Friday, December 4, 2020

Ricciarelli Biscuits or Italian Almond Biscuits


Italian biscuits like these are always such a treat. The Christmas Countdown is on for us. My daughter and family arrive on Monday from Cairns which is such a joyous thought, however that means lots of cooking, cleaning and organising, but as much time for blogging. I wanted to try these little Italian biscuits which my friend Christine baked during the week for our Mahjong afternoon tea and given more time I would have baked a second batch, if only just to improve the presentation of them. Please believe me though that these biscuits taste absolutely amazing, are gluten free, and are my favourite new biscuit for Christmas. I learned a lot cooking this first batch. I will be halving the sugar back to 125 g in future as Christine did. If you are a really sweet tooth, well go for the full 250 g by all means, but I find that with the reduced sugar I can eat two of them. Next time I will make them into attractive little rectangular parcels which is a pretty look. I also reduced my oven heat to 160 deg. C for these, however next time it will be 180 deg. as Sylvia Colloca suggests, as I like the slightly crazed and cracked look that results. Given all of that though, these are delicious and will keep in an airtight container for a few weeks. 

If you make them and I urge you to, I suggest you bake a double batch, as they will disappear very quickly.

 Makes 16-18

Ingredients:

300 g (3 cups) almond meal

250 g caster sugar (125 g is enough sugar)

2 egg whites

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

icing sugar, for dusting


Method:

  1.  Preheat the oven to 180 deg. C fan forced and conventional. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
  2. Mix the almond meal and sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg whites and lemon zest and mix through to create a paste (using your hands is best here.) Pinch off pieces of paste and shape into 3 cm x 4 cm rectangles (give or take). This mixture is very pliable. I like to make mine look a little bit more interesting by placing indents of my fingers around the edges and then a slight thumbprint in the middle. Dust in the icing sugar to coat well, then place onto the lined tray, leaving room for spreading. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the biscuits look slightly marked or crazed and the bottom is firm.
  3. Cool on a rack. These biscuits keep for weeks in an airtight container, so you can double the ingredients if you like and make a bigger batch.

This is an Italian family recipe by Silvia Colloca for SBS food.

Last night Mr. HRK and I attended a Christmas concert at the Conservatorium of Music here in Mackay, which was a beautiful sparkly event and was hosted by the brilliant Professor Judith Brown who is also a remarkable pianist. Community choirs, and graduate and current students all dressed up and blinged up and performed on stage. Judith reminded everyone of the true meaning of Christmas. The Conservatorium of Music is a Faculty of the Central Queensland University. Before I retired, one of my roles at the University was as the Music Librarian for the  Con as we call it, and as part of that role I attended lots of the student concerts and got to know the talented staff and students very well. This year has of course been a difficult one for music students and performers everywhere, as there have been no concerts permitted or avenues for performance, because of the pandemic. So last night was very special for them and for us, and I realised  all over again how much I love attending concerts, and just how important music is for the soul, and yes I always have music playing when I am cooking, do you? Bring on Christmas!

Happy Christmas baking my friends,

Warm wishes

Pauline


14 comments:

  1. Pauline, I will give that recipe to my friend who has a gluten intolerance. She will probably have a lot of her family around for Christmas so the recipe will come in handy. We won't have any visitors here. Just my sister and the two of us so I don't need to many nice treats around to tempt me 😁

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    1. Thanks Chel, hoping you have a lovely but quiet Christmas.If it was just us, I wouldn't be making all the trimmings either.

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  2. Definitely my kind of cookies! They are kinda like Marzipan in cookie form :-))

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  3. May you have the most amazing time with your daughter! You are blessed she can travel to you :)

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    1. Thanks Tandy, yes we are very fortunate to have our daughter living in Queensland.Hoping you can enjoy a wonderful Christmas.

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  4. how lovely to have your family to visit. isn't christmas pelting closer and closer? i am starting on the xmas foods etc. i think i've sorted the gifts and what i need to make for christmas day... still lots to do. have a wonderful festive season.
    cheers
    sherry

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    1. Thanks Sherry, hoping you enjoy a wonderful festive season as well.

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  5. What a wonderful easy recipe. I was looking for something home cooked to add to my coeliac sister's gift, problem solved.

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    1. So pleased you like the recipe Bernie, I'm sure your sister will love them. My sister in law is coeliac so I am always conscious of gluten free ideas.Thanks so much for your interest.

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  6. Heck Pauline, I can't cook properly without music. These Italian Almond Biscuits sounds so good. We love almonds up this way, so I'm sure they would be enjoyed. But, for us this year it can only be the two of us and Chloe dog. Oh, we can't wait to be able to once again go and enjoy a live performance. Have a great visit with your family...

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    1. Thanks Ron, I hope you can get out really soon for a concert,and enjoy your Christmas anyway. I hope there are some nice Christmas concerts on the tv for you over there. Take care.

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    2. Thanks Ron and I hope you can go out to a concert really soon.Have a wonderful quiet Christmas, with some delicious food and wine.

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    3. Oops sorry Ron, I didn't think the first reply had sent, ha, ha.

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