Need help quack. Almond pulp for almond paste?

June 16, 2013 8:25 AM

I want to make those Italian amaretti cookies that call for almond paste. I have some almond pulp and some duck eggs.. Will these ingredients work? I guess I could just experiment but I don't want to waste any of the first dozen duck eggs on something that's not delicious. Can I sub honey or ground dates for the sugar? I guess if you sub too many ingredients, maybe the name isn't the same but the bottom line is, will this taste good?
posted by ms_rasclark to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

I don't think we have enough information without the recipe, and maybe a little more information on your ingredients.

I do know that almond pulp or flour tends to be a little dry, and I've had to add almond oil in it to get a more paste/marzipan like consistency out of it.

But a general "there's this class of cookie I like and I want to make random substitutions to it" question is a little too vague to be useful.
posted by straw at 8:31 AM on June 16, 2013

Agreed with the above - we need the recipe. But, my best guess is that they will taste good but the consistency may be wrong - perhaps very very wrong.
posted by insectosaurus at 8:34 AM on June 16, 2013

Best answer: A quick google came up with these recipes for almond pulp cookies as well as these ones.
In terms of making almond paste out of almond pulp, it seems you need to dry out the pulp before doing so, you end up with an almond flour from which you can make the paste.
I think all of this would take some time as well as some experimenting on your part and a quick recipe for amaretti cookies using almond pulp may not be feasible.
I would just make the almond pulp cookies!
posted by Snazzy67 at 8:42 AM on June 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Agreeing with above posters to find another recipe. Almond paste is nothing like almond pulp. It is very sweet with equal parts ground almonds (not just the pulp) and sugar with some other ingredients to keep them together. If you are trying another recipe then almond extract helps to get that almond flavor that can come from almond paste if that is what you are going for.
posted by RoadScholar at 8:56 AM on June 16, 2013

I'd save the duck eggs for carbonara==baking is a waste of them, I think.
posted by Ideefixe at 9:04 AM on June 16, 2013

No, you can't make amaretti with almond pulp, honey and duck eggs. Sorry.
posted by inkypinky at 9:07 AM on June 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

Unfortunately, I think that ameretti are too delicate and fragile a cookie to switch in something like that. Because there are usually so few ingredients, you really need just the egg whites and fine sugar to give them that airy crunch.

That said, the almond pulp cookies sound great!
posted by jetlagaddict at 9:08 AM on June 16, 2013

I don't want to waste any of the first dozen duck eggs on something that's not delicious.

I'd go to the grocery store and buy some cage-free chicken eggs. Save your duck eggs for something more perfect for it.
posted by arnicae at 9:54 AM on June 16, 2013

By almond pulp, do you mean the stuff left over after making almond milk? Because most of the recipes I know of that use it tend to be trying to answer the question "what do I do with all this bulky, not-terribly-flavorful but still reasonably nutritious stuff?" which is pretty much the opposite of almond paste (densely textured and intensely flavorful).
posted by Lexica at 11:18 AM on June 16, 2013

Response by poster: Using http://www.joyofbaking.com/AmarettiCookies.html as a basic template, I used the almond pulp (yes, leftover from making almond milk), coconut palm sugar in place of the standard sugar, and 2 chicken egg whites. I made a "tiny" (cough) error in that instead of turning the oven off and leaving them in for a couple extra minutes, I inadvertently turned it onto broil and lost the back half to total burning. I can see you chefs shaking your head in disdain now, but try not to judge too harshly. The ones that weren't charred were actually pretty tasty - crispy on the outside a chewy on the inside. Not exactly what you'd get if you followed the traditional recipe, but definitely edible. I will definitely try them again without the final broil step!

I used the duck eggs instead for duck egg florentine benedict making a hollandaise out of some and poaching the others. It was pretty amazing if I do say so myself. I'm using a couple others to make chicken liver pate.
posted by ms_rasclark at 2:15 PM on June 16, 2013

the chewiness comes from the sugar substitution. Palm Sugar is closer to brown sugar in terms of how it works in baking. It makes a pretty tasty sub for brown sugar tho if you want some funk.
posted by JPD at 4:40 PM on June 16, 2013

You can generally sub marzipan for almond paste. It is pretty much the same thing.
posted by inertia at 7:48 AM on June 17, 2013