High altitudes make cookies spread in the pan, cakes fall, and few baked goods turn out as they do at sea level. This twice-monthly column presents recipes and tips that make baking in the mountains successful. 

In the Kingdom of Cookies, this gem is royalty. With a lengthy Italian pedigree, it boasts two lush bites of soft, chewy, almond-flavored chocolate that’s bitter and sweet at the same time — elegant, sophisticated and light on the tongue. It’s not for cookie jars. Instead, use it on holiday cookie trays, to accompany fruit or creamy desserts and to elevate an afternoon coffee. It’s quick and easy to make and is happily stored for days. No wonder I love it!

With so few ingredients, their quality is important. Find a richly flavored cocoa powder, opt for good commercial almond flour, superfine sugar and dried cherries that are soft and plump. If your cherries are less than perfect, place them in a microwave-safe bowl, add just enough water, orange juice or Crème de Cassis to coat them, cover the bowl and heat in a microwave for 20 second intervals until the fruit is moistened and soft. 

Chocolate-cherry amaretti cookies

Yields 12 two-inch cookies. Make on a shiny metal cookie sheet.

Cookies

• 1 large egg white, room temperature
• 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons almond meal/flour
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, preferably superfine
• 3 tablespoons chopped dried cherries
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste 
• 1-2 tablespoons amaretto

Topping

• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Get ready: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees with a rack the center position. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper. Don’t grease it or the cookies may spread when baked.

Prepare the egg white: To beat egg whites to stiff peaks, they must be in a fat-free environment. So, make sure the egg white is free of all yolk. Place it in a small, squeaky clean glass or metal mixing bowl and, using an electric mixer at low speed, beat until it’s covered with small bubbles — very frothy. Slowly increase your mixer’s speed and continue beating until stiff peaks form. At sea level you can use a mixer’s high speed from the beginning of this process. But at high elevations, where air pressure is reduced, doing so will beat too much air into the white so it lacks sufficient structure to hold its shape when baked. So, increase your mixer’s speed slowly, only after the egg is heavily frothed.

Add other ingredients: Trying not to deflate the egg white, gently fold in the almond meal, cocoa powder, sugar, chopped cherries, and vanilla until blended. Gradually add the amaretto, a teaspoon at a time. Add only enough to create a thick paste that is sticky but holds its shape when you shape it into a ball. You may not use it all. 

Form cookies: Wet your hands, so the dough doesn’t stick to them, scoop out portions of the dough, and roll them into balls that will sit in a teaspoon (about size of a walnut).

Add topping: Place the 2 sugars in separate small, deep bowls or on 2 small plates. Roll each dough ball in the granulated sugar, then in the confectioners’ sugar, coating them well. 

Chill: Place the coated dough balls on the prepared cookie sheet, leaving about an inch between them. Use your fingers to gently flatten the tops of the balls. Place the cookie sheet in your freezer and chill the cookies for at least 15 minutes. If your freezer won’t hold the cookie sheet, place the coated balls on a plate, freeze them, then move the frozen cookies to the prepared cookie sheet before baking.

Bake: Bake until the cookies firm up, expand slightly, are soft but no longer sticky when touched, and develop cracks. The amount of time needed for baking will depend on how cold the cookies are when placed in the oven. If I put mine in the oven after 15 minutes in the freezer, they’re usually done in 12-17 minutes. 

Cool, store, and serve: Move the cookies to a rack to cool completely. Store cooled cookies in an air-tight container at room temperature for 4 days or in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. Serve at room temperature.

Vera Dawson’s column “High Country Baking” publishes biweekly in the Summit Daily News. Dawson is a high-elevation baking instructor and author of three high-altitude cookbooks. Her recipes have been tested in her kitchen in Frisco, where she’s lived since 1991, and altered until they work at elevation. Contact her at veradawson1@gmail.com.