CookEat Recipe
Ricciarelli di Siena
Soft orange-scented almond biscuits made with whipped egg whites and baked on thin edible wafer bases.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 220 g finely ground caster sugar; 220 g blanched sweet almonds; 2 egg whites; Finely grated zest of ½ orange; About 10–20 g plain flour, only as needed for shaping; Plain unflavoured edible wafer sheets, enough to cover the baking tray; About 50 g wheat bran, used beneath the wafer sheets as a baking support rather than mixed into the biscuits.
Step 2
Dry the blanched almonds in a low oven at 120°C for about 10–15 minutes without colouring. Cool completely. Grind very finely with two tablespoons taken from the measured sugar, adding that sugar gradually while grinding, then stir in the rest of the same sugar. Use sweet almonds throughout; a few optional drops of commercially prepared food-grade bitter-almond flavouring may replace the historical bitter-kernel aroma.
Step 3
Whisk the two egg whites to firm peaks in a clean bowl. Fold in the almond-sugar mixture and orange zest with a wooden spoon until evenly combined. Turn out onto a very lightly floured surface. Use only enough flour to let you roll the soft mixture gently to about 8–10 mm thick; avoid making a stiff flour dough.
Step 4
Heat the oven to 150°C. Cover a baking tray about 30 × 40 cm with a thin even layer of wheat bran, about 2 mm deep, and lay edible wafer sheets over it to cover the bran completely. The bran is an underlayer, not an ingredient kneaded into the biscuits; use food-grade wafer paper rather than baking paper for the bases that remain attached.
Step 5
Cut about 16–18 elongated pointed-oval biscuits, approximately 9 × 5 cm. Transfer carefully onto the wafer-covered tray with a little space between them. Gently gather and shape remaining dough with as little additional flour as possible. Do not add an icing-sugar coating.
Step 6
Bake for about 15–20 minutes until the outside is set and the biscuits remain pale and tender, checking that a representative centre reaches at least 74°C. Do not brown them deeply or dry them hard. Let cool before lifting carefully from the tray. Trim excess wafer close to each biscuit and brush loose bran from underneath; keep the attached edible wafer base. Store cooled biscuits in a covered container in a cool dry place and eat within a few days.
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