Easter is on its way , so its time for figolli.  The most common cut out shapes traditionally used for figolli are lamb, heart, duck and dove.  Today I decided to decorate a lamb shaped figolla.  Usually I prefer to decorate the figolli using milk or white chocolate, however royal icing is also widely used in Malta to decorate these almond biscuits.

Today I wanted to experiment a bit, so I decided to decorate my lamb figolla using royal icing bubble effect.  First I covered the figolla using white sugar paste, to give the figolla a smooth texture.  Then I created a hard consistent royal icing mixture and placed a series of dots next to each other keeping on the figolla, making sure to leave little space between each dot so that when the icing dot settles, the dots do not merge together.  Let the layer of icing dots dry for about 10 to 15 minutes and then add another layer of dots, until all blank spots have been filled.  I got this cool idea from the domesticsugar blog.  Finally I finished off my figolla using sugar paste flowers and butterflies.

Follow this link  for a detailed figolli recipe.

Kwarezimal are almond biscuits whose name is derived from the Italian word ‘quaresima’ meaning lent.  These Maltese biscuits were traditionally prepared during lent period i.e. the 40 days preceding Easter time.  My sister gave me this special recipe to prepare these biscuits.  Lent or no lent these biscuits are always good to eat 🙂

This time of the year its good for picnics, and what’s best to start off the picnic than a good dip.  My sister found this good recipe that blends the almond and the garlic together and forms a tasty dip.  At first I was weary hearing about the almonds mixed with garlic, however when I tasted the dip I have to admit that I fell in love with its taste 🙂