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gozotoday | FRIDAY • 4 APRIL 2025
FOOD
Kwarezimal
Ingredients
• 250g flour
• 250g almonds, roasted
• 2tbsp cocoa powder
• 200g brown sugar
• Rind of 1 lemon and 1
orange
• 1tsp ground cloves
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 1tsp orange blossom
water
• Honey for topping off
the Kwarezimal
1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C and
prepare a large baking tray by
covering it with lightly oiled
baking paper
2. Blitz the roasted almonds until
you have a roughly crushed
mixture. If you don't have
a food processor, put the
almonds into a plastic bag
and crush with a rolling-pin or
mallet.
3. Sift the flour into a large bowl.
Add the ground almonds
into the mix, as well as the
brown sugar, cocoa, ground
cloves, ground cinnamon and
the rinds of the orange, and
lemon.
4. Add the orange blossom water
and very slowly, start adding
water to the mixture. Work it
into the mixture with a spatula
and start forming a dough
which should be firm; not too
stiff, but not too watery.
5. Work until you have a slightly
firm, elastic dough; do not
overwork the dough.
6. Lightly flour your hands to
prevent extra stickiness and
pull chunks off the dough
and roll them out into thick,
sausage-like shapes, then
flatten them slightly to get an
oblong sort of cookie shape.
7. Place onto your prepared
baking tray and create a
cross-hatch design on the
Kwarezimal by lightly pressing
the blunt edge of a butter knife
into the newly formed shapes.
8. Place in the oven. Leave for
approximately 15 minutes.
They should have a soft,
pliable sort of texture once
they're out of the oven.
9. In the meantime, get the left
over 50g of almonds, and
crush them roughly.
10. Drizzle honey over the
biscuits, adding the roughly
ground almonds on top.
Method
This recipe of Malta's traditional biscuits is a favourite for Lent
