bitter almond cookie — Turkey

Acıbadem kurabiyesi, literally bitter almond cookie, is a soft, chewy almond cookie built from ground almonds, sugar, and whipped egg white, with a small amount of bitter almond giving the cookie its name and its distinctive back note. Because bitter almonds proper are hard to find and mildly toxic in quantity, almond extract stands in for them in most kitchens today. The cookie is reported widely across Turkish pastry shops and home kitchens, where it is often set out alongside coffee or ice cream. Its shape and dense, slightly cracked surface are close to those of Italian amaretti, a cookie built on the same ground-almond-and-egg-white base. To prepare it, blanched almonds are finely ground with sugar, then folded into stiffly whipped egg whites along with almond extract until a smooth, sticky dough forms. The dough is piped or shaped into small mounds, topped with a whole almond, and baked at a moderate temperature just until the surface sets and cracks lightly while the inside stays soft. This version keeps a dense, chewy crumb rather than the crisp shell of some other almond meringue cookies, since the egg white is folded in rather than baked into a fully dry meringue. The almond flavor is concentrated and slightly bitter at the edges, setting it apart from sweeter, plainer almond biscuits found in neighboring pastry cases.