lazzaroni family began making them in the early 18th century; a popular tale, repeated by the company itself, says they were created by a young couple to honour a cardinal's 1718 visit, but this is folklore rather than documented fact. A parallel soft tradition is long established in Sardinia and Piedmont. Amaretti carry no PDO or PGI protection.

A good crisp amaretto is light and dry, shattering cleanly with an open, crackled top and an intense bitter-almond, marzipan-like aroma that lingers; the sugar gives a faint glassy snap before it dissolves. The soft type is domed, with a thin crusted shell giving way to a moist, chewy, almond-dense centre. Badly made examples are either tooth-achingly sweet with no bitter-almond backbone, or dense and heavy rather than airy and fragrant.

There is no flour, so structure comes from whipped egg-white foam binding ground almonds and sugar; on baking the egg-white proteins coagulate and set around the almond paste, which is why amaretti are naturally gluten-free. The characteristic almond perfume is benzaldehyde, the compound that makes up the great majority of the aroma volatiles in bitter almonds and apricot kernels; because benzaldehyde is volatile and oxidises readily, the bitter element is added in small amounts and the flavour is freshest soon after baking. Crisp versus soft is mainly a function of moisture and bake: crisp amaretti use a drier mix, are often rested so a skin forms, and are baked longer at a moderate 150–170°C so they dry through and the tops crack; soft amaretti keep more moisture and are baked more briefly so the centre stays chewy. Powdered sugar in the mix also limits gluten-free spread and helps give the fine, even crumb.