Pignoli Cookies – Easy Italian Pine Nut Cookies
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Sicilian Pignoli Cookies are simple, four-ingredient cookies with a sweet, nutty flavor. These classic Italian pine-nut cookies have crisp exteriors studded with crunchy pine nuts and soft centers. Authentic Italian pine-nut cookies are so good you will have a hard time eating just one!
Pignoli cookies, known in Italy as amaretti con pignoli, are amaretti-style or macaroon-style cookies topped with toasted pine nuts. In Sicily, you are sure to find these traditional Italian cookies adorning a cookie tray or dessert table along with other delicious cookies, such as Pizzicati, Anginetti, Italian Rainbow Cookies, or Almond Paste Cookies.
With pine nuts and almond paste being the main ingredients, these cookies are truly a luxury that is most often reserved for Christmas or special occasions. But they don’t have to be!
WHAT YOU WILL LOVE ABOUT THESE COOKIES
There is a lot to love about these cookies, but to start with, this is a very easy recipe to make. All of the ingredients are mixed together in a food processor for a few seconds and then the dough is rolled in the pine nuts before baking them. Let them cool and they are ready to eat!
This recipe has only four ingredients— well, five if you want to dust them with powdered sugar!
They are everyone’s favorite cookies! They have a rich almond flavor and the perfect chewy texture.
Authentic Italian pignoli cookies are naturally gluten-free!
Although the ingredients are pricey, homemade pignoli cookies are a better value than buying them from an Italian bakery.
INGREDIENT NOTES
ALMOND PASTE
I want to talk a little about almond paste because it is one of the main ingredients in this homemade pignoli cookie recipe. It is sweet and nutty, with an intense almond flavor, and it gives the cookies their chewy centers.
Homemade Almond paste is easy to make, and I highly recommend it. With a few minutes of your time, almond flour, egg whites, and confectioners’ sugar, you can make it as you need it. Of course, it is also available in the baking aisle of most grocery stores.
There are usually two types of almond paste: one that comes in a tube and the other that comes in a brick form. I highly recommend that you purchase the brick form for this recipe. It will be denser and have less moisture than the kind in a tube. This is a sticky cookie dough, and if you use the type in the tube, your dough may be too creamy to form into cookies.
ALMOND PASTE VS. MARZIPAN
Almond paste and marzipan are similar, but they are not necessarily interchangeable. So please don’t use marzipan as a substitute for almond paste in this recipe.
While both are made from ground almonds and sugar, marzipan has a much higher sugar content, making it sweeter, smoother, and more pliable. Its density makes it perfect for forming shapes and even painting them.
Almond paste, on the other hand, is softer, grittier, and more moisture-rich. It can be creamed into cakes, cookies, and other recipes where marzipan can’t.
PIGNOLI OR PINE NUTS
Pignoli are the star ingredient in these chewy cookies, and they are very expensive nuts, so we don’t want to waste even one! Pine nuts have a high oil content, so they can become rancid and taste quite bitter if not stored properly. So be sure to store the unopened package in a cool, dry place. Once you open the package, the nuts should be stored in the refrigerator or, better yet, in the freezer to extend their shelf life.
HOW TO MAKE CLASSIC ITALIAN PIGNOLI COOKIES
1.Make the cookie dough:
Break or tear the almond paste into small pieces. Place it in the bowl of a food processor along with the sugar, and process until it resembles coarse sand.
Add the eggs to the food processor and process until the dough forms, about 30 seconds.
2. Form the Cookies
Place pine nuts in a shallow dish.
Scoop a tablespoon of dough out and roll it into the pine nuts.
Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
3. Bake the Cookies
Bake the cookies in a preheated 325°F oven for 15-18 minutes. Cooking times may vary depending on the size of the cookies. When the cookies are done, they will be lightly golden brown, and the nuts will be toasted.
Remove the tray from the oven and let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
BAKING TIPS
- The best way to quickly mix the cookie dough is to use a food processor or an electric hand mixer fitted with a wire whisk.
