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.
Step 3
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 4
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.
Step 5
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 6
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 7
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 8
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.
Step 9
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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