Ricciarelli with Apricot Jam

The temperature in London has been consistently over 30ºC for what feels like months, so any resting time has been spent not moving very far, certainly not touching anything and whiling away the hours before the next cold shower. It has taken longer than I’d hoped to get this recipe ready to publish because every time I switch on my oven, my flat becomes a sauna for at least 3 hours after.

Ricciarelli are a Tuscan biscuit made from meringue and ground almonds. Essentially a drier version of a macaron, they are naturally gluten free. We make a lot of these at the cookery school, Waitrose has a fantastic variation with walnuts and medjool dates which I would highly recommend- recipe can be found here. Nigella Lawson’s recipe is also fantastic, but requires an overnight curing to achieve the outer texture. I first made this variation for a dinner party, trying to replicate some I’d had from a pasticceria in Italy earlier this year. They have a dense, chewy centre with a crisp outer shell and the tangy apricot jam plays really nicely with the slight bitterness of the almonds. I made the mistake of throwing them together without noting anything down. They turned out perfect and I couldn’t remember how. Three subsequent tests later, here we are.

Makes 12

Ingredients

2 egg whites

200g caster sugar, divided into 25g + 175g

300g ground almonds

Zest of 1 lemon

1tsp almond extract

50g icing sugar

60g apricot jam

Method

Preheat the oven to 170ºC fan and line a baking tray with parchment. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment (or a bowl with a hand whisk for bonus points) and whisk until the eggs double in volume. Gradually add the 25g caster sugar and continue whisking until the egg whites form stiff peaks. 

Combine the remaining 175g caster sugar with the almonds, lemon zest, and almond extract in a separate bowl, mixing well to ensure the flavourings are evenly dispersed. Add the almond mixture to the meringue and mix the two together swiftly, to create a fairly stiff almond paste. 

Sift the icing sugar into another bowl. Tip the almond paste out onto a clean worktop and divide into 12 even sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball between your hands, then drop each one into the icing sugar, rolling them around to coat completely. Arrange the balls on the lined baking tray, pressing them down to flatten them slightly. Press into the centre of each biscuit, creating a cavity for the jam. Add 1tsp apricot jam to each cavity , leaving a border around the edge. Bake for about 16-18 minutes, or until the biscuits are pale golden, cracked on the surface and the jam is bubbling.

Allow to cool completely before serving with a strong black coffee, for balance. These are great the day they are made, but they get better over time as the inside becomes more dense and chewy. If they last a week, you’re a better person than me. 

Kitchen notes

I always find that once you master a base recipe, it’s easy to make it your own by tweaking a few ingredients. My favourite variation on these is to swap 100g of the ground almonds for pistachios- pulsed to a powder in a blender or food processor. Marmalade or cherry jam in place of the apricot make a lot of sense too, and by all means swap the lemon for lime, grapefruit or orange zest. Do keep the almond extract, as it is integral in creating the bitter almond aftertaste.