- I like to use a small, one tablespoon-sized cookie scoop to make the cookies uniform.
- Wetting your hands will make rolling the sticky dough balls in the pine nuts easier.
- Don’t overbake the cookies. Overbaking them will result in crispy rather than chewy cookies.
- Make sure to let them cool on the cookie sheets for about 10 minutes, or they will fall apart when you transfer them to the cooling rack.
MAKE AHEAD
This easy cookie recipe can be made ahead of time if you need to. Make the cookie dough as instructed, then pour it into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap before refrigerating it overnight.
VARIATIONS
Here are some simple modifications to the recipe that you might want to try
- Add vanilla extract to the dough
- To intensify the almond flavor, use a little almond extract.
- Some recipes call for orange or lemon zest in the dough.
- Sprinkle the cookies with confectioners’ sugar when they have cooled.
STORING THESE SIMPLE COOKIES
To store pignoli cookies, place them in an airtight container. They can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to a month. To freeze them, place them in a plastic container in a single layer with wax paper between layers and seal them with a tight-fitting lid.
WHY ARE PIGNOLI SO EXPENSIVE?
Pine nuts are the seeds that grow in the pine cones from pine trees. Only certain varieties of pine trees produce pine nuts, and it takes 1 1/2 to 2 years for the seeds to mature and ripen before they can be eaten. To complicate things, they are very difficult to harvest, and the process has to be done by hand. So, the limited supply and the labor-intensive harvesting process make them a very expensive commodity.
OTHER Italian Classics
Whether preparing for the holiday season, a special occasion, or just because you want to make your family happy, I have a classic Italian recipe to help you out.
Chocolate-dipped Italian Butter Cookies are always a hit with kids and the kids at heart!
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Sesame Cookies, Cuccidati, or Chocolate Spice Cookies.
If you would like to try something a bit different, you will love Pandoro, an Italian sweet bread from Verona. It is similar to panettone, but it has no candied fruit. Pandoro has a light, fluffy texture and subtle orange, vanilla flavor you will love.
I love to get your feedback, so if you try this Pignoli Cookies Recipe or any other recipe on this website, please leave me a comment below. I hope you enjoy our recipes, and I look forward to hearing from you!
You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for more recipes your family will love!
Pignoli Cookies – Easy Italian Pine Nut Cookies
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Equipment
- Baking sheets
- 1 Food processor
Ingredients
- 16 oz Almond paste
- 1½ cups Sugar
- 3 Egg whites large
- 8 oz Pignoli nuts
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 325℉ and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place the pignoli nuts in a shallow bowl and set aside.
- In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, break or tear the almond paste into small pieces and add the sugar. Run the processor until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
- Add the egg whites and run the processor until the mixture forms a dough. The cookies dough will be sticky.
- Scoop out about a tablespoon full of dough, and with wet fingers roll the dough into a ball the best you can. Roll the cookie dough ball in the pignoli nuts and place it on the cookie tray. Repeat this with the remaining dough, spacing the cookies about 2" apart on the baking sheets. The cookies will spread so make sure to leave space between them.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the cookies are a light golden brown and the nuts are toasted. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the cookie tray for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to complete cooling.
Notes
BAKING TIPS
- Using a food processor or an electric hand mixer fitted with a wire whisk is the best way to quickly mix the cookie dough.
- I like to use a small, 1 tablespoon size cookie scoop so that the cookies are uniform.
- Wetting your hands will make it easier to roll the sticky dough balls in the pine nuts.
- Don’t overbake the cookies. Overbaking them will result in crispy rather than chewy cookies.
- Make sure to let them cool on the cookie sheets for about 10 minutes or the cookies will fall apart when you transfer them to the cooling rack.
Hello! Can you use your almond paste recipe for this? If so, do you have to adjust your ingredients for the pignoli cookies? Thank you!
Hi Mia! You can absolutely use my almond paste recipe for these pignoli cookies. I have used it successfully in any recipe that calls for almond paste.
This is a very special cookie! The texture is so good and I love almond ! Perfect addition for my Christmas cookie assortment this year!