Stubborn is the word: Chewy Amaretti

You are not allowed to think of pink elephants.

Well? What happened? I bet you just did. Your mind ignores the "don't" word and goes straight on to the pink elephant. They say kids think like that. Never say: don't run. It summons the wrong mind image/attitude and whoops there they go..  Censorship attracts attention so to speak. 

She specifically mentioned it. NO marzipan. Unfortunately it triggered the exact opposite reaction. Hadn't Deb from Smitten Kitchen written that warning I would never have thought about that big chunk of marzipan in my fridge. But she did. And I made amaretto cookies with marzipan. Tsk tsk.

I had to feel my way around the marzipan. What I had in the fridge was a brick of raw marzipan which was quite firm and not as moist as almond paste (although I think even "your" almond paste differs from ours because it is sold in tubes and/or cans? Ours is sold -again- in bricks wrapped in foil and has to be kneaded with some egg yolk prior to use). 

So I added 1 tbs of cream and 1/2 tsp of lime juice to the marzipan in the food processor, used less sugar: 2/3 cup instead of 1. Mixed the marzipan with the liquid and sugar in the food processor and proceeded with adding 2 egg whites, pureed until smooth. Piped in nice rounds and baked for 15 minutes on 140 circulation oven.

My first attempt was nice, real chewy (as in warn the dentist chewy) but not entirely what I would have liked to see. My nicely domed buttons went flat during cooling and I thought they were not light enough, the center was still very moist. Nonetheless the test batch -left on the counter unattended- disappeared within an hour. Addicitively chewy! I returned to the kitchen and grabbed a handful. More than once.

Next batch I will omit the tbs cream and go with just the lime juice, add some zest as well for extra zing; try to use even less sugar; I'm thinking 1/2 cup.