FRANKFURTER BETHMÄNNCHEN - Marzipan Biscuit

This post was supposed to be published before Christmas,  I was not procrastinating this time. I was patient and wanted to think and absorb all the learning that went with this post, before I hit the publish button. It all started with my urge to bake German cookies that I had had a couple of years ago on my trip to Germany (I mention it in this post).  It was made from marzipan or almond flour. A query on FB let to a thread of recipes, but none of them were the one I was looking for. Thanks to Rumki (one of my friends on FB), who searched and found the recipe for me. I was really happy with the recipe and the outcome, it was exactly what I had in mind (the taste, texture and flavor) 

The next day I set up the props to take some pictures, something was amiss, after spending a couple of hours, I reached out to my photo critique forum on FB. I got a lot of inputs and was a bit confused on which one to go with. By the time the sun had already set, so that gave me some time to sink in all the ideas. That evening Sophia (a new member of the photo critique forum) pinged me on FB; at the time, I hardly knew her. We started talking about my pictures, and the first thing she told me was my strainer didn’t fit the picture: she asked me to replace it with an aged one. (See the picture of the shiny strainer). After a bit of research, I did manage to batter my poor strainer to give it a look of character. (You see what I did with it ;)) You don’t want to know the family’s reaction to this, so let’s just say that they are still recovering from it.  Sophia spent at least 2-3 hours trying to critique and guide me through my image. She’s an amazing artist: here is a link to her site. She gave me a lot of input on light, angle, and props and we talked for a long time about photography. There was really nothing in it for her, but she still spent the time and made the effort to help me understand the art behind the science. The images above are not exactly what I had in mind, they aren’t as good as I would have liked it to be, but they are special, as I made a new friend :) Thank you  Sophia for talking the time and making the effort. I call the whole exercise a brain work out.  

handful of blanched almonds 250g marzipan 

2-4 tbsp almond meal 1 egg white 1 tbsp flour 100g icing sugar plus more for dusting couple of drops of rose water

Knead together the marzipan, the egg white, the flour and the icing sugar, add the almond meal to make sure the dough is not too wet, if you do not need almond meal that’s fine. The recipe does not call for it, but I did need it as the dough was too wet. 

Make approx. 20-22 balls from the mixture. Press blanched almond into each one. 

Place the balls on a baking sheet and allow to dry at room temperature overnight. Bake in a preheated oven at 250°C for approx. five minutes until golden brown.

Sprinkle icing sugar ( optional). That’s the picture without the icing, but had to include the stainer ;)

I really am hoping to have a post up before the New Year, if not, wishing you guys A very Happy New Year. Lots n lots of love n hugs.