Marasche Cherry with Almond Paste Cookies

The Recipe posted here is from a recipe book listed in it but just use it as a guide and please change it if you need to.  There are many recipes out on the internet and many are pretty bad so work with what you have available and adjust it to your areas humidity and you own oven.

To make the cookie, you basically take a good almond paste or make your own, then mix it with egg white until it is the thick cookie mix consistency you want, like playdough.  Next take the best bottled sour or sweet cherry that you can find or afford (cheap maraschino ones work but pale in comparison to a really amazing cherry) and put it inside of a ball of the almond mixture.  Close the ball around the cherry, kind of like hiding something inside a wad of playdough as a kid.  Then if you want, and I do, roll the ball in almond slices or shreds or crumbs for an additional outside texture and bake at about 350 depending on your oven until done enough to be firm but not hard like a stale rock.

Costco and Sams Club are usually the best places to find slivered almonds at the best price but Smart and Final sometimes has them for a reasonable price too.  To find Almond Paste, head for the Kosher section and hope they have Solo brand Almond Paste in a can.  It has been the easiest for me to work with and is usually much more economical than the toothpaste tube other couple brands that can be runny and even a little too grainy.  Solo brand Almond filling is ok for fillings in pastrys but doesn't work as a replacement to almond paste so depending on your options available at the stores, make your own if you need to.


There are two of my favorite cookies made of Almonds.  The Marasche from Il Fornaio Restaurant in Del Mar, California that is usually available around Christmas and the Almond Crescent Cookie dipped half way in chocolate from a French bakery just off the Carlsbad Village Drive exit on the 5 as you get off driving southbound.  I think its right next to the old quirky Ace Hardware that's been there forever.  The Almond Cookie from the French bakery will have to wait for another day since I haven't attempted to replicate that recipe yet and the size of that one is probably the same cost or more to make than to just buy with all the almond paste it must use.  I forgot to mention there is also an almond brownie recipe that I love and that may get posted soon too.