This Spanish recipe is a Christmas favourite of mine and the magical combination of nuts, citrus and sugar is a real crowd pleaser. They are quick and easy to make, especially if you have a tribe of little helpers! If you can resist eating them as soon as they’re baked, they also make a great foodie gift for friends and family.
As a child I would stand on a chair and help by rolling the little almond balls in the pine nuts. But the best bit was waiting until they were all done as I would pick up any nuts that had dropped on the table and eat them off my sticky little fingers when I thought no one was looking!
Shortcut tip: You can use ready ground almonds instead of whole almonds if you prefer.
Ingredients (for 15-20 truffles)
- 120g whole blanched almonds
- 90 g caster sugar
- 90-120 g pine nuts
- finely grated zest of 1/2 orange
- 1 egg white
- icing sugar for dusting
Method
- Preheat oven to 160C/ 300F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
- Put almonds and caster sugar into a food processor and grind to a fine powder.
- Transfer to a clean bowl and add orange zest.
- Whisk the egg white until it forms soft peaks. Add enough egg to the mixture to make a smooth firm paste.
- Take pieces of dough about the size of a small walnut and roll into little balls.
- Spread out the pine nuts onto a large plate and coat the almond balls by rolling in the nuts.
- Once done place them on the baking sheet and bake in hot oven for about 10 minutes.
- Allow truffles to cool before dusting with a little icing sugar and placing in little paper cases.
- Enjoy with a glass of sweet wine or coffee.
Merry Christmas! 🙂
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These sound wonderful and I love the combination of almonds with pine nuts. So simple to make and certainly a unique treat for the holidays…