Name: Cherry Amaretti Jam Drops
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 90 min
Ingredients: 220 g almond meal; 130 g granulated sugar; 90 g egg whites (about 3 large egg whites); 1 tsp almond extract; ½ tsp vanilla extract; ⅛ tsp salt; 80 g cherry jam (homemade or store-bought (tart or sour kind is best)); 55 g granulated sugar; 50 g icing sugar

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Encased in a crisp sugar shell, these cherry amaretti jam drops are sticky, chewy, and taste just like marzipan, with a gleaming pool of ruby-red cherry jam in the middle. Naturally gluten free, dairy free, and made in just one bowl, they’re ridiculously easy — and look striking on any cookie platter!

What are Amaretti?

Amaretti embody everything I adore about Italian sweets. They’re rustic, unassuming, and almost have you second-guessing whether they’re worth the calories. Then you take a bite and wonder how something made with just a few simple ingredients can taste so good.

Amaretti are flourless Italian almond cookies made from almond meal, egg whites, sugar, and flavourings like almond extract or Amaretto liqueur. They’re coated in granulated sugar and icing sugar before baking, which gives them a crisp outer crust. Depending on where you go in Italy (or whose nonna you ask), they can be crunchy and biscotti-like or soft and chewy. These cherry amaretti jam drops are based on the soft variety, known in Italy as “amaretti morbidi.”

Unlike butter-based cookies, these amaretti stay moist for up to a week and don’t need to be refrigerated. The contrast between the pale cookies and dark red jam makes them perfect for Christmas festivities — or Halloween, depending on how you look at them. Bonus points for the fact that they’re naturally gluten-free and dairy-free, so you can feed them to a crowd — or whoever happens to walk through your door for afternoon tea!

Planning an afternoon tea spread? Here are some more treats to add to the table: Pistachio Cupcakes with Whipped Honey Mascarpone, Lemon Olive Oil Cake, Mixed Berry Frangipane Galette

Close-up of two cherry amaretti jam drops with bites taken out, revealing their moist interiors and dark red cherry jam centres.

How I Made These Into Jam Drops

Whenever I start tinkering with a classic recipe, one of the first things I ask myself is “can I put jam in this?”. It’s becoming a bit of a problem at this point. But as it turns out, amaretti are a pretty awesome vehicle for cherry jam. Cherry and almond were practically made for each other, after all!

The trickiest part was getting the dough soft enough that it could be shaped without the edges cracking excessively. But not so soft that it’s too sticky to work with. I found 3 large egg whites (90 g ), rather than the 2 used in most recipes, gave me the best consistency. This is a recipe where I really recommend weighing your egg whites!

I also reduced the sugar to account for the sweetness of the jam (my first batch was cloyingly sweet). And unlike classic jam drops where you add the jam before baking, I found it was better to bake the amaretti with the thumb imprints, then fill them with jam afterwards. Otherwise the jam bleeds into the icing sugar, leaving behind some pretty unsightly pink splotches.

What You’ll Need

With so few ingredients, there isn’t much room to hide! I recommend using high-quality ingredients across the board, especially when it comes to the jam and flavourings. Here’s what you’ll need:

Overhead photo of labelled ingredients for cherry amaretti jam drops, including cherry jam, almond meal and egg whites.

Almond meal: basically, ground up raw almonds! I love baking with almond meal because it adds a ton of moisture, like in my Flourless Chocolate Orange Brownies. You can find almond meal in the baking or health food aisles, or you can make your own at home by blitzing raw almonds in a food processor or blender.
Sugar: any white granulated sugar is fine, including caster sugar. You’ll need it for both the dough and the sugar coating.
Egg whites: as mentioned above, you’ll need 90 g of egg whites, which is roughly the amount you’ll get from 3 large eggs (in Australia, a large egg is 50-55 g with the shell).
Almond extract: amaretti were traditionally flavoured with bitter almonds or apricot kernels — these contain compounds that can release cyanide when consumed (yes, really!). These days, almond extract is used as a safer alternative that still gives the cookies that signature bitter almond flavour. I prefer using almond extract over Amaretto (an Italian almond-flavoured liqueur) because the flavour is more concentrated.
Vanilla extract: not strictly traditional, but a little splash of vanilla helps round out the flavours in these amaretti. Use real vanilla, not the imitation stuff!
Salt: a pinch of salt brings out the flavours of the almond and vanilla.
Cherry jam: a tart cherry jam is best so these don’t get too sweet! I like Bonne Maman, which is made in France. Avoid super runny jams or anything with big chunks of fruit. If you’re not crazy about cherry… firstly, I’m surprised you made it this far; secondly, you can swap it for another flavour of jam. Raspberry and apricot also go really well with almond.
Icing sugar: this is dusted over the cookies right before baking, giving them a lovely snowy-white appearance.

