# Ricciarelli di Siena Siena's soft almond biscuits. Siena, Toscana. Desserts (Dolci). > Siena's soft almond biscuits, a PGI since 2010: peeled almonds ground fine with sugar and egg white, cut into rounded lozenges, dusted thickly with icing sugar and baked briefly so that they stay white and tender. - Level of proof: EU-codified (Disciplinare europeo). The dish itself is protected by an EU specification (TSG, PDO or PGI) that fixes how it is made. - Sources checked: 2026-10-28 - Published: 2026-10-28 - Page: https://nonnario.com/recipes/ricciarelli-di-siena/ ## In short - Peeled sweet almonds ground fine, granulated sugar, egg white and a raising agent, dusted with icing sugar: never flour or potato starch. - Per kilo of paste: almonds 35–50%, granulated sugar 35–47%, egg white 6–12%, icing sugar 5–8%, candied orange peel at most 5%. - Cut into rounded lozenges of 10 g–30 g once baked, traditionally set on starch wafers, and dusted generously with icing sugar. - Baked in a preheated oven at 150 °C–200 °C for 12–20 minutes: white, cracked tops, barely golden edges, a soft inside. - Kept airtight: dry air hardens the paste and damp air makes it sag. Also called: Ricciarelli di Siena IGP, ricciarelli, ricciarello, ricciarelli senesi, Sienese almond biscuits. Suitable for: vegetarian, as written. No meat, fish, lard or meat broth, as written. Some traditional cheeses are made with animal rennet. ## Where it comes from Ricciarelli are the soft almond biscuits of Siena, made above all for Christmas: in the words of the cookery books, for the Sienese there is no Christmas without them, although today they are eaten all year round. They descend from the almond marzipans for which Siena was known from the fifteenth century, and they were made in the city's convents and spice shops, the only places where spices and scents could be had; near Piazza del Campo, old spice shops still keep frescoed ceilings that praise ricciarelli and panforte in gold letters. A legend, told by the Sienese storyteller Parige, has Ricciardetto della Gherardesca bring them home from the Crusades, shaped like the curled slippers of the sultans, and give them his name. The first mention of the name is in 1814, in a long list of Tuscan sweets printed in Livorno, as ‘della lupa i Ricciarelli’, the she-wolf being the emblem of Siena. Pellegrino Artusi's ‘La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene’, first published in 1891, gives a recipe for ricciarelli di Siena with the ingredients still used: fine white sugar, sweet and bitter almonds, egg whites and the scent of orange peel. ‘Ricciarelli di Siena’ has been a PGI since 2010, by Commission Regulation (EU) No 229/2010, the first Italian sweet to be protected this way: only ricciarelli made and packed in the province of Siena under the specification may carry the name. The specification sets the ingredients per kilo of paste: sweet almonds, peeled and finely ground, 35–50%; granulated sugar, 35–47%; hen's egg white, which may be pasteurised or powdered, 6–12%; icing sugar, 5–8%; and a raising agent, ammonium or sodium salts. Optional are bitter almonds, up to 6%, in place of some of the sweet; glucose syrup or invert sugar, up to 10%, in place of some of the granulated; wildflower honey, up to 7%; vanilla, citrus essential oils and almond flavouring; very finely chopped candied orange peel, up to 5%; starch wafers to sit on; and sorbic acid. Nothing else is allowed, flour and potato starch included. The paste is cut into rounded lozenges, dusted generously with icing sugar and baked in a preheated oven at 150–200 °C for 12–20 minutes. As sold, each weighs 10–30 g and measures 5–10.5 cm along its long diagonal, 3–6.5 cm along the short one and 13–20 mm in thickness; the top is white with sugar, sometimes cracked all over, the edge slightly golden, the inside beige, soft and not crumbly, with 8–11.5% moisture. The specification sets limits, not a household recipe. The quantities and method here are Artusi's. The specification rules out two of his ingredients, the flour on the board and the grated zest: on this page icing sugar takes the place of the flour, and very finely chopped candied orange peel, one of the two orange scents the specification allows (the other is a citrus essential oil), takes the place of the zest. It also requires what his recipe lacks, a raising agent (a pinch here) and a generous dusting of icing sugar, and pieces of 10–30 g, so they are cut a little smaller than his. The other changes are ours: his bitter almonds are replaced by sweet ones and a little almond extract, which the specification also allows, because raw bitter almonds are high in cyanide and a home kitchen cannot tell how much a batch holds; the egg white is weighed, so that it stays within its share; baking paper takes the place of his bed of bran; and the oven is set at 160 °C, his moderate heat within the specification's