New Recipe – Marzipan Cookies Marguerite Louise Orléans-Medici

I don´t know how the weather is wherever you are in the moment. Here it has been cold since many weeks and we have made the best of it. Last weekend it was grey, cold, and muddy, so we invited a friend for tea. Nothing more inspiring than to take a cup of tea and cookies and to discuss anything. In our special case it has almost always to do with 18^th century as my husband and I love this period very much. Art, architecture, music, literature, theatre, manners, even cuisine and patisserie peaked out and were never again appreciated that much as a whole thing. Life was a total work of art.

Back to today´s topic – the recipe, patisserie and marzipan. When Marguerite-Louise d´Orléans married duke Cosimo III there were many feast meals and the patissiers did their best to impress the many royal and princely guests. Pine nuts were arranged in a flower, (a sweet dish) was covered with a rainbow of colored jelly, there were sugar coronets picked in gold leaf, different kinds of sugar meat, pistachios and marzipan … – You need, of course, not be a member of a royal family to get marzipan today. There are many recipes on Internet, I made marzipan cookies as they go very well with the tea.

• Ingredients (serves 2-4)

• 200 g almonds (if you take blanched almonds the marzipan will be white, I took almonds with their peelings so the cookies became light brown)
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• 3 tbsp xylitol (as sweetener, must be organic!)
• 40 ml water
• ½ tsp almond aroma (bitter)
• fresh grated orange and/or lemon zests (organic fruits!)

Mix the almonds in the blender until they become meal. We like it coarse, so I don´t overdo it. Put it in a bowl, add the sugar and mix.

Add water, aromas and orange/lemon zests and mix everything very well. Put the dough for at least ½ hour into the fridge – it will be better to handle then.

Preheat the oven up to 150° C.

Make a roll of the dough and slice it (1-1,5 cm). Put the cookies on a tray (layered with parchment paper) and bake for about 15-20 minutes, the thicker the cookies are the longer the baking time.

Take the cookies from the tray and set them aside until they are cool (at least one hour). Frost with sugar and cocoa powder.

I served the cookies with a kind of chocolate mousse which was not very photogene so I only put some drops onto the plate to fix the blueberries.

Chocolate mousse: Heat ½ cup of plant milk (I took oak milk), set aside and put some 30 g dark chocolate (70 % or more) in. It will melt within 2-3 minutes. Stir well until it is homogeneous. Let cool for at least 1 hour in the fridge. The colder, the thicker and the more delicious it will be. Arrange the cookies on a plate with the mousse and with berries. They are … delicious!!!