M’hanncha

Serves 12 Desserts and puddings

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Method

To make the almond paste, blanch the nuts by placing them in a bowl of cold water and heating them in the microwave for 3 minutes. Drain the nuts and leave them to cool, then remove the skins.

Grind the gum arabic and 1tsp of the caster sugar to a powder using a mortar and pestle or blender. Place in a medium-sized bowl. Working in batches, grind the almonds with small amounts of the remaining caster sugar, by hand or in the blender, until fine. Add the nuts and sugar to the bowl with the gum arabic and icing sugar, and mix well. Next, add the soft butter and fragrant water and mix thoroughly. Cover and chill.

Divide the chilled almond paste into eight balls. Divide each one in half and roll each ball into a 12.5-15cm pencil-thin cylinder.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/ 375°F/Gas 5. Place two filo sheets side by side, slightly overlapping on a clean work surface. The total width should be about 35cm. Use a little beaten egg yolk to seal the two leaves together where they overlap and lightly brush with melted butter.

Place two of the cylinders of almond paste along the lower edge of the overlapped leaves, about 3cm from the bottom of the pastry, and roll up the leaves tightly, tucking in the ends. Shape into a coil and place in the centre of a lightly buttered ring mould set on a baking tray. Repeat with the remaining pastry leaves and cylinders of almond paste, extending the coil in the shape of a coiled snake, to fill the ring. With the palm of your hand, gently flatten the snake to fill the ring.

In a small bowl, add ½tsp ground cinnamon to the remaining egg yolk. Lightly brush the top of the pastry and in between the coils with the egg mixture. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Carefully invert, with the ring, onto another baking tray. Scatter the chopped almonds on top, if using, and bake for a further 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully slide the pastry, with the ring, onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

Serve warm or lightly reheated. If you didn’t use chopped almonds, decorate the cake with a light dusting of icing sugar and a dribbling of ground cinnamon carefully applied in straight lines to form a lattice pattern.