range. By our calculation the batch is within the limits, with almonds and sugar each about 40% of the paste, egg white about 11%, icing sugar about 7% and candied peel about 3%. - Defined by: European Union - Reference: PGI ‘Ricciarelli di Siena’, Commission Regulation (EU) No 229/2010; production specification first published as a proposal in the Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 149 of 29 June 2005, its registered text kept by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture; single document in the Official Journal C 186 of 8 August 2009 ## Sources - [EU Official Journal C 186 of 8 August 2009: the application to register the PGI, with its single document (EUR-Lex, Italian)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52009XC0808(04)) - [Commission Regulation (EU) No 229/2010, registering the PGI (EUR-Lex, Italian)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32010R0229) - [Ministero dell'agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste: the production specification of the PGI (Italian)](https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeAttachment.php/L/IT/D/e%252F4%252F1%252FD.b4efb7eb7e5be3dc0d66/P/BLOB%3AID%3D3347/E/pdf?mode=download) - [Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 149 of 29 June 2005: the Ministry of Agriculture's notice proposing the PGI, with the specification as first proposed (Italian)](https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/atto/serie_generale/caricaDettaglioAtto/originario?atto.dataPubblicazioneGazzetta=2005-06-29&atto.codiceRedazionale=05A06263) - [Pellegrino Artusi: ‘La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene’, 25th edition (1922) on Project Gutenberg, recipe 620, Ricciarelli di Siena (Italian)](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59047) - [Co.Ri.Panf., the committees promoting the Ricciarelli di Siena and Panforte di Siena PGIs: Ricciarelli di Siena IGP, history and characteristics (Italian)](https://www.coripanf.org/ricciarelli-di-siena-igp/) - [Visit Tuscany, the official site of the Tuscany destination: Ricciarelli di Siena IGP, the product and how it is eaten (Italian)](https://www.visittuscany.com/it/sapori/ricciarelli-di-siena-igp/) - [Visit Tuscany, the official site of the Tuscany destination: ricciarelli, a recipe (Italian)](https://www.visittuscany.com/it/ricette/la-ricetta-dei-ricciarelli-di-siena/) - [Dissapore: the perfect recipe, ricciarelli di Siena, 2013 (Italian)](https://www.dissapore.com/grande-notizia/la-ricetta-perfetta-ricciarelli-di-siena) - [Food Standards Scotland: advice to food businesses on the sale of apricot kernels and bitter almonds, 2017 (archived copy)](https://web.archive.org/web/20220121070602/https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/downloads/Update_on_advice_on_the_sale_of_apricot_kernels_and_bitter_almonds.pdf) - [EU Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008 on flavourings, Annex III: the limit for hydrocyanic acid in marzipan and similar sweets (EUR-Lex, Italian)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32008R1334) ## Ingredients For 20 servings, in metric units. ### The paste - 220 g blanched whole almonds (sweet almonds without their skins; Artusi's 200 g of sweet and 20 g of bitter, all sweet here, as the story explains) - 220 g fine granulated sugar (two tablespoons of it go in with the almonds as they are ground) - 60 g egg whites (weigh out 60 g, about two medium whites, and leave out any extra: more would take the paste over the specification's 12%) - 15 g candied orange peel (in place of Artusi's grated zest; our guide, well within the specification's 5%) - 1 pinch ammonium bicarbonate (baker's ammonia, ammoniaca per dolci in Italy; our guide: about half a gram, a level eighth of a teaspoon) - ½ tsp bitter almond extract (in place of Artusi's bitter almonds; our guide: strengths vary, so use a little less of a strong one) ### For shaping and baking - 40 g icing sugar (for the board and for dusting; our guide) - 3 wafer paper sheets (ostie, about 21 by 30 cm each: two cover the large tray, the third the second; optional, as the specification allows: baking paper alone will do) ## Equipment - Kitchen scale, ideally one that weighs single grams - Food processor (or a large mortar, as Artusi used) - A large baking tray, about 30 cm by 40 cm, and baking paper - Large bowl, a clean bowl for the whites, an electric or balloon whisk and a wooden spoon - Rolling pin, a small sharp knife and a lozenge about 8 cm by 4.5 cm cut from card - Fine sieve, for the icing sugar - Small scissors and a tin with a tight lid ## Method Hands-on 44 min, cooking 40 min, resting at least 45 min. About 2 hours 15 minutes, much of it waiting: 10 minutes to dry the almonds and 15 to cool them, 10 to chop and grind, 15 for the oven to heat while you whip the whites and mix the paste, 20 to roll, cut and dust, 15–18 in the oven, as long