ANGEL'S KISSES

By BobD

Ingredients

• Makes 6 servings
• 7 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Grated zest (yellow part only without underlying white pith) of 1 lemon
• Grated zest (orange part only without underlying white pith) of 1 orange
• 4 egg whites
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons Vin Santo, Malvasia, Verduzzo or other sweet white wine
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• Confectioners’ sugar
• 1 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts (see Note below)

Details

Servings 6
Adapted from lidiasitaly.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 F and place one rack in the top third and the other in the lower third position.

In the top of a double boiler or a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk 4 of the egg yolks and 3 tablespoons of the sugar until very smooth and doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. Stir in the lemon and orange zest, remove from the heat and whisk until cool.

In a small bowl, whip the egg whites with an electric mixture until foamy. Add 5 tablespoons of the remaining sugar one tablespoon at a time and continue beating until the whites are glossy and form and hold stiff peaks when the beaters are removed.

Sprinkle the flour over the yolk mixture and mix gently until the flour is incorporated. Add about one fourth of the egg whites and with a rubber spatula fold them into the yolk mixture, scraping the egg yolk mixture from the bottom of the bowl over the white, until just a few streaks of white remain. Fold in the remaining whites in the same way.

On each of two non stick cookie sheets, or cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, form six 3 ½-inch circles using 3 tablespoons of batter for each. (A simple way to make nice, even rounds is to trace six 3 1/2-inch circles onto a sheet of parchment paper. Turn the sheet marked side down and use the circles as a guide, pushing the batter to the edges of the circle and smoothing the top flat with a small spreader.)

Bake until the cookies are golden brown and very light when lifted from the baking sheet, about 12 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets–rack to rack and back to front–about half way through the baking. Remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, in the top of a double boiler or a heatproof bowl, beat the 3 remaining egg yolks, the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the Vin Santo until blended. Place over simmering water and continue beating (switching to an electric handheld mixer, if you like) until the mixture is pale yellow, fluffy and falls in thick ribbons when the whisk or beaters are lifted, about 8 minutes if you are whisking by hand or about 4 minutes if you are using an electric mixer. Remove the top of the double boiler or bowl from the heat, set it into a large bowl of ice water and whisk until completely chilled.

In a medium-size chilled bowl whip the cream with an electric mixer until the cream hold stiff peaks when the beaters are lifted. With a rubber spatula, fold the whipped cream into the cooled egg yolk mixture, scraping the egg yolk mixture from the bottom of the bowl over the whipped cream. Fold in the hazelnuts.

Place six of the cookies bottom side up on the work surface. Top each with ½ cup of the zabaglione filling over each and spread into an even layer to cover the whole surface of the cookie. Top with the remaining cookies and place a dollop of the hazelnut filling on top of each cookie sandwich. Sprinkle the tops with confectioners’ sugar.

Note: To toast hazelnuts, spread them out on a baking pan. Toast until the skins begin to separate from the nuts and the nuts are a deep golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool the hazelnuts to room temperature.

Remove as much of the skins from the nuts as possible by rubbing them together inside a clean kitchen towel. Particularly stubborn skins can sometimes be removed by placing the nuts a handful at a time in a coarse sieve and rubbing them against the sieve using a kitchen towel to protect your hands. In either case, it is unlikely you will remove all the skins from all the nuts.