These Vegan Amaretti give you everything you love about classic Italian cookies—soft centers, crinkled edges, and rich almond flavor—made simply with plant-based ingredients for an easy, gluten-free dessert everyone can enjoy.
For more vegan Italian desserts, check out our vegan biscotti, baked pears, and vegan wine cookies.
Soft Centered Vegan Amaretti Made Easy at Home
Vegan Amaretti are our egg-free take on one of Italy’s most beloved treats—small almond cookies with crinkled edges, soft centers, and a deep, comforting almond flavor. Made with almond flour and simple pantry ingredients, these cookies are naturally gluten free vegan cookies and a lovely example of how traditional desserts can fit into a mediterranean-style eating pattern 🍪
In Italy, amaretti are often served after a special meal, especially around the holidays, alongside other classics like biscotti or ricciarelli. What makes them so special is their chewy texture and that bold almond aroma that fills the kitchen as they bake ✨
Here in Todi, Louise and I love making these egg free amaretti when we have our vegan friends over for dinner.
This recipe shows you exactly how to make vegan amaretti cookies at home—easy, wholesome, and just as delicious as the ones I grew up eating with my Italian family.
Ingredients
Find complete ingredient list, quantities, and substitutions in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.
- Aquafaba: The liquid from canned chickpeas acts like egg whites thanks to its natural foaming power, making these cookies light and chewy. Substitute with whipped liquid from home-cooked chickpeas; avoid flax eggs here, as they won’t give the classic texture needed for a soft amaretti recipe.
- Almond flour: Store-bought almond flour gives the best structure and delicate crumb for almond flour vegan cookies. Homemade almond meal is often too coarse.
- Sugar: White granulated or caster sugar helps create crisp edges and soft centers. Substitute organic cane sugar or fine raw sugar, but avoid coconut sugar as it changes color and texture.
- Almond extract: Boosts the signature almond aroma essential for a vegan almond dessert. Swap with amaretto liqueur for a more traditional flavor, or use extra vanilla for a milder taste.
- Vanilla extract: Rounds out the almond flavor and adds warmth. You can substitute vanilla bean paste or scraped vanilla seeds.
- Powdered sugar: Sprinkled on top for a classic finish. Use organic powdered sugar or make your own by blending sugar finely.
- Baking powder: Just a small amount helps lift the cookies. Substitute baking soda only if paired with a touch of acid.
More Italian desserts
- Vegan custard
- Strawberry tart
- Vegan brioche
- Orange almond cookies
- Easy apple cake
- Pear cake
- Vegan cannoli
- Wine cookies
For more dessert ideas, please have a look at our 40 + vegan dessert recipes.
If you tried this Vegan Amaretti recipe or any other recipe on our blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it goes in the comments. We love hearing from you!
Vegan Amaretti
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour store-bought
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 2 tablespoons aquafaba this is the water in a can of chickpeas
- ½ tablespoon amaretto liqueur or almond extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
You'll also need
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix 1 cup almond flour, ⅓ cup sugar, ½ cup powdered sugar, and ½ tsp baking powder.
- In a separate bowl, add 2 tablespoons aquafaba making sure there are no chickpea pieces in the water.
- With a hand mixer, beat the aquafaba as if it were egg whites.It should turn into a firm foam.
- Scoop the foam into the bowl with the dry ingredients.With a spatula, incorporate it into the dry ingredients, mixing gently with a circular movement from bottom to top.
- Add ½ tablespoon amaretto liqueur and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract to the mix and keep incorporating gently until you get a paste/dough.
- Put 3 tablespoons powdered sugar on a plate. Take 20 grams to 23 grams of dough, and shape it into small balls.Each ball should weigh between 20 and 23 grams. This is important, or else they won't cook properly.Roll one ball at a time on the plate with the powdered sugar until they are fully coated.
- Shake away the excess powdered sugar, then place the balls on a plate and let them rest in the freezer for 45 minutes.Note: if you don't have time, you can try to bake them straight away, but their shape might not hold when heated up in the oven. Preheat the oven to 340°F or 170°C.
- Place the balls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake at 340°F or 170°C for about 15 minutes. The cooking time depends a lot on the oven, so keep an eye on them. They are ready when they start cracking on top. Take them out of the oven and let them cool down for about 15 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
Hi! We are Nico & Louise
We’re here to share delicious, easy, and healthy plant-based recipes (vegetarian & vegan) 🌿✨.
Welcome to our blog, we are glad you are here.
Tried these today. The recipe is straightforward and came together easily within minutes. I did add 1/2 tsp of Energee Egg Replacer to the aquafaba, because I find that it adds to stability of the whipped aquafaba. Other than that, I kept to the recipe’s ingredients. I would probably reduce the sugar by 1 tbsp next time, because the amaretto liqueur I used (Disaronno) is quite sweet. In my fan convection oven set to 150°C the cookies baked for 9 minutes. Biting into the cookie, at first there is just a little bit of crunch, but then the marzipan centre is a little chewy.
I’ve made these 3 times, & each time they’ve turned out different, but DELICIOUS! I think a lot depended on the quality of ingredients available from different supermarkets (mostly chick pea liquid & almond flour). Thanks for sharing this recipe 🙂
Hi, thanks for this recipe, it worked a treat. I made these and the wine cookies for a meal with friends – they couldn’t get enough of them, they were so yummy.
I’d never used chickpea liquid before… heard about it and was amazed how like egg white it looked after whisking.
Hi Lindsey,
That sounds like a fantastic cookie-feast you had with your friends!! Amazing 🎉
I’m delighted you liked them, it’s quite amazing what chickpea water can do 😉
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!
All the best,
Louise
These turned out great for me. I doubled the recipe, used my kitchen scale, and was extra careful in the folding step not to flatten the air. They came out beautifully.
Hi Nicole, thanks so much for your message. I am so happy they turned out great! This is probably the most difficult recipe on our blog, so really well done 🙂
I made these exactly how the recipe described. They turned out perfectly!
Hi Mariah, thanks so much for your message. We are so happy they turned out perfectly! Thanks for letting us know 🙂
I’ve just tried this recipe and the result was a complete mess. I beated the acquafaba untill it formed stiff peaks (when I put the bowl upside down nothing fell from it). Each biscuits I made weighed 20g and I let them rest for almost an hour in the freezer. After 10 minutes since I popped them in the oven they collapsed and melted down all together. I don’t understand what went wrong. That was a real disappointment, waste of time, food and money.
Hi Ambra, I am sorry the almond cookies didn’t turn out well. I am sure you didn’t do anything wrong, it is a tricky recipe, with a lot of variables. It could be the type of almond flour (it needs to be very fine), or the dusting with the powdered sugar, or the temperature and type of the oven (it should be static, not ventilated). But thanks for the feedback, I’ll try to add more tips in the blog post. Ps. if you haven’t thrown them out already, the collapsed cookies taste great crumbled on top of vegan vanilla icecream.
Why throw them out??? I never never throw anything out notwithstandin how ugly etc they are. Even if burnt I scrape off the burnt part and consume.