Ricciarelli are traditional

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

biscuits – specifically, a type of

macaroon A macaroon ( ) is a small cake or biscuit, typically made from ground almonds (the original main ingredient), coconut or other nuts (or even potato), with sugar and sometimes flavourings (e.g. honey, vanilla, spices), food colouring, glacé ...

– originating in 14th century

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...

. It is considered one of the signature sweets of Siena, in addition to

panforte Panforte is a traditional chewy Italian dessert containing fruits and nuts. It is similar to a florentine but much thicker, or a little like a lebkuchen. Known throughout all Italy, it is a Christmas tradition associated most especially with the ...

, cenci, and

cavallucci Cavallucci is a rich Italian Christmas pastry prepared with anise, walnuts, candied fruits, coriander, and flour. They are Sienese in origin, and the name translates approximately to "little horses". The chewy biscuits traditionally use Tusc ...

Background

Legend holds that they were introduced by Ricciardetto della Gherardesca in his castle near

Volterra Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods. History Volt ...

upon his return from the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

. He purportedly said that the "foreign biscuits curled like the Sultan's slippers". The modern biscuit does not exhibit curling. In medieval times, they were known as ''marzapanetti alla senese'' or ''morzelletti''. They acquired the name ''ricciarelli'' in the 1800s. An alternative etymology, from the Treccani Italian dictionary, indicates the word
ricciarèlli
is derived from 'rìccio,' meaning 'hedgehog,' perhaps for the original form. Particularly when coated with sliced almonds, the cookie looks like a hedgehog.

Preparation

Today, the biscuits are made using an almond base with sugar,

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

and egg white. When prepared in the traditional method, the almonds are ground with a

milling machine Milling is the process of machining using rotary cutters to remove material by advancing a cutter into a workpiece. This may be done by varying direction on one or several axes, cutter head speed, and pressure. Milling covers a wide variety of d ...

, and the finished mix is formed into numerous oval- or lozenge-shaped cookies of about each that are set aside for two days before baking. After baking, they are removed from the oven and allowed to cool for 15 minutes, to prevent the cookies from breaking, before transferring them to wire racks. They may be baked with

rice paper "Rice paper" has many varieties such as rice paper made from tree bark to make drawing and writing paper or from rice flour and tapioca flour and then mixed with salt and water to produce a thin rice cake and dried to become harder and paper-like ...

, which is trimmed to the shape of the cookie after they have cooled. The rough and crackled surface is usually lightly sprinkled with confectioner's sugar, and may also be covered in dark chocolate. Ricciarelli are typically consumed at

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

, served with a

dessert wine Dessert wines, sometimes called pudding wines in the United Kingdom, are sweet wines typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal ...

such as

Vin Santo Vin Santo ("holy wine") is a style of Italian dessert wine. Traditional in Tuscany, these wines are often made from white grape varieties such as Trebbiano and Malvasia, though Sangiovese may be used to produce a ''rosé'' style known as "Oc ...

or Moscadello di Montalcino. Packaged cookies sold at retail are traditionally enveloped in a blue paper tissue depicting two winged horses from the Etruscan Archeological Museum in Volterra.

References

{{Commons category, Ricciarelli Biscuits Italian desserts Christmas food Cuisine of Tuscany Almond cookies Italian products with protected designation of origin