Easter Lamb of Favara, a traditional recipe from Sicilian cuisine. The Favara Easter lamb is a typical sweet of Sicilian Easter, a very well-known and appreciated recipe and a richer, more sumptuous variant of the classic marzipan (pasta reale) lamb, distinguished both by its appearance and by the tasty pistachio marzipan filling. This small masterpiece of pastry art, like many other sweet delicacies throughout Sicily, originates from convent pastry making, intended for the tables of the aristocracy and high clergy on Easter or other important festivities, just like the Sicilian cassata, martorana fruit, ricotta cannoli, cassatelle or minnuzze, olivette and many more.
Let’s go to the kitchen now and discover how to make the Favara Easter lamb. But first, remember that if you want to stay updated on my recipes you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here) and find many more in my book “La Sicilia è in tavola”.
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- Difficulty: Difficult
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Day
- Preparation time: 2 Hours
- Portions: 5 Pieces
- Cooking methods: No-cook
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Easter
Ingredients to make the Favara lamb
- 5 1/4 cups almond flour
- 4 1/6 cups powdered sugar
- 5 1/3 tbsp glucose syrup
- 5 drops almond extract
- 2 drops vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp water
- 2 cups pistachios (shelled, unsalted)
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 2 2/3 tbsp glucose syrup
- 2 tbsp water
- as needed food coloring
- as needed cornstarch (for the molds)
Tools
- Mold
- Piping bag
- Star tips
- Bowls
- Brushes
Preparation
For this recipe you will need pure powdered sugar without added starch; I therefore recommend making it at home with a good blender. I use a Smoothie Maker.
To make the marzipan lamb you could also use the hot method used for the real-paste of the cassatelle or minnuzze, which is made without glucose, but I don’t recommend it because marzipan tends to dry out and become hard.
This amount is for 4 lambs with a 200 g base each, plus the weight of the marzipan curls.
Before starting the actual preparation of the lamb, I recommend preparing the pistachio flour that will be used for the pistachio paste. After purchasing unsalted pistachios, place them in a pan and toast them, stirring often, until you smell the characteristic aroma of toasted nuts—do not burn them; just lightly brown them (I do not peel them, leaving the skin for a more intense flavor).
Alternatively, roast them in an air fryer at 320°F for 5 minutes, or a little longer in the oven, without increasing the temperature. Let them cool and grind them finely in a food processor such as a Bimby or the same blender mentioned above.
Let’s move on to the pastes, starting with marzipan. Once the powdered sugar is ready, mix it together with the almond flour, add the glucose syrup (it will help keep the marzipan soft), the flavorings and the water.
Mix everything and then start working vigorously by hand so that the almond flour releases its oil and the sugar dissolving makes the mass more workable. Do not add more water; knead until you obtain a plastic, moldable dough. The process is the same for the pistachio paste:
mix the sugar and pistachio flour, add glucose syrup and water, and work the mixture.
Now it’s time to form the lambs with the molds: brush both halves with plenty of cornstarch, roll a cord of marzipan and place it in the mold, shaping it to fill it completely and form a fairly large hollow.
along the entire “L” that forms the lamb’s body. Pull another cord with the pistachio paste and lay it in the hollow without pressing it. Shape the second half of the lamb in the same way as the first.
Let the two halves match and press well so there are no empty spaces; press the base as well and unmold the lamb.
Remove the excess paste with the tip of a knife and prepare the curls: crumble about 5.3 oz of marzipan with your fingers (approximately 150 g), collect it in a bowl and add a little water—just enough to obtain a soft but not too wet mixture. Fill a piping bag fitted with a star tip with this mixture and decorate each lamb with small marzipan tufts.
Leave to dry in the air for 24 hours before proceeding with decoration.
Then finish with the accoutrements (I made mine at home with red and gold paper and small wooden skewers cut from spring roll sticks) and red ribbons.
You could replace the glucose with orange blossom honey, but I do not recommend it. Using glucose syrup will keep the marzipan softer for longer and you won’t get the overpowering taste of honey, which could mask the aroma of the almonds.
To preserve the Favara Easter lamb, before wrapping it in the appropriate cellophane baskets, give it a spritz of spirits for pastries.
Marzipan keeps for several months, but I recommend enjoying it within a month so that the flavor does not deteriorate. You can gift the lamb accompanied by martorana fruit.
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