Chewy Pandan Crinkle Cookies
Chewy pandan cookies
A home-cook passionate about sharing my family's recipes! Welcome to my journey of rediscovering my childhood and paying homage to the strong women who raised and taught me how to love the bold flavors of Laos. This one's for you, Mom.
Patricia Penkam
•
March 22, 2026
This is my take on an Amaretti cookie, using flavors familiar to me and my childhood along with the unique texture and subtle flavors of the original. Growing up, pandan was present in almost every dessert my mom would buy from her trips to the market or just something she'd make at home. If you're not familiar with pandan, fret not, because it is widely considered Southeast Asia's vanilla! Super fragrant with a beautiful color, pandan is commonly used in desserts paired with coconut milk but can also be seen in savory dishes or a flavoring for rice. I theorized, tested, and concluded that adding pandan to this traditional Italian cookie is delicious!
Items and equipment
Ingredients (11)
Ingredients (11)
Dry Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
Instructions
Preheat oven
Preheat oven to 300 F.
Prepare toasted almond flour
Add the almond flour to a shallow, medium-sized pan over medium heat.
Stir the almond flour until it turns a 1-2 shades darker.
Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.
Remove from heat once the color is slightly darker and the almond flour is fragrant. Set aside to cool.
Lemon and Sugar
In a separate large bowl, add the sugar, almond extract, pandan paste/flavoring and lemon zest.
Use your fingers to rub the lemon zest into the sugar along with the added extracts. Set aside for the dry ingredients.
Use a glove if you don't want your hands smelling like sugary. almond-y, pandan-y lemons!
Combine dry ingredients
To the large bowl with the sugar mixture, add the dry ingredients: toasted almond flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk the ingredients together until evenly-combined.
Whip egg whites
Add the two egg whites and the 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice to the bowl of your stand mixer. Use the whisk attachment and set the speed to a medium-high.
Whip the egg whites until it reaches soft peaks. Set the beaten egg whites aside.
The peak should fall over slightly when lifting the whisk from the egg whites.
Everything now!
Fold the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites in about 3-4 additions, mixing well in between each addition until all is incorporated. The dough should be sticky and but not dry.
Add dry to wet, fold, add dry to wet, fold, add dry to wet, fold, repeat
Using a cookie scooper or just your good judgement, portion out the dough into about 16-18 cookies.
This is about 1.5-2 tbsp of dough per cookie
Roll each ball into the powdered sugar and set on a large cookie sheet (18inx13in) with at least 1 inch of space in between to account for spreading.
Depending on the size you're using, all balls may not fit. I had to cook in 2 batches.
Once all balls are coated, let them sit out for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, use your thumb or a clean finger to gently indent the top and allow the cracks to appear on the sides.
Place the cookies in the preheated oven and cook for 20-25 minutes. The tops of the cookies should look more crackly when done.
After the cookies are done, let them sit on the tray for at least 8-10 minutes before attempting to remove to a rack to cool down further.
They need time to bond
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