Greek Almond Cookies (Amygdalota)

A little bit of something sweet to kick off March. And for that, we head to Greece with these Greek almond cookies, also known as Amygdalota.

I have been sticking to my go-tos in the kitchen these days, and admittedly overindulging a bit in the sweets departments. Cake after cake seemed to roll through my kitchen, the latest this past weekend to celebrate Mom’s birthday (THIS is the chocolate cake. Like, THE chocolate cake).  Despite maybe over-sugaring myself, I still need a bit of something sweet to get me through each day and these cookies are just enough to get the job done, but not so much that you’re in a coma after eating it.

Thinking back to my time in Greece, I was there in 2001 and just happened to be the same trip as that Italian one where I got all the sun poisoning. If you think about wearing long, heavy cotton sleeves in the Greek summer heat, you’ll feel my pain. Remember, in 2001- there was no dry fit clothing option. Anyway, despite the awful heat, Greek was interesting, steeped in both history and tourism and while I wasn’t a food fanatic like I am now, I could certain appreciate delicious food when I eat it.

In that vein, I would love to go back to Greece sometime, to leave the confines and touristy places of Athens and just explore the countryside, eat all the things and meet all the people.  I’ll be fat and happy on olive oil, feta and seafood and doesn’t that just sound like a dream?

Anyway, back to these cookies.  I though about doing something more ‘traditional’ but my sweet tooth was calling, and so after exploring a few sites, settled on these amygdalota.  The recipe comes slightly tweaked from Mia Kouppa, though mine, as you can see don’t much look like that. Not sure what happened there, but I can’t say my version are the poorer for it.

They are perfect for the gluten-free folks out there- almond flour and egg whites are the base, making them almost macaron-like in texture. A bit of lemon zest adds to the lightness and vanilla, making these dangerously easy to eat as one would eat potato chips.

Is that really a problem though?

Greek Almond cookies (Amygdalota)

March 3, 2021

Servings: 18 cookies

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 20 min

Total: 30 min

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Greek Almond cookies (Amygdalota) are a delicious, gluten-free , almond flour based cookie that are perfect for when you need a touch of sweet to your day.

By: Chrissy

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• pinch salt
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar (or regular sugar blitzed in the food processor)
• 2 TB slivered almonds
• 1 lemon, zested

Directions

• Step 1 Preheat the oven to 325F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• Step 2 Whip the egg whites with cream of tarter until stiff peaks. Fold in the vanilla extract, lemon zest, and sugar and mix well.
• Step 3 Gently fold in the almond flour and mix until the batter is all uniform.
• Step 4 Using a cookie scoop or a teaspoon, drop the dough onto the cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart. Press the slivered almonds into the top of each cookie.
• Step 5 Bake for between 17 – 19 minutes until golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
• Step 6 Store in an airtight container.