If you’ve ever been to Italy and sipped a cappuccino, you may have been lucky enough to enjoy these almond-flavored cookies, which are a favorite of Shoyer’s.

Ingredients:

Parchment paper

8-ounce bag slivered almonds (about 1 3/4 cups)

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon potato starch (flour can be substituted after Passover)

2 large egg whites

1 tablespoon amaretto (almond-flavored liqueur)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a large jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Spread the almonds on the parchment paper and toast for 20 minutes, stirring the nuts after 10 minutes. When the almonds are golden and fragrant, remove the pan from the oven and slide the parchment off the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Place the toasted almonds into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process until the nuts are ground to a powder. Place the ground nuts in a medium bowl. Add the sugar, potato starch, egg whites and amaretto; mix until combined. Paula Shoyer likes to use her hands to mix the ingredients, but a wooden spoon is a neater option. Line 2 jelly roll pans or cookie sheets with parchment.

Wet your hands and take walnut-sized clumps of dough and roll them into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Be sure not to overcrowd the cookies; they spread while baking. You can bake in two batches. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes: 25 minutes for chewier cookies or 30 minutes for crunchier cookies. Slide the parchment off the cookie sheet onto a cooling rack and let the cookies cool.

Place baked and cooled cookies into an airtight container or freezer bags and store at room temperature for up to five days or freeze up to three months. Yield: about 3 dozen cookies