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      Christmas sweet treats

      December 9th
      Marzipan bites

      Norwegians love to have nibbles and sweet treats ready and available for when both planned and unexpected guests arrive in the month of December.  It is traditional to make your own marzipan and in our home we do that every year in the last week leading up to Christmas.  We make marzipan fruits from scratch beginning with blanching our own almonds.  But a quicker and cheats way of having marzipan ready for guests works just as well and I show you here how:

       
      Chocolate marzipan

      Melt good quality chocolate minimum 70% cocoa

      
      Roll ready bought marzipan into bite size balls

      
      Carefully dip them in the melted chocolate, being sure to cover

      
      Place on a greaseproof paper to cool the chocolate and allow it to set

      Adorable marzipan bites


      
      Once the chocolate has set, eat and enjoy
      

      Unfortunately one of my children ate the punnet of raspberries I had bought to have alongside these marzipan treats.  The red dotted amongst the darkness of the chocolate looks simply elegant and the slight tartness and juiciness of the berries with the sweetness of the treats works exceptionally well,
      I dare you, give it a go.
       
      
        What have you baked and made so far for Christmas? 
       
       
      

      18 comments:

      1. In the midst of the chaos I made the Peppernotter! Delicious. I was about to say they went down a storm! But that would be in bad taste. The family are ok though and luckily have somewhere to live for the next six months until their house is sorted. I'm just waiting on my insurance company. Thank you for your kind words. I'll give these a miss though if you don't mind. I really don't like marzipan. X

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        Replies
        1. So glad to hear from you Jules. Popped back to your blog last night to see if there was an update and read that your in laws to be wi be staying somewhere whilst the house dries out. Constantly thinking of you and yours. Glad you lived the peppernotter and don't mind at all that you miss out on the marzipan ;) what about covering marshmallows with chocolate. Would Bear like that???? I love encouraging naughty treats...

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      2. Replies
        1. This is not a good month for the waistline though, sigh ... But yummy nevertheless

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      3. I used to hate marzipan when I was little, but now I love it! I add it to my mince pies! Yum. I'll def be rolling the off cuts in chocolate now! Thank you for popping by my little part of the Internet xx

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        Replies
        1. Now adding to mince pies is a genius idea. We have a mince pie bake off each year. I may just do this. Thanks for the tip

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      4. What a perfect idea!
        Happy countdown to Cristmas!

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      5. Simple but Yummy ....How lovely!
        ...We have fun making Marzipan/almond paste at this time of year-
        I love it when the Almonds pop out of their skins...I get both girls to help so it's fun rather than a chore!
        We tried adding Cocoa powder to some last year and made a Chocolate version ..not traditional but scrummy...

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        Replies
        1. We love the 'popping' too. Great idea about the cocoa

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      6. Oh these look delicious! What a lovely tradition. I have done fudge and cupcakes so far. It will be the turn of the mince pie on Saturday, the smell of baking means Christmas to me. Just for information,Raspberries rarely make it into bakes here too, I can't resist them either ha! X

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        Replies
        1. There is something about raspberries, isn't there Lisa x

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      7. I love marzipan and it brings so many wonderful childhood memories; especially the ones going to the pastry shop where I was able to pick one every time we went there.

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      8. What a lovely evocative memory Olivia, thank you for sharing

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      9. Delicious! I adore marzipan and always accidentally buy too much so that there is some for eating! You Scandinavians and Norwegians have some wonderfully delicious Christmas traditions1 xx

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        Replies
        1. It's true Amy they know how to stretch Christmas out and eat well.

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      10. They look so yummy!
        Hugs,
        Meredith

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      I will always read all comments and will try to reply but it may take me a couple of days, do please pop back and lets get a conversation going...