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Hello, I make Nigella's Ricciarelli every year for family and friends but never know how much i should be mixing in the ground almonds to the egg white marshmallow. I usually don't mix a lot in order to keep the air in the whisked egg whites but should I not worry about that and mix to a smoother paste? Many thanks.
Our answer
Nigella's Ricciarelli (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS) are based on the small Italian almond cookies. The ground almonds (almond meal or almond flour) are added to an egg white and sugar mixture and flavoured with a combination of vanilla and lemon. The cookies are then pressed into diamond, or lozenge, shapes before baking.
When mixing the almonds into the egg whites, we would not worry too much about keeping the air in the egg whites and the recipe notes that it should be "quite a hard paste". So stir or fold until you have a smooth, firm mixture. We would also not be too worried about keeping the air in the dough as it will be pressed out as you form the cookies. In addition, you don't want too much air in the cookie dough as otherwise the ricciarelli will puff up and become misshapen as they bake.
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