Rachelle's Fanciful Figolli

Look at this awesome wedding. 

A couple of our travel junkie pals, Dan and Rachelle, got hitched in Malta in 2004. To commemorate their time spent in Malta, the ever-thoughtful Rachelle started making a Maltese speciality - figolli - for Easter celebrations. 

Figolli are colossal, splendid cookies stuffed with almond paste. Rachelle's figolli always steal the show with their ultra-mega size and fancy-pants decorating. Scads of people asked about them at our Easter lunch this year, so I asked Rachelle if I could share her recipe and story.

FIGOLLA!!!

Rachelle's Fanciful Figolli 

(Adapted from the Gourmet Worrier recipe, which was adapted from The Food & Cookery of Malta recipe (1999))   

This quantity will give you enough dough to make approximately SIX average sized Figolli. 

Ingredients 
For the pastry:  

• 800g organic plain flour, sifted
• 350g caster sugar
• 400g butter
• 4 organic egg yolks, lightly beaten
• Grated rind of a lemon, lime and orange 

For the filling:

• 600g icing sugar, sifted
• 600g ground almonds
• 4 organic egg whites
• Grated rind of 2 lemons
• A couple of capfuls of Orange Blossom water 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
2. Rub the butter into the flour and sugar until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks, lemon zest and a little cold water. Knead it gently to form a smooth ball. Wrap in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.  
3. Meanwhile add the lemon zest, orange blossom water and sugar to the ground almonds. Add the egg whites and mix until well combined.
4. On a floured surface roll out your pastry to a 2-3mm thickness. Cut out your desired shapes ensuring that you have two of each figure as they will be sandwiched together with the almond filling.
5. Lay the figolla on a lined baking tray and spread the almond filling at least 1cm thick. Lay the second shape over the top and press the edges together sealing it with a little water. Bake for 20 minutes until a pale golden colour. Allow to cool before decorating with lemon glace icing. Use royal icing to hold the chocolate eggs in place. 

From the baker herself, (Rachelle):

"This is my fourth or fifth time baking these and I tend to use a different recipe each time, learning new tricks each year.  I really liked how the cookie and filling turned out this year, but I ran out of mojo by the time I got to the decorating and had a few frosting fails, so I didn't get as elaborate with the decorating."

Rachelle and Dan = couple crush

[where: Minnesota, Food, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, 55418]