Sweet almonds, skins on
Whole sweet almonds add distinct nut pieces to cakes and biscuits. For sbrisolona, chop them coarsely rather than grinding them into flour.
- Choose the form
- Whole skin-on kernels retain their brown skin and can be chopped into pieces; blanched almonds have the skin removed, while almond flour is finely ground.
- Sweet, not bitter
- Use culinary sweet almonds for recipes calling for mandorle dolci; bitter-almond extract is a separate flavoring.
- Mantuan baking
- Sbrisolona combines chopped sweet almonds with wheat flour, maize flour, sugar and fat.
Keep some texture
Chop the kernels into uneven pieces for a crumb cake or biscuit. Stop before they become a fine meal; larger pieces remain visible in the baked crumb.
In sbrisolona
Chopped almonds give sbrisolona its coarse, nutty crumb, alongside wheat and maize flours, sugar, lemon zest, egg yolks, butter and lard. Leave the baked cake in its pan until cool before breaking it into pieces.
Cook with it
Choose plain kernels
For a skin-on version, buy whole, unsalted sweet almonds and chop them at home. Check the package for the ingredient and form; almond flour and bitter-almond flavoring do a different job.
Worth knowing next
Sources and citations (7)Last checked October 2026
- Provincia di Mantova tourism portal — retained sbrisolona-formula
- Provincia di Mantova tourism portal — retained sbrisolona-profile
- Alfrus S.r.l., own processing descriptions — retained alfrus-forms
- Carmosino Mandorle, own product — retained carmosino-flour
- Alfrus S.r.l., own processing descriptions — retained alfrus-blanching
- Eska S.r.l., own product — retained eska-bitter-flavour
- Eurovanille/Vanifolia storefront, exact page identity to inspect — retained eurovanille-extract