again for the few on the second tray, 30 to cool and 5 to trim. By our estimate the quantities make about 20 ricciarelli: a large tray, and a few more baked after on a second; each serving here is one ricciarello. ### The almond paste 1. **Dry the almonds** (Cooking 10–30 min; 50 °C). Heat the oven to 50 °C. If your almonds still have their skins, cover them with boiling water for a minute, drain them and slip the skins off. Spread the peeled almonds on a tray and dry them in the oven: 10 minutes for almonds bought blanched; skinned at home, pat them dry with a cloth first and leave them in longer, 20–30 minutes. Check: Dry to the touch all over, with no damp patches, and still white. Tip: Artusi dried them well in the sun or by the fire before pounding them. 2. **Let them cool completely** (Rest 15 min). Take the almonds out and leave them on the tray until cold. Switch the oven off for now. Check: Cold to the touch. Tip: Warm almonds release their oil in the processor and the paste turns greasy. 3. **Chop the candied peel very finely** (Hands-on 5 min; follows the official text). Chop the candied orange peel very finely. Check: No piece bigger than a grain of rice; it is almost a paste. Tip: Our guide: slice it thinly with a sharp knife, then chop across, again and again. The specification allows candied orange peel or a citrus essential oil, not fresh zest. Tip: Our guide: closer to Artusi's scent of orange peel, a drop or two of food-grade orange essential oil may go in with the almond extract instead; the specification allows either. 4. **Grind the almonds** (Hands-on 5 min; follows the official text). Grind the peeled almonds finely; they are then worked together with the sugar and the egg white. Check: A fine, dry powder that runs through your fingers, with no pieces of almond left and no sign of oil. Tip: Artusi pounded them very fine in a mortar with two tablespoons of the sugar, added in several goes. Tip: Our guide: in the food processor, the almonds with 2 tablespoons of the 220 g of sugar, in short pulses of a few seconds, adding those 2 tablespoons in two goes. Stop as soon as it is as fine as flour: ground too long, it clumps and turns oily. 5. **Mix in the rest of the sugar** (Hands-on 2 min). Tip the ground almonds into the large bowl and mix in the rest of the sugar, the ammonium bicarbonate, crushed to a powder between your fingers, and the chopped candied peel. Check: An even, sandy mixture, with no lumps of raising agent and the peel spread through it. Tip: Our guide: a pinch is enough for this batch. The specification requires a raising agent, and Artusi uses none. 6. **Heat the oven** (Cooking 15 min; 160 °C). Heat the oven to 160 °C, static (top and bottom heat), with a shelf in the middle. Meanwhile line the tray with baking paper and cover it with the wafer sheets, edge to edge, trimming them to fit. Check: The oven has reached 160 °C: its light has gone off, or an oven thermometer reads it. 7. **Whip the egg whites** (Hands-on 3 min). Whisk the 60 g of egg white in the clean bowl until white and firm, then whisk in the almond extract. Check: The whites hold a peak when you lift the whisk. Tip: Any trace of yolk or grease in the bowl stops them from whipping. 8. **Stir in the almonds** (Hands-on 3 min). Tip the almond mixture into the whites and stir with the wooden spoon until no dry powder is left. Check: A soft, even paste that holds together when pressed, a little sticky. ### Shaping 9. **Roll out the paste** (Hands-on 5 min). Sift a thin layer of icing sugar over the board, turn the paste onto it and dust the top. Roll it out lightly with the rolling pin into a soft sheet half a finger thick, about 1 cm. Check: An even sheet about 1 cm thick, not sticking to the board or the pin. Tip: Artusi rolled it on a light layer of flour. The specification allows no flour at all; on this page icing sugar, which it does allow, takes its place. If the paste sticks, dust on a little more, never flour. 10. **Cut the lozenges** (Hands-on 10 min; follows the official text). Cut the paste into portions by hand, giving each the characteristic shape of a rounded lozenge. Check: Weigh the first one: about 25 g. Baked, the specification allows 10 g–30 g, 5 cm–10.5 cm along the long diagonal and 3 cm–6.5 cm along the short one. Tip: Our guide: lay the card lozenge, about 8 cm long and 4.5 cm wide with rounded points, on the paste and cut round it with the small knife. Gather the scraps, roll them out once more and cut again. Tip: Our guide: Artusi's own shape, about 9 cm by 5.5 cm, made 16 to 18 pieces, by our estimate close to 30 g each; this smaller one keeps them within the specification's limit. 