My take on the traditional Maltese figolli biscuit – Lemon and orange blossom biscuits sandwiched with a delicious almond filling.
I’ve been to Malta a few time but unfortunately I didn’t try a great deal of Maltese food, just whatever was being served at the all-you-can-eat buffet at our hotel and the occasional pizza at a cafe along the seafront.
But I wanted to learn more about the food culture and thank goodness for google. I had a quick search and immediately settled on making some Maltese figolli biscuits.
Now, if you’ve heard of maltese figolli biscuits before then you’ll know that you’re actually supposed to eat them at Easter. But the general consensus on the sites I looked at online was that they’re so nice then you should eat them at any time of year, and I’m inclined to agree.
If you’ve not heard of them before, then they’re basically two biscuits flavoured with lemon zest and orange blossom water (although sometimes the orange blossom water goes into the filling) and then baked with an almond filling (a bit like marzipan). Traditionally they’re then decorated with royal icing, and if you’re having one at Easter, a chocolate egg is stuck on the top (I will be trying this at Easter!).
Part of the tradition of making figolli biscuits is that it’s a bit of a family activity. Everyone can get involved in decorating their own special biscuits, so I thought I’d get the boys involved and see what they could create…
Their biscuit decorating skills may need a little more practice, but we had a lot of fun making them.
Personally I prefer to eat them without the icing, so I left it out of the recipe below (especially as I cheated on mine and stuck right in my comfort zone of using fondant rather than royal icing).
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Maltese Figolli Biscuits
Equipment
- Weighing scales
- Grater or zester
- Large bowl
- Measuring spoons
- Knife
- Cling film
- Greaseproof paper or non-stick sheet (I use bake-o-glide sheets)
- Biscuit cutter (whatever shape you fancy)
INGREDIENTS
For the biscuits
- 200 g unsalted butter - straight from the fridge
- 400 g plain flour
- 250 g caster sugar
- 5 medium egg yolks
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 tsp orange blossom water
- zest 2 lemons
For the almond filling
- 200 g caster sugar
- 2 medium egg whites
- 200 g ground almonds
- 2 tsp almond extract
INSTRUCTIONS
Make the biscuit dough
- Finely grate the zest of 2 lemons
- Cut the butter (200g) into cubes and place in a large bowl with the plain flour (400g), caster sugar (250g) and baking powder (1 tsp). Rub the butter into the dry ingredients (as you would if you're making pastry) until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add the lemon zest and orange blossom water (4 tsp) to the bowl and stir to evenly distribute them through the other ingredients.
- Add the egg yolks (5 yolks) and using your hands mix them into the other ingredients until they come together (I tend to find that using a squeezing action works best).
- Wrap the dough in cling film and pop it into a fridge for a few minutes while you make the filling.
Make the almond filling
- Put all of your ingredients into a large bowl (200g caster sugar, 2 medium egg whites, 200g ground almonds, 2 tsp almond extract).
- Mix until combined (yes, it's that simple!)
- Make the biscuits
- Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC/150ºC fan
- Line your baking tray with some greaseproof paper or similar (I always use bake-o-glide sheets)
- Roll out your biscuit dough until it is about 2mm thick (I prefer to only roll out enough for a couple of biscuits at a time as it's more manageable). If you find that the dough is sticking to the rolling pin/work surface then try rolling it out between two sheets of cling film, that way it peels off easily.
- Roll out the filling (again, this is much easier to do between two sheets of cling film).
- Using a cookie cutter, cut two identical shapes from the dough and one from the filling. Make a sandwich of dough, filling, dough and place onto your baking tray. If you're cutting a fancy shape it can be a little tricky to line up the three layers. To get them perfectly aligned, cut the shape in the dough, place the cut shape onto the filling and use it to line up to cutter, pick up both pieces together and then put these onto the dough for making the base.
- Once you've cut out all of your biscuits, put them into the oven and bake for 20 minutes until they're starting to brown on top.
- Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once they've cooled they're ready to decorate (or as I prefer, sprinkle with icing sugar and gobble them all up 🙂 )
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Anna says
I just baked 8 figolli.I have been making them for the last 6 or 7 Easter’s.They are delicious.The only problem I have is with the filling it’s so sticky and I find it hard using the cutters for these.
Rosemary Agius says
Hello Charlotte
Happy Easter to you and your family I’m also Maltese we love the old tradition royal icing on our figolli biscuits that’s how we all had them given to us as gifts on Easter
Sunday – every one different and has different taste for chocolate or royal icing and I love royal icing.
