Recipes by Jacqui Farrugia.

With his permission and based on the excellent reviews, I have adapted Manuel Xuereb’s recipe for the figolli. Converting a normal recipe to a gluten-free one is not as simple as just swopping flours. Gluten-free (GF) flours behave differently to wheat flours. GF flours do not bind and do not absorb like wheat flour. Manuel used seven egg yolks, and that would have been too much liquid; adding more GF flour would not have solved the problem.

With a bit of tweaking and using flours that have more taste and protein than the basic starch-containing GF flours, I have come up with this. Apart from a GF mix, I have used almond meal and coconut flour, the latter being a highly absorbent flour. This is in order to keep the same amount of eggs. Eighteen grammes might sound too little, but one cup of GF flour is normally replaced with 1/4 cup of coconut flour.

When baking with coconut flour you have to use a lot of eggs, since it is highly absorbent. Measurements have to be accurate, so do use digital scales.

I have divided Manuel’s recipe by half to try it out first, and also because it is too tempting otherwise with so many figolli in the house! I got four large figolli out of it. I am also putting the measurements in brackets should you wish to double it.

The result was delicious and tasted like normal figolla pastry. I have also added a couple ingredients which you can omit or substitute.

Easter Bunny Carrot Cake

Ingredients
150ml peanut or vegetable oil
150g dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
150g gluten free flour mix, sifted
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp nutmeg or allspice
0.5 tsp ginger
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
250g carrots, peeled and grated
80g raisins
0.5 cup pecans, chopped
100g yogurt

For the cream cheese frosting
300g soft cheese
112g icing sugar, sifted
0.5 tsp powdered ginger
0.5 tsp vanilla essence

To decorate
Pink gel food colouring
Mini Easter eggs
GF chocolate sticks
Ribbon (to tie cake)

Method

Pre-heat to 180⁰C or gas mark 4. Grease and line an 18cm round loose bottom cake tin.

Whisk the sugar with the peanut oil and then gradually add in the eggs. Fold in the flour, the spices, the baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda. Add the grated carrots, raisins, chopped pecans and yogurt and mix thoroughly. Bake until the cake passes the toothpick test.

To prepare the frosting: mix all the ingredients together until you reach the desired consistency. Spread across the cake. Place the chocolate eggs on top of the cake, creating a pattern. Surround with chocolate sticks and bind with ribbon.

For more gluten free recipes visit www.facebook.com/SenzaG?fref=ts.

Figolla

For the pastry
250g (500g) GF all purpose flour*
180g (360g) Almond meal/flour
18g (35g) Coconut Flour
2tsp (3.5 tsp) GF baking powder
150g (300g) Castor sugar
225g (450g) Butter
Zest of 1 lemon & 1 orange (2 of each)
Juice of 1 (2) orange (I replaced this with a dash of Amaretto)
4 (7) egg yolks

• The mix I use has Xanthan Gum in it. If yours doesn’t, you need to add 0.5tsp per cup of flour.

For the filling
500g (1kg) pure ground almonds
400g (800g) icing sugar
Zest of 3 lemons
6 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla essence
0.5 (1) tsp orange flour water

Method

Mix the flours together in a large bowl of a stand mixer and add the baking powder and sugar. Add the butter and mix on low speed until it starts looking like breadcrumbs. Add the lemon and orange zest, the fresh orange juice or Amaretto and egg yolks and keep mixing until the dough comes together.

Using a rubber spatula, tip the mix into a freezer bag, mould slightly with your hands through the plastic bag and place in the fridge to chill for not less than half an hour.

Meanwhile prepare the almond filling. Place all the ingredients together in a large bowl and combine well.

From here onwards, follow Manuel’s normal figolli-making instructions. Once the pastry has chilled, and you have prepared the almond filling, you can start preparing the figolli. This GF pastry was not a difficult pastry to manage, but do be gentle when working with it.

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of about 0.75cm. Using shaped figolli cutters, cut figolli shapes out of the pastry (you will need 2 pastry shapes for each figolla). Carefully place the figolli pastry shapes on baking trays lined with greaseproof paper. Next, you need to roll out the almond filling, the same as the pastry, cutting out one shape per figolla. Brush half of the pastry shapes lightly with water, and cover each piece with the almond filling.