Pignolis

For Stephen's birthday this year, I attempted to surprise him by baking his favorite cookie..the Italian "pignoli" (pronounced pin-YOLE-ee) or pine nut cookie. My first experience eating a pignoli occurred in college shortly after we started dating. Stephen's mom, Joyce had a box of the delicious, pricey treats shipped out to St. Louis from Ferrara's, her favorite Italian bakery in New York City. Ever since then, I've become as enthusiastic as Stephen when it comes to these cookies. When we traveled around Italy after college, we made it our business to hunt for the perfect pignoli in every little pasticceria we could find. A small, unassuming bakery in Venice took the prize with their mini-football sized version of pine nut goodness. We went back every day we were there to have another one, and even attempted to have them ship a box back to the U.S. (as it turns out this is a very American concept and they had no idea what we were talking about).

As I endeavoured to bake a batch of pignolis, I researched online and came up with a recipe that had gotten good reviews. The ingredient list is fairly simple: a bag of pine nuts, a tube of almond paste (I found mine at a little Italian grocery store in Portland), confectioner's sugar, white sugar and egg whites.

The results were decent enough to remind us of all the superior pignolis we've tasted in the past, but far from perfect. My pignolis came out too flat and slightly undercooked, but full of that almondy-flavor that is a signature of the cookie. Stephen loved his birthday surprise though, and we vowed that someday we'll return to the Venice bakery that makes the perfect pignolis.

PIGNOLI RECIPE

Ingredients:
* 12 ounces almond paste
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 cup confectioners' sugar
* 4 egg whites
* 1 1/2 cups pine nuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line 2 cookie sheets with foil; lightly grease foil.

2. Mix almond paste and granulated sugar in food processor until smooth. Add confectioners' sugar and 2 egg whites; process until smooth.

3. Whisk remaining 2 egg whites in small bowl. Place pine nuts on shallow plate. With lightly floured hands roll dough into 1 inch balls. Coat balls in egg whites, shaking off excess, then roll in pine nuts, pressing lightly to stick. Arrange balls on cookie sheets, and flatten slightly to form a 1 1/2 inch round. (Make each cookie much smaller than you would think - they turn out better as very small cookies)

4. Bake 15 to 18 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Let stand on cookie sheet 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack to cool.