*For the full list of ingredients with measurements, see the recipe card below

How to Make Cherry Amaretti Jam Drops

I cannot stress just how easy these are! This dough comes together in less than 5 minutes with just one bowl and a whisk. The cookies do need to chill for 1 hour before baking, so make sure you factor this in.

Egg whites whisked until frothy in a glass mixing bowl.

Almond meal, sugar and salt added to the frothy egg whites in a glass bowl, ready to be folded together.

Make the dough

1. Add the egg whites to a medium bowl, and whisk until very frothy. Then whisk in the almond and vanilla extracts.

Note: Some recipes say to whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, but I didn’t find this necessary for this type of amaretti (amaretti morbidi). The egg whites mainly act as a binder here, so we don’t need to incorporate a ton of air.

2. Fold in the almond meal, sugar, and salt until combined. The dough should be thick, sticky, and almost paste-like. If it’s too soft and difficult to handle, add a little extra almond meal.

Hands rolling amaretti dough between the palms to form a smooth ball.

Amaretti dough balls being rolled in a light coating of sugar before being placed on a lined baking tray.

Shape the jam drops

1. Add the granulated sugar to a bowl. Measure out 25 g portions of the dough (about 1 heaped tbsp), then dampen your hands to prevent sticking and roll into smooth balls. Roll each ball in the sugar, then place on a lined baking tray leaving some space in between (about 8 cookies per tray).

2. Use your thumb to press an indentation (or “thumbprint”) in the centre of each dough ball. Make the indents fairly deep, without pressing all the way down. We want enough space for a hefty dollop of jam!

3. Chill the shaped jam drops for 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 170°C (150°C fan/340°F).

Bake

1. Dust the cookies generously with icing sugar.

2. Bake on the middle rack for 17–20 minutes. They will puff up and crack as they bake. It can be a little tricky to know when these are done because they should still be quite pale when you take them out of the oven. If you’re not sure, you can carefully pick one up to check that the colour on the bottom is a light golden brown.

3. Leave the amaretti to cool on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. These will firm up quite a lot as they cool, forming a crisp outer crust.

4. Once completely cool, fill each indentation with a dollop of cherry jam.

Cherry amaretti jam drops arranged on pink linen with whole almonds, icing sugar and a small pink ramekin of cherry jam with a spoon.

Do I Have to Chill the Cookies?

I too was skeptical that chilling was necessary for a non-butter dough, so I tested it myself! The difference wasn’t as substantial as it would be with, say, a shortbread or a chocolate chip cookie, but the cookies that I baked straight away were in fact flatter and more uneven than the cookies that I chilled.

I found 20–30 minutes to be better than no chill at all, but 60 minutes was optimal for domed cookies that really held their shape.

Quick Tips for the Best Amaretti Jam Drops

Use damp hands: this dough is very soft and sticky! Lightly dampen your hands with water before rolling the dough into balls, and re-wet them as needed if the dough starts sticking.
Dust with icing sugar (don’t roll): use a sieve to dust the cookies with icing sugar before they go in the oven. Amaretti are typically rolled in icing sugar, but that gets smudged when making the thumbprints.
Bake one tray at a time: bake your cookies one tray at a time for better heat circulation and more even baking. Keep any additional trays in the fridge until they’re ready to go in the oven.
Reinforce the thumbprints: if the thumbprints puff up during baking (chilling should help prevent this), use the back of a ¼ or ½ teaspoon to gently press them back down while the cookies are still warm.
Fill with jam after baking, not before: baking the cookies with the jam causes it to bubble and seep into the cookies, which can mess up the icing sugar coating.

Corgi peeking over a tray of cherry amaretti jam drops on a food photography backdrop, with its tongue sticking out as it looks at the camera.

Cherry amaretti jam drops arranged in neat rows on a light beige background, with a bite taken out of the centre cookie revealing its interior and cherry jam filling.

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