Ricciarelli (or how I turned a life long love of baking into life long love)

(images: Fox and Favour)

A long time ago, when my husband and I were simply work colleagues he returned from a friend's wedding in Sienna raving about these soft almond biscuits, so in a bid to impress him I tracked down and tweaked a recipe and sent him home for Christmas with a tin of home made ricciarelli for his family. They devoured the lot in about 24 hours and we got engaged six months later... I'd like to think it was my endearing personality and great charm which sealed the deal but I think those biscuits had a lot to do with it.

I've made thousands of these over the past few years, for shops, cafes, weddings, parties and just for fun. They're delicious, simple, dairy & gluten free though, I fear, wildly inauthentic.

Ingredients

250g ground almonds

250g icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon gluten free baking powder

2 large egg whites

teaspoon vanilla essence

more icing sugar for rolling the biscuits in

Method

Mix the dry ingredients in a largish bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the almond/sugar/flour/baking powder mix with a metal spoon or spatula - don't worry too much about knocking the air out of the egg whites since the mix you get feels sticky and heavy.

Add the vanilla essence into the dough.

 Take a walnut sized ball of biscuit dough and gently roll it into a ball (if you're feeling very meticulous and want to weigh each ricciarellli out, these proportions should yield c.24 24g biscuits). Roll the ball in a shallow dish of icing sugar until coated. To get the signature shape squish the ball lightly in the palm of your hand to flatten it, then pinch two sides into a rough diamond shape.

Lay on a flat, non-stick, lined baking sheet and cook in a 180 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes - until they start to go golden brown.

 Despite how tempting they are, do leave them to cool completely on the baking tray - removing them early is disastrous, the bottoms stay on the tray. Leaving them means they seal themselves like little meringues and you should be able to just pop them off the sheet with a flat knife.