Start by making the pastry. I always use the large bowl of my food processor and prepare the pastry in 2 batches or 500g flour each. Place the gluten-free flour, ground almonds, baking powder, xanthan gum, icing sugar and zests and into the food processor and blitz to a crumb. Add in the orange juice, vanilla and egg yolks and blitz to a soft pastry. Chill for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, make the almond filling by blitzing together the ground almonds, icing sugar, egg whites, vanilla and lemon zest to a paste. Remove from the bowl and stir in the chopped nuts if using. Use the pastry and almond filling to make the figolli and bake in the oven at 180°C for 35-40 minutes depending on their size. Decorate the figolli once completely cold. Cover with melted chocolate, sugar paste and piped royal icing and decorate with coloured dredges.

Date and orange figolla filling (Lactose, Gluten, Nut and Dairy free)

Place the dates, orange zest and juice in a saucepan and cook down together for 5-10 minutes adding in the water if necessary. When ready, the mixture will be smooth and creamy. Remove off the heat and mix in the anisette if using.
(If you are NOT nut intolerant, you may add in 200g  chopped walnuts.)

Chocolate and hazelnut figolla filling (Lactose, gluten-free, dairy free)

Place the raw hazelnuts onto a large baking sheet and roast in the oven at 200°C for 6-8 minutes or until lightly roasted. Immediately, remove from the oven, place onto a clean tea towel and rub vigorously to remove the brown skins. Place the hazelnuts only into a food processor and blitz to a paste for 1-2 minutes. Next, add in the vanilla, cocoa, sugar and salt and blitz together till combined. For a smooth paste, leave as is, for a `crunchy` paste you can stir in the 50g of extra chopped toasted hazelnuts.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

*Gluten-free – Use the figolla recipe above

*Lactose free – Use Lactose free butter/ margarine instead of normal butter in the pastry. For the filling use the almond, date and orange or chocolate and hazelnut filling.

*Nut-free – Use my date and orange filling recipe instead of the normal almond filling.

*Egg-free – For the pastry, remove the egg yolks and bind the pastry with extra orange juice or milk instead. For the filling, use the date and orange filling or the hazelnut and chocolate filling instead of the normal almond filling.