11. **Lay them on the wafers** (Hands-on 3 min; follows the official text). Lay the pieces on starch wafers before baking, if you use them; the wafers stay on the ricciarelli. Check: In rows of three across the tray, about 1.5 cm apart. If they do not all fit, bake the rest afterwards on a second tray. Tip: Artusi spread the wafers over a layer of bran in the tray. Our guide: baking paper under the wafers is enough at home. Tip: Our guide: without wafers, lay them straight on the baking paper. The specification makes the wafers optional. 12. **Dust them with icing sugar** (Hands-on 2 min; follows the official text). Dust the ricciarelli generously with icing sugar before baking. Check: Each one is white all over, with no paste showing through. Tip: Our guide: sift the rest of the 40 g over them from a little height, so that it settles evenly. ### Baking 13. **Bake them** (Cooking 15–18 min; 160 °C; follows the official text). Bake them in a preheated oven at 150 °C–200 °C, for 12–20 minutes. Check: The tops have cracked and are still white, the edges barely golden, and they still feel soft when pressed. Tip: Our guide: at 160 °C, static, on the middle shelf, for 15–18 minutes. Artusi baked them at a moderate heat, so that they stay tender: look from 15 minutes and take them out while still soft. Tip: Our guide: they firm up as they cool. If they feel firm in the oven, they will be dry once cold. 14. **Leave them to cool** (Rest 30 min; follows the official text). Leave the ricciarelli to cool once baked. Check: Cold right through, about 13 mm–20 mm thick, as the specification wants; broken open, the inside is beige, soft and not crumbly. Our guide: if they come out thinner, roll the next batch a little thicker. Tip: Our guide: leave them on the tray. While warm they are soft and break if lifted. 15. **Trim the wafers** (Hands-on 5 min). Cut away the wafer that sticks out beyond each ricciarello, with the small scissors or the knife. Check: Each one sits on its own wafer, with none showing round the edge. 16. **Serve, or store** (Hands-on 1 min). Serve them at the end of a meal, with coffee or tea, or with Vin Santo or Moscadello di Montalcino. Keep the rest in a tin with a tight lid. ## Good to know - When: Christmas above all: for the Sienese there is no Christmas without them, though over time they have come to be eaten all year round. ([source](https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeAttachment.php/L/IT/D/e%252F4%252F1%252FD.b4efb7eb7e5be3dc0d66/P/BLOB%3AID%3D3347/E/pdf?mode=download)) - Keeping: In an airtight container; they are even better the next day. ([source](https://www.visittuscany.com/it/ricette/la-ricetta-dei-ricciarelli-di-siena/)) - Variant: Made the evening before: The paste is made the evening before, covered with cling film and kept in the fridge overnight, then shaped and baked the next day. ([source](https://www.visittuscany.com/it/ricette/la-ricetta-dei-ricciarelli-di-siena/)) - Variant: Rested before baking: Once laid on the wafers and covered with a veil of icing sugar, the ricciarelli are left in a cool place for an hour, then each is pressed down very lightly just before it goes into the oven. ([source](https://www.dissapore.com/grande-notizia/la-ricetta-perfetta-ricciarelli-di-siena)) ## Common mistakes - Adding flour or starch to the paste, or flouring the board: the specification rules out flour and potato starch. Use icing sugar. - Using fresh grated zest: the specification allows only very finely chopped candied orange peel, or citrus essential oils. - Using almonds with their skins: the specification wants them peeled. - Grinding the almonds warm, or for too long: they turn oily and the paste goes greasy. - Adding raw bitter almonds by eye: they are high in cyanide. Almond extract gives their scent. - Cutting them too big: baked, each must weigh 10 g–30 g. - Baking them until golden: the tops should stay white and the inside soft, with only the edges lightly golden. - Leaving them uncovered: dry air hardens the paste and damp air makes it soft and sagging. ## Cooking it outside Italy - Blanched almonds are almonds with their skins removed. Ready-ground blanched almonds (almond flour, not almond meal with the skins) can be used instead: mix them with the sugar and skip the drying and grinding. - Ammoniaca per dolci is baker's ammonia, ammonium bicarbonate, sold by baking suppliers. If you cannot find it, use the same pinch of bicarbonate of soda: the specification allows sodium salts too. - Ostie are wafer paper, the thin edible starch sheets sold for baking and cake decorating. - Fine granulated sugar is caster sugar (superfine in the US); icing sugar is powdered or confectioners' sugar. In the US it usually contains cornstarch, which the specification does not list: choose one without where you can. - Vin Santo and Moscadello di Montalcino are Tuscan dessert wines; another sweet wine will do. --- From Nonnario, the documented recipes of Italy: https://nonnario.com/recipes/ricciarelli-di-siena/. Cite the recipe's page and the month its sources were checked; for the official text itself, cite the document listed under its sources.