This vegan Ricciarelli recipe is such an amazing treat, not only for the Holidays! If you like macarons but are too lazy to make them, try these instead!
Ricciarelli are traditionally from Siena, Italy, and served around Christmas. Apparently, they date back all the way to the 14th century!
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me fail miserably at making vegan macarons. These vegan Ricciarelli are sort of my cheat macarons because they have almost the exact same ingredients and a similar method, but ar SO MUCH easier and less fussy to make.
No need to grind the almond flour or to fold the batter endlessly, no need for an oven thermometer, no piping, no watching impatiently if they are forming „feet“ in the oven…
But nonetheless, a crunchy shell and a chewy, marzipan-like center. Perfect to serve with coffee!
Sort of like the more rustic Italian relative to dainty french macarons.
These vegan Ricciarelli are all-year round cookies. I added them to my Christmas cookie boxes, but you can just as well serve them in the middle of summer.
I love these vegan Ricciarelli and I think you will too!
Click here for more vegan Christmas cookie recipes!
Vegan Ricciarelli
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp Aquafaba 90 ml
- 1 dash Lemon Juice
- 1 ¼ Cups Almond Flour 120 g
- 1 ¾ Cups Sugar 350 g
- Zest of half an Orange
- 1 tsp Almond Extract
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Pinch Salt
Instructions
- Whip aquafaba and lemon juice until foamy
- Add sugar in 2-3 portions and beat with a hand- or stand mixer until stiff peaks form
- Slowly fold in the almond flour, zest, salt, almond and vanilla extract and try to keep some air in the whipped aquafaba
- Roll pieces of dough between your hands to form balls and coat them in powdered sugar
- Place the balls on a parchment lined baking sheet and flatten them slightly with your hands
- Leave at room temperature to dry for about an hour. For maximum effect "pre-crack" the surface by squeezing the dough balls into ovals.
- While cookies are drying, pre-heat oven to 150°C / 300°F
- When cookies are dry, bake for 20 minutes
- Let cool and store in an airtight contianer. They are best the next day!
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Ina
I made these and the flavor was incredible! The only problem was that they all ran together into one big flat cookie when baking. I whipped the living daylights out of that aquafaba and it was STIFF! They looked good and round and pretty when drying, but the structure didn’t hold in the oven. My aquafaba had been in the fridge for a few days, so not sure if it needs to be fresher? We just broke the big cookie up into cookie crumbles and they will still be delish (I might make a peach cobbler with the crumbles as the topping). Thanks, flavor was on point!
Mitzi
Oh no! Aquafaba sometimes has a mind of its own 😬. It’s happened to me so many times with aquafaba on all kinds of recipes. Given that all cans of beans are a little bit different and some have more water in them, it can help to reduce the AF on the stove before whipping it up, especially if it seems a bit runny right out of the can!
Your idea of crumbling it over some peach cobbler sounds AMAZING, by the way!
Natalie
I made these yesterday .. didn’t work at all …far too much sugar in recipe ..I’ve made these tonnes of times with non vegan ingredients containing no sugar in bake only icing sugar to coat once formed into shape ..very disappointed with this recipe as wasted 300+ of almond flour !
Mitzi
Hi Natalie, Sorry to hear they didn’t work for you! I adapted my recipe from a traditional non-vegan one, without changing the amount of sugar. If you have a trusty one with eggs, you can try and veganize your own recipe by using 2 tbsp of Aquafaba for every egg white.
Amy
Followed the recipe and the same thing happened as per the two previous comments.
The flavour is great but they just ended up bleeding into one big thin cookie.
I wouldn’t try this recipe again in the future.
Mitzi
Hi Amy, Sorry to hear that! Unfortunately, Aquafaba can be a bit inconsistent as every can of beans / chickpeas is different. Hope you could still enjoy the big thin cookie, I imagine it would make a great crumble topping! 🙂
Britt
I have also had the same struggles with everything running into one big (delicious) mess but I keep trying the recipe (at least three times), adjusting the source/brand of chickpeas for the AF. As I know it is quite temperamental. Still no luck just yet, but they are too delicious not to so it is always a recipe in the running, plus we eat the crumbles as if they were meant to be that way. The taste is still incredible.
It has also been a nice treat for my GF friends as well. When I shared with them, I suggested they could eat as is or crumble over ice cream. They loved it and it did not affect their allergies.
I will have to try reducing the AF next time as suggested. Thank you CS!!
Philip Carpenter
Looks like something wrong in the conversion from cups to grams for sugar
Mitzi
I just double checked and can’t find anything wrong. What exactly do you mean?