Maltese Easter Tradition - Figolli - Gluten, diary, egg, free, vegan,

There is something we have been making EVERY Easter for my whole life. TRADITIOOOON!  TRADITION!

And that is,....FIGOLLI!

What is figolli? It means "shape" and it is basically a soft, short bread style cookie with a sweet almond based filling that is super soft and moist. Typically some sort of citrus is used, also. They are delicious though, that is all you need to know!

(last years figolli (THESE are the GLUTEN FREE ones!) My theme was "Topiary")

I tried to use little icing on mine to make them SLIGHTLY less unhealthy. This year i'm changing a lot and i hope i don't mess it up! :S

Don't worry, they didn't always start off that cute, about 5 years ago my skills were at this level:

I know. 

So every single Easter, my family makes figolli. But not only mine...I have 5 pairs of aunts/uncles on mums side and 5 on dads side, whom each family is making figolli too! Everyone's family will swap a figolli with the other! This is the fun part because everyone makes it slightly different and the subtlties in taste is always exciting (but of course none is better than the one mum makes!)

So this batch makes a LOT of figolli! About 10 or more! (depending on the size of your shape forms). 

I like to make some small ones so that a member of each of our immediate family get one to themselves, but it's not uncommon for everyone to take a slice of the cookie as they walk past it, and slowly the large one will get eaten up!

Now that I've grown up and have better finesse at decorating then my mum (I'm simply more fussier than her!) I have taken over the trade, but the tradition way back was that the Nunna would make it for the grand kids, and that's it (no family figolli swaps!) Sacrilidge! This is not how we practise it here. Anyway, figolli is a reward for fasting all of Lent (just like pancake tuesday is to get rid of all the temptation before the fast)!! ...Anyway! Let's get to it!

The recipe book my mum uses, that she got from her sister, is so old the pages are brown! 

I will translate the recipe as best I can with the changes on how we make it. These old recipes were very "piece of string" like...so bare with me!

****WARNING****

Please scroll to bottom to see my version- which is gluten free, healthIER and vegan

This first recipe is not vegan. It is not healthy. I eat this once a year! 

FIGOLLI (figolla singular) - Maltese Easter Biscuits
Makes 10 large or so - but we always make a double batch, this is single batch
double batch made 5 large 9 medium 6 small

Pastry:
400g plain flour (I have repeated this recipe subbing for gluten free PLAIN flour and it works)
170g sugar
170g margarine
1/2 lemon zest
2 eggs
1 t vanilla +

Filling:
200g almond meal
200g caster sugar
1 t + almond essence
1 egg white
a little bit of water if desired (for soft filling)
1/2c water or milk for "sticking" (more important with firm filling)

Method:
Pastry:
1- Mix flour and margarine until it resembles bread crumbs.
2- Add sugar and lemon zest.
3- Beat eggs and add them to the mixture.
4- Add vanilla essence. If the dough is too dry you can add a little bit of milk till it comes together (low humidty or small eggs).
5- Rest dough in fridge about 15-30 minutes.

Filling:
1- To prepare the filling mix almond meal together with the sugar.
2- Beat an egg white and add it to the mixture.
3- Add the almond essence. Mix everything together.
4- If you were after a soft filling (traditionally we did it soft) you will need to add a bit of water for a soft mousse-like consistency. For firm filling, you might not need to add any water at all. This method leaves a level surface which creates the neatest icing, but comes out slightly drier (I prefer this method personally and I don't mind the dryness of it).

Now to the assembly!

*Preheat oven to 175C

1- Throw some flour on the table and rolling pin so the pastry will not stick. You will be adding almost 100g of flour to keep things from sticking throughout the process.
2- Divide dough in half. Start rolling the pastry and cutting out your desired shapes. We traditionally use Catholic Easter themed images like a Lamb, Doves, Heart, but in recent years we have adopted the Australian Themed Easter like Eggs, Rabbits, and Nests.

3- Filling Layer

• a) Soft Filling: Add the moist filling to the shapes, staying clear of any edges and don't pile too high so the top biscuit will fit well. Try to make it about 1-2cm tall and a smooth layer without too many bumps.
• b) Firm Filling: Roll out filling (you will need to judge how thick to last all your shapes, usually about 1cm) and cut shapes corresponding with the shapes you have already cut. Paint milk onto the biscuit, place filling evenly on top of your biscuit layer. 

4-  Top Layer. Roll out the other half of the dough and cut out corresponding shapes.

• a) Soft Filling: Place on top of the filling layer, pressing on the edges to keep it together (If you have filled it too much it will be hard to fit it over, you may need to remove some filling. If dough is too dry you might need to paint milk on the edges to help it stick, but you can usually get away without it.  
• b) Firm Filling: Paint filling layer with water or Milk before placeing biscuit layer on top and pressing firmly but gently to adhere.
• With any excess pastry or filling you can be creative. If you chose the firm filling you can roll it in a ball or biscuit to cook, and remaining soft filling can be piled on top of a cookie piece. Any excess biscuit can be rolled into a biscuit to cook also. This is fun to have a "Taste" after cooking!

5- Press the edges so that the filling doesn't come out.

6- Put figolli in a 175C oven for 15-30 minutes (check on it, it depends on the size of your figolli). Once cooked and cooled you can decorated it with coloured royal icing traditionally or whatever you want, like a dusting of icing, melted chocolate, fondant or whatever!




This year I will be making alterations to the recipe! (pending for results)
I will be using a quarter batch for me as half a batch made me about 12 thin medium-small figolli last year- too much for one person!!
Ok i decided to make two quarter batches, one being healthier than the other

Pastry:
50g chickpea flour
50g plain gluten free flour ( i used tapioca starch)
40g brown sugar (healthy batch i reduced by 10g)
40g margarine (healthy batch i used 40g blended apple*)
1/8 lemon, zested
2t flax
2 TB aqua faba (Healthy batch I used 2.5 TB apple puree* here instead)
1 t vanilla +
1/2t scant guar gum
(healthy batch had 1/2t psyllium husk and let it rest to absorb, flour dough ball and scrape edges of bowl to "gather" adding additional Chickpea flour until it is no longer sticky. This batch was quiet sticky, gooey and soft, and maybe needed a little more flour?)

*apple puree was just over half of a small apple blended with 2 tablespoons water.

Filling:
50g almond meal
50g dates or brown sugar (13 dates) (if useing dates heat a minute with 1tb almond milk and 1 tb of the almond essence and 15g extra almond meal, blend in food processor  )
1 t + almond essence
1 TB aqua faba - go by feel (might not need any) - it was too much so i added 30g extra almond meal.
- keep it firm consistency, but will need 1/2c almond milk or water to help "stick" the layers together.

Method is exactly the same as above, firm filling option.


20 mins for the healthy small version

taste - batch 1 (unhealthy) - sweet, almost too sweet...the biscuit is bland but has the "non white" chickpea flavour.
batch 2 - the pastry is very dense and strong and chewy- like a boot strap


SaveSaveSaveSave
SaveSave