Lady’s kisses are delicious pastries of Piedmontese origin, consisting of two semi-spherical biscuits joined by a luscious chocolate ganache. This is my version, also suitable for those with specific dietary needs, because, in addition to almond flour, I have used a universal gluten-free flour mix, but it can also be prepared using rice flour or all-purpose flour. They are perfect as a gift idea, for Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, to accompany a meal, coffee, and tea. Gluten-free lady’s kisses are very easy to make and keep well for several days in a tin box.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 30 lady's kisses
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall, Winter and Spring
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1 1/4 cups universal gluten-free flour mix
- 2 egg whites
- 7 tbsp melted butter
- to taste grated zest of one lemon and one orange
- 1/4 tsp fine salt
- 3/4 cup gluten-free powdered sugar
- 5 1/4 oz 70% dark chocolate
- 3/4 cup milk
Steps
Let’s prepare the dough for the lady’s kisses.
Before starting, I would like to clarify that this recipe does not include adding sugar to the lady’s kisses dough because almond flour is already sweet.
1- Beat the egg whites until stiff.
2- In a large bowl, mix together the almond flour, salt, gluten-free flour, and finely grated zest of half a lemon and half an orange.
3- Melt the butter over low heat, immediately add it to the flours and mix well with a steel whisk or a wooden spoon.
4- Then, gradually add the beaten egg whites (using a steel whisk), gently mixing with an upward motion until a smooth, thick, firm but not hard mixture is obtained.
5- Prepare two large baking sheets, cover them with parchment paper, preheat the oven to 320°F, and start shaping our pastries.
6- Using two teaspoons, take an amount of mixture a little smaller than a walnut and try to shape it as spherical as possible, place it on the parchment paper, and continue with the others. Space them about one and a half fingers apart as they will tend to spread slightly during baking.
7- Bake the first tray for about 15 minutes in a static oven, checking often, as not all ovens are the same. In fact, verify that the bottom of the biscuits is just golden while the top should remain light (as shown in the third photo at the top right, where you can see both the color of the bottom of two pastries and the color they should have on the surface). Remove them from the oven and bake the second tray
8- Dust them with plenty of powdered sugar as soon as they come out of the oven.
9- Prepare the ganache after the second tray of biscuits is cooked.
Roughly chop the chocolate. Heat the milk in a saucepan. Before it comes to a boil, turn off the heat, add the chocolate pieces, and stir to melt completely.
Now we can assemble our gluten-free lady’s kisses. With these quantities, we should obtain about 60 biscuits, of which only 30 will be spread with chocolate on the base, then attached to the remaining cookies without cream, two by two. Continue until all pairs of kisses are finished. Now we can enjoy them in all their goodness.
Extra idea. We can also use a white chocolate or pistachio ganache to make the kisses always different and delicious. I recommend preparing these exquisite pastries the day before; they will be even tastier.
