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Halal-conscious recipe

Halal-conscious figolla

Maltese Easter almond biscuit without lard or brandy, with alcohol-free flavouring and icing colour checks.

  • Cuisine Maltese
  • Meal Dessert
  • Difficulty Moderate
  • Yield 8 medium figolli
  • Time 123 min

Editorially specified from cited technique and ingredient pages — pending kitchen verification. Not a photographed cook-test.

Printable view
Iced Maltese figolla pastry, from our analysis page photograph
Existing isithalal.food analysis-page photograph — not an original recipe photo.

Why Halal checks matter here

Bakery fat may be lard; some recipes add brandy or liqueur; icing colours may use carmine; cheap margarine can hide animal fat.

Figolla is Malta’s Easter almond sandwich biscuit. This method uses butter shortcrust, an alcohol-free almond paste, and icing that you colour only after reading the bottle. It is a home specification, not a claim that every bakery figolla is made this way.

Pair it with the figolla analysis, vanilla extract, carmine, and the Malta hub.

Halal-critical ingredients

  • Fat Lard is Haram; unnamed margarine may be animal or emulsifier-ambiguous. Use packed butter with a dairy ingredient list, or a vegetable shortening named as such.
  • Flavouring Brandy, liqueur, and many vanilla extracts are alcohol-based. Use lemon zest, orange-flower water, vanilla bean, or a glycerine/alcohol-free vanilla labelled as such. See Vanilla extract and Wine.
  • Icing colour Pink/red gels may use carmine (E120). Read the colour bottle; skip insect red if your practice avoids it.

Safe substitutes

  • Brandy or liqueur in the almond paste → Orange-flower water, lemon zest, or alcohol-free vanilla
  • Alcohol-based vanilla extract → Scraped vanilla bean or glycerine-based vanilla Baking does not excuse added spirits.
  • Carmine icing → Uncoloured icing, or a plant/synthetic colour without E120

Allergens

gluten, egg, milk, tree nuts (almonds)

Ingredients

Biscuit dough

  • 350 g (2¾ cups) plain flour
  • 175 g (12 tbsp) unsalted butter, cold, cubed (not lard; not anonymous bakery margarine)
  • 100 g (½ cup) caster sugar
  • 40 g (2 yolks) egg yolks
  • 4 g (1 lemon) finely grated lemon zest
  • 5 ml (1 tsp) alcohol-free vanilla (bean paste or glycerine-based essence)

Almond filling

  • 250 g (2½ cups) ground almonds
  • 150 g (1¼ cups) icing sugar
  • 30 g (1 white) egg white
  • 5 ml (1 tsp) orange-flower water or extra lemon zest (not brandy)

Icing

  • 200 g (1⅔ cups) icing sugar
  • 30 ml (2 tbsp) water
  • 2 ml (a few drops) plant-based food colouring without carmine/E120, optional

Method

  1. Rub in the fat. Rub cold butter into flour until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in caster sugar and lemon zest. Bind with egg yolks and alcohol-free vanilla, adding a teaspoon of cold water only if the dough will not come together. Do not use lard. Avoid unlabelled bakery margarine.
  2. Chill. Flatten into a disc, wrap, and chill 40 minutes. Cold dough cuts cleaner shapes (people, fish, hearts) without tearing.
  3. Almond paste. Mix ground almonds, icing sugar, egg white, and orange-flower water to a firm paste. It should hold a ball. This is a standard almond sandwich filling; skip brandy, anisette, or ‘essence of rum’.
  4. Cut and sandwich. Roll dough 4–5 mm thick. Cut pairs of matching shapes. Spread 1–1.5 cm almond paste on one piece, leaving a 8 mm border. Top with the second piece and press the edges. Re-roll scraps once only.
  5. Bake. Bake at 180 °C (fan 160 °C) for 16–18 minutes until the edges are just gold. The centres should stay pale. Cool completely on a rack before icing or the icing will slide.
  6. Ice. Mix icing sugar with water to a thick coat. Colour only with plant or synthetic colours that do not list carmine, cochineal, or E120. Leave white if the bottle is vague. See Carmine for the scholarly split.

Editorial method notes

Method specified editorially from standard shortcrust and almond-paste technique plus this site's Figolla, Vanilla extract, Carmine, and Lard pages. Not kitchen-tested in this environment; pending kitchen verification.

Technique and ingredient sources

  1. Maltese food and delicacies — VisitMalta — VisitMalta 15 August 2026

    Places figolla among Maltese festive sweets. Not a fat or flavouring specification for every bakery.

  2. Shortcrust pastry technique — BBC Food — BBC Food 15 August 2026

    Cold fat, light handling, and chilling — the biscuit casing here is shortcrust, not puff.

  3. Figolla analysis — isithalal.food — isithalal.food 15 August 2026

    Fat, alcohol flavouring, icing additives, and bakery checks.

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