Rafioli

Ingredients

The pastry

• 400 gplain flour
• 150 gbutter, softened
• 100 gsugar
• 2eggs
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoonbaking powder
• a pinch of salt
• a splash of milk
• if needed

The almond filling

• 300 gground almonds
• 200 gsugar
• 2egg whites
• grated zest of 1 orange
• 1 tablespoonrose water
• or a splash of maraschino
• a pinch of ground cloves

The icing

• 200 gicing sugar
• 1egg white
• or 2 tablespoons water
• a few drops of lemon juice

To finish

• 1egg, beaten
• to seal

Directions

1. Use the water icing for them instead. One tablespoon is quite enough. Add it cautiously and taste as you go. Mix the ground almonds with the sugar. Combine the dry ingredients thoroughly. Whisk them together properly first. Add the egg whites to the almonds. Add them gradually rather than at once. You may not need both of them. Add the orange zest and rose water. Add the pinch of ground cloves.
2. Work them right through the paste. It should be evenly flavoured throughout. Taste it and adjust the rose water. Cover the paste and let it rest. Give it about thirty full minutes. Beat the butter and sugar together. Beat them until pale and light. Give it a good five full minutes. Add the eggs in one at a time. Add the lemon zest in with them.
3. Beat each egg in before the next. Sift the flour and baking powder in. Bring it together into a soft dough. Work it as little as you possibly can. Stop the moment it comes together. Add a splash of milk if it is dry. Wrap it up and then refrigerate it. Give it at least one full hour. Roll the dough out on a floured surface.
4. Roll it about four millimetres thick. Thin enough to bake right through. Work quickly before it warms up. Cut rounds with a cutter or a glass. About eight centimetres across is usual.
5. Keep every one of them the same size. Put a spoonful of paste on each round. Put it slightly off the centre. Shape the paste into a small log. Keep it well clear of the edges. Brush the edge with beaten egg. Fold the round over into a half-moon. Press the curved edge firmly closed. Press out any air as you seal it.
6. Check the seal all the way round. Press the edge down with a fork. Press evenly all the way round. Set them on lined baking trays. Bake them at one hundred and eighty degrees. Give them about eighteen minutes.
7. Take them out while still pale. Let them cool completely on a rack. Warm pastry melts the icing entirely. They must be stone cold first. Beat the icing sugar with the egg white. It should be thick and spreadable. Add more sugar if it is too loose. Add a drop of water if too stiff. Spread the icing over each pastry. Cover the whole of the top surface.
8. Leave the crimped edge showing if you like. Work quickly as the icing sets fast. Let all of the icing set completely. Egg white icing sets in about an hour. Set all of them out on a plate. Serve coffee or a sweet wine alongside. They keep a week in a sealed tin.

Technique

• The filling is almost entirely almond and the white icing hides it completely, so say clearly what is inside — tree nut allergy can be severe.
• Egg white icing is not cooked and raw egg carries a small salmonella risk: use pasteurised white, or the water icing instead, for anyone pregnant, very young or with low immunity. Egg white sets hardest and is more traditional; water icing sets softer and glossier.
• Let the pastries go stone cold before icing, at least an hour, since warm pastry melts the icing and it runs straight off the sides. Bake them only barely golden too — the white icing shows any dark patches through it.

Substitutions

• Maraschino liqueur, itself a Dalmatian product, replaces the rose water; rose water is genuinely very strong and one tablespoon is enough, since more tastes of soap entirely.
• Some cooks pinch a rope edge rather than crimping with a fork, and some leave the crimped edge showing through the icing; both are genuinely done.

Variations

• Press the air out as you seal the half-moon and check the seal all the way round, since trapped air splits them in the oven; crimping with a fork reinforces the seal as well as decorating it.
• This is a creamed rather than rubbed pastry, giving a softer more biscuit-like base, and it must rest a full hour in the cold — a soft creamed dough is impossible to roll while warm.
• Venice ruled the Boka Kotorska for centuries and left real marks on its cooking, of which almond sweets are one; the name relates to the Italian raviolo, for the enclosed half-moon shape.

History

A Boka Kotorska sweet of Venetian ancestry, baked in Perast and Kotor for weddings and saints’ days.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rafioli?

Rafioli is a dessert from Montenegro: half-moon pastries filled with almond paste and iced white. A Boka Kotorska sweet of Venetian ancestry, baked in Perast and Kotor for weddings and saints’ days.

How long does Rafioli take to make?

Rafioli takes 1 hour plus resting of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes about 24 pastries. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Rafioli?

Yes, within limits. Maraschino liqueur, itself a Dalmatian product, replaces the rose water; rose water is genuinely very strong and one tablespoon is enough, since more tastes of soap entirely. Some cooks pinch a rope edge rather than crimping with a fork, and some leave the crimped edge showing through the icing; both are genuinely done.

What is the most important thing to get right in Rafioli?

Use the water icing for them instead. One tablespoon is quite enough. Add it cautiously and taste as you go. Mix the ground almonds with the sugar. Combine the dry ingredients thoroughly. Whisk them together properly first. Add the egg whites to the almonds. Add them gradually rather than at once. You may not need both of them. Add the orange zest and rose water. Add the pinch of ground cloves.