Kwarezimal with rice flour

This morning, before the sun rose I was preparing the popular Maltese Lenten sweet: kwarezimal. My first try with this sweet was last week wherein I followed Mona’s recipe which was without flour and the result was amazing.

Today Mum found her traditional recipe and I decided to stick to it. However, I substituted normal flour with rice flour so this recipe is gluten-free.

Ingredients for 12 pieces:

• 200gr pure ground almonds
• 200gr roasted almonds, crushed coarsely with a hand blender
• 250gr sugar
• 350g rice flour
• 4 tblsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• grated zest of 1 lemon, 1 orange and 1 mandarin
• 4 tblsp flower water
• water as necessary
• rice paper
• honey
• 75g roasted pistachios, roughly chopped

Mix the ground almonds, crushed almonds, sifted flour, sugar, cocoa and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add the finely grated zest of the citrus fruits and the flower water. If the mixture is still dry add water as necessary and mix with hands until a soft dough is formed.

Cover the base of an oven-proof dish with rice paper. Cut dough into approx. 100g pieces, form a cylinder and flatten it between your hands. Place on the rice paper and cook in a pre-heated fan oven of 180 degrees celsius for around 15 minutes until lightly browned but still soft.

Leave to cool slightly then spread with honey and sprinkle with the chopped pistachios.

We would like to hear about your kwarezimal recipes.