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December 2019 | REDONLINE.CO.UKSnowballs
Across Scandinavia, we spend
time preparing a lot of little
marzipan treats at Christmas.
I love making these because
they look pretty and festive
on a plate alongside biscuits,
cookies and other treats.
MAKES 20
PREPARATION TIME 30 minutes,
plus chilling
COOKING TIME about 5 minutes
O200g marzipan (63% almond
content is the best, but you need
at least a minimum of 50%)
O120g good-quality
white chocolate
O100g desiccated coconut
OFood-safe silver glitter, optional
OCocktail sticks
1 Cut the marzipan into
20 pieces. Roll each piece into
a ball, then leave in the fridge
so they are cold when you add
the chocolate – this allows them
to dry quicker.
2 Temper the white chocolate:
the easiest way is to melt half in
a bain-marie, then remove from
the heat and stir in the remaining
half to cool it down quickly.
3 Gently insert a cocktail stick
into a marzipan ball, then dip
it in the melted chocolate so
that it has a thin covering. Roll
the ball in the desiccated coconut
and leave to set on baking
parchment. Repeat with the
remaining marzipan balls.
4 Decorate with a little food-safe
silver glitter, if you wish. If you
want to flavour the marzipan,
simply add a bit of finely grated
orange zest when rolling the
pieces. For an adults-only
version, 2tbsp Amaretto works
well stirred into the chocolate.
For a more decadent snowball,
roll the marzipan into pieces
of Viennese nougat.
MAKES about 30
PREPARATION TIME 40 minutes, plus chilling
COOKING TIME about 20 minutesO170g caster sugar, plus 1½tbsp
O200g butter, plus 2tbsp, at room
temperature, plus extra to grease
O275g strong white flour
O100g ground almonds
O1tsp baking powder
O1 medium egg
OA pinch of salt
OSeeds from 1 vanilla pod1 Grease and line a few baking sheets
with baking parchment. Mix all of the sugar
and butter (only briefly until just combined),
then add the remaining ingredients and
mix until you have an even dough (you
can do this in a food processor or by hand).
Do not overmix. Your dough needs to be soft
enough to push through a piping bag nozzle.
It is a hard dough – in Denmark, most peopleuse a special metal case to push the dough
through a medium star nozzle. A fabric
piping bag is also good. If you find it really
hard but have a good-sized nozzle, you
can simply push it through with your thumb.
2 Pipe out the dough 8-10cm lengths,
then carefully connect into circles and
place on the prepared baking sheets.
Make sure the dough is no thicker than
your little finger, as they will spread
a bit during baking. Put the baking
sheets in the fridge if you have space
for about 30min before baking.
3 Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan)
mark 6. Put a chilled baking sheet of cookies
in the oven and bake for 8-10min, or until
the slightest tinge of golden brown appears
at the edges. Remove from the oven and allow
to cool before eating. Repeat until everything
is baked. Transfer to a wire rack; leave to
cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
For a citrus flavour, add the grated zest of one
orange when mixing the dough in step 1.Vanilla rings
Every Danish family has a recipe for these little vanilla wreath cookies. The dough
has to be quite cold in order to achieve the ridges on the final product.