I love a good chewy cookie. Cakey? Sure. Fudgy? Sure. Crisp? Okay. But chewy is what makes my mouth water. It’s also (fortunately for me), easy to make a gluten free and very chewy cookie. Another birthday in the Sustainable Food Center office and I chose to veer from my usual cake experimenting and go for bites we could pass around the table. I made two kinds of cookies- both chewy.

These are a really simple Amaretti Cookie. There are a ton of recipes out there for this cookie and most include the same three basic ingredients: almonds, sugar, egg whites. Delight. Some have a little gluten here, a little extra something there. Me? I love a strong almond flavor and wanted to add a little more “pizazz” so opted to make these orange flavor.

I tested this recipe with both orange extract and orange zest as well as another day with candied orange. I love the subtlety of the orange extract so that’s the version here. Take the basics and do what you like. This is a cookie-canvas free for the taking.

Orange Amaretti Cookies
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1 cup organic cane sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
3 egg whites
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 Tablespoon orange zest

Preheat oven to 300. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, beat almond flour and sugars with a handheld mixer or a stand alone mixer. Add the eggs, and beat after each addition. Beat until smooth.

Place small teaspoons of the dough in your fingers and roll gently into a smooth ball. The dough is very sticky, so fingertips are best. Bake for 22-24 minutes or until just slightly browned on top. If you want them crisper, bake about 2-3 minutes longer. They’ll still be chewy when they first come out of the oven.

While they’re still warm, dust the tops with powdered sugar. Another option is to roll them in sugar and then in the powdered sugar before baking, but I find dusting them after they’re baked uses less sugar, is simpler (read: not as messy), and it’s pretty too.