Chewy Amaretti Cookies

Preheat oven to 300°F and place racks in the upper and lower thirds of your oven. Line two large sheet pans with parchment paper.

Pulse almond paste, sugar, and salt in a food processor until broken up, then add egg whites and puree until smooth.

Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 3/8-inch tip and pipe 3/4-inch rounds (1/3 inch high) about 1-inch apart on pans.

Dip a fingertip in water and gently tamp down any peaks.

Bake, rotating and switching positions of pans halfway through, until golden and puffed, 15 to 18 minutes.

Let cookies cool almost completely in their pans. Once cool, they’re much easier to cleanly remove from the parchment.

You can make them into sandwich cookies by spreading some jam (such as raspberry) between them or ganache (3 ounces of semi-sweet chips melted with 1 to 2 tablespoons of cream, then left to thicken a bit would be enough to sandwich the whole batch).