These chewy almond cookies are made with little more than almond flour, sugar, and whipped aquafaba (chickpea liquid), making them entirely vegan and perfectly pantry friendly.

A regular reader favorite, my original amaretti cookie recipe uses whipped egg whites to give the cookies a chewy texture. But did you know that the liquid drained from a can of chickpeas (also called aquafaba) is a perfect vegan substitution for egg whites? It may sound weird, but I promise it works!

Have you ever baked with aquafaba before?

Aquafaba is the liquid leftover from a can of chickpeas.

And for some reason (magic? science? a bit of both?) it whips up almost exactly like egg whites.

Which got me to thinking… would it work in my amaretti cookies?

Turns out, it does. And quite well in fact (you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference!)

Using aquafaba instead of egg whites produces the same delightfully chewy texture, but the result is completely vegan (assuming you use vegan sugar, of course, but that’s a discussion for another day).

Does it taste like chickpeas, though?

No! Despite the fact that the aquafaba smells a little bit funky in liquid form, once whipped and baked you cannot taste a thing. I promise, these cookies don’t taste anything like falafel (lol).

I’m sure if you compared the original to this vegan version, you may notice a slight difference in flavor, but unless you are tasting them side by side you really won’t notice a difference.

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