Audris’s Black Sesame Ricciarelli

While living in Florence, Italy, I was able to visit the medieval city of Siena, where I indulged in a box of the city’s signature treats, called ricciarelli. These almond cookies have a powdered sugar crackly top with a soft and chewy interior. One year I brought a box home for Christmas along with a recipe I got from Le Cordon Bleu while taking courses there. My family devoured the cookies, and my sister, Audris, and I made them pretty much nonstop for the next year.

Fast forward