Ricciarelli — soft almond cookies from Siena

Sift the 180 g confectioners' sugar into a bowl and mix with the 200 g very finely ground blanched almonds. Break up larger lumps with your fingers; do not use whole skin-on almonds. Weigh 60 g whites with no traces of yolk into a second clean, dry bowl. Beat with a mixer until a firm, glossy foam forms and holds a peak when the beaters are lifted. Do not measure whites by egg count alone, because egg sizes vary.

Add the 2 drops food-grade almond flavoring to the beaten whites. Fold in all the almond and sugar mixture with a spatula in two or three additions, scraping down the bowl. A thick, sticky dough will form and the foam will partly deflate; this is normal. Do not add water or flour. Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, up to about 12 hours. This rest lets the almonds hydrate evenly and makes shaping easier.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Put the additional 40 g confectioners' sugar on a wide plate and lightly dust your hands and a board with a little of it. Take out the cold dough and divide all of it into 20 equal pieces of about 22 g before coating. Shape each into a flattened oval resembling an elongated diamond with gently tapered ends: roughly 5–6 cm long, 3–4 cm wide and 1–1.5 cm thick. Do not roll thinly and do not cut out with a cookie cutter, so no dough scraps are created.

Roll the shaped pieces in the sugar on the plate, leaving a visible white layer on the tops and sides. Gently shake off loose excess and arrange on the baking sheet about 3 cm apart. Use the dusting sugar too, but do not pour the leftovers into the dough or onto the sheet: you do not need to use all the prepared 40 g. Do not add more sugar. Turn the oven on to 160°C with conventional top and bottom heat and leave the sheet to stand while it heats, about 15 minutes.

Place the sheet on the middle rack of the fully preheated oven and bake at 160°C for about 16–18 minutes. The cookies will puff slightly and their white surface will crack; the tops should stay pale, with at most a very faint golden tint around the lower edges. Do not wait for deep browning or a hard center. They will still be very soft and easy to damage when removed. If you need two sheets, bake them one at a time, keeping the second away from the oven's heat.

Set the sheet on a stable, heat-resistant surface and leave the cookies without moving them for about 45–60 minutes, until completely cooled and the crust has set. Carefully lift them from the paper with a wide spatula. The center should stay soft and slightly chewy, with an almond flavor. Serve without extra dusting, glaze or decorations. One serving is one of the 20 cookies. Keep the cold ricciarelli in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for 4–5 days, separating the layers with paper.