Christine says
Hi Charlotte I am Maltese and came across your website! We Maltese are very proud of our delicious Figolli! Just a quick, fun and yummy tip – we sometimes spread melted milk chocolate on top of the figolli – the chcocolate really compliments the almond taste ! That’s how my mama always made them! Enjoy !
Charlotte Oates says
That sounds delicious. I was planning on making some of these next week easy for Easter so I’m going to have to give that a try!
Colr says
These are delicious!!
Mine spread a bit whereas your ones seem to have held there shape really. Not sure why.
Jacqui Bellefontaine says
I’ve researched and written a lot of cookie recipes but have not come across these before. They sound delicious
Charlotte Oates says
If you like almond then you should give them a try. I’m not too how authentic my recipe is but its delicious 🙂
Eb Gargano says
Wow, these are so pretty! I reckon my kids would like making these too. Am bookmarking!
Charlotte Oates says
They’re really fun to make with children and each stage suits different ability levels so there’s something for everyone.
Helen @ family-friends-food.com says
These look both beautiful and delicious! I’ll bookmark these for next time I need a biscuit-making session 🙂
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Helen. I hope you enjoy them x
Honest mum says
Such pretty, charming biscuits, love them and love Malta too! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Vicki. It’s such a lovely country isn’t it? We’re hoping to take the boys sometime in the next few years.
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins says
Oh they look so pretty! These would be great to bake with the kiddies. They do keep asking me to make biscuits with them! x #CookBlogShare
Charlotte Oates says
They’re great to make with little ones. I like to make the main biscuits (as the boys are a bit young and lack the attention span needed to rub the butter into the dry ingredients), then Daniel helps with making the filling (which is just mixing it all up) and we all have a great time sticking the entire contents of my decorating box onto one biscuit!
Hayley @ Snap Happy Bakes says
Oh wow these do sound scrummy! My other half would love the almond filling, and I like the sound of the chocolate egg on top at Easter! Thanks for sharing with #CookBlogShare
Charlotte Oates says
I’m looking forward to trying out the chocolate egg at Easter. I thought about seeing if I could get some for this post but thought it might seem a little odd posting Easter eggs in September! I’ll just have to share the updated version nearer the right time.
Mandy says
First of all, congratulations! Secondly, these look really delicious. Thirdly, I love your boys’ decorating skills! They’re just perfect. #cookblogshare
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Mandy. I’m a little surprised that any decorations made it on to Daniel’s biscuit as he kept eating them all as he went along!
Fionnuala says
What perfect timing Charlotte! Congratulations, by the way.
These look gorgeous. I have an almost full bottle of orange blossom water in the fridge, so I may give them a go soon.
#tastytuesdays
Fionnuala from http://www.mykitchennotebook.blogspot.com
Charlotte Oates says
I now also have a nearly full bottle of orange blossom water! Can you recommend any other recipes to use it?
Fionnuala says
I use it in baklava. You could add it to almond pastries or anything creamy that would benefit from a little bit of fragrance and depth of flavour. A Persian colleague of mine uses it or rosewater in her whites wash!
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Fionnuala, I’ll have a good look through. I love the idea of adding it to almond pastries. I used it for an almond and orange blossom cake this afternoon which worked really well.
Alison says
How gorgeous do these look. The flavours sound lovely. Happy Anniversary
Charlotte Oates says
It’s a lovely flavour combination, the Maltese clearly knew what they were doing when they first thought of it!
Mrs Puddleducky says
These look so pretty, I love the look of all of them, icing and plain. Your pictures are really good, I can imagine what they taste like!
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks. I was just about to sprinkle icing sugar all over the plain ones when I thought I’d see what it looked like with a cut out heart (to match the others). I’m so glad I did.
martyn says
These look absolutely divine! Must give them a go #sundaysweets
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Martyn. I think these flavours go really well together and it seems like you get a slightly different one in each mouthful.
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
These cookies are so cute! And I bet they are equally as delicious too..
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Thalia. As soon as I read about them I knew that it was a combination of flavours I had to try and I wasn’t disappointed – they go really well together.
Verily Victoria Vocalises says
What a lovely reason for making these biscuits. You have decorated them so beautifully and I love the sound of them #recipeoftheweek
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks. I don’t normally make much of an effort on our Anniversary but I think reaching 10 years reminded me that I really should. I really enjoyed baking something special that I knew Jon would enjoy and the children loved joining in too.
laura says
Congrats on the wedding anniversary! These look so delicious, I love the way you decorated the heart shaped ones, so pretty.
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Laura. I personally prefer to eat them without the icing, but decoration was part of the tradition so I thought I should give it a try.