Ricciarelli di Siena

Indulge yourself in a sweet Christmas and delight your friends with some Tuscan biscuits. Ricciarelli come from Siena and are perfect as a dessert served with a sweet wine such as Vin Santo.

According to chronicles, the origin of Ricciarelli dates back to the fifteenth century: biscuits of almond paste were once very popular around Italy and reserved for the sumptuous banquet of the Lords. They were so valuable and refined that were sold in the apothecaries shops of Siena, the old pharmacies.  Known initially as marzapanetti they evolved into Ricciarelli from Siena: diamond shaped biscuits, made with almond flour and covered with vanilla icing sugar.

Ingredients

• Almonds 400 g
• Sugar 350 g
• 1 tablespoon of flour
• 2 egg whites
• Almond flavor 1 vial
• 2 tablespoons candied orange
• Baking vanilla 1/2
• Icing sugar
• Hosts

Method

1 Blanch the almonds quickly and remove the skin. Dry the almonds for a few minutes inside the oven, but don’t brown them.

2 Chop the almonds with 250g of sugar to obtain a fine flour without lumps.

3 Sift the flour with the baking powder. Finely chop the peel ‘ orange.

4 Make a syrup with the remaining sugar and 3-4 tablespoons of ‘ water. Mix the almond flour with the egg whites, flour, zest d’ orange, sugar syrup and the aroma of almonds.

5 Wrap the dough in a damp cloth and let it rest overnight.

6 The next day preheat the oven to 160 degrees.

7 With the dough create ricciarelli in their typical rhomboid shape. Lay each ricciarello on a host.

8 Sprinkle ricciarelli with icing sugar and bake for about 10 minutes. Ricciarelli are ready when cracks will be formed on the surface but remember that they must remain white.