Marzipan Chocolate cookies

What a way to bring in a New Year with some sweet marzipan goodness.

Ingredients:

Dark Cooking Chocolate (for drizzling)

1/2 kg of finely ground sugar

1/2 kg of icing sugar

1/2 kg of cashew nuts

4 egg whites

1 tsp Almond essence

2 tsp rum

Egg yolk (for brushing)

Recipe:

For the Marzipan filling:

1.     Grind 1/2 kg of finely ground sugar and 1/2 kg of cashew nuts together in small batches and place the powdered mixture in a big bowl. Add 1/2 kg of icing sugar to the mixture.

2.     Add almond essence and rum to the mixture.

3.     Beat 4 egg whites till firm and mix little at a time with the mixture till a dough forms.

Roll the marzipan dough with a rolling pin to about 1/2" thickness.  Line two baking sheets with butter paper.  Cut out the dough with the cookie cutters of your choice (I recommend small ones) and set them on the baking sheets, set a little bit apart.  Let the sheets sit out, uncovered, 6 to 7 hours, or overnight. 

After the sheets have sat out and dried, preheat your oven to 375.  Brush each piece with a little bit of the egg yolk and bake for a few minutes to give them a little color and a crust.  

Cool on the sheets, and then store in an airtight container.

Melt the cooking chocolate in the microwave for one minute and stir till smooth. Drizzle the cookies with a little chocolate for a perfect ending.

Marzipan Chocolate with a dash of Hazelnut !

Marzipan we either love it or love to hate it….I absolutely love this cashew filled goodness.

Ingredients:

Dark Cooking Chocolate (for Dipping)

1/2 kg of finely ground sugar

1/2 kg of icing sugar

1/2 kg of cashew nuts

4 egg whites

1 tsp Almond essence

2 tsp rum

Recipe:

For the Marzipan filling:

1.     Grind 1/2 kg of finely ground sugar and 1/2 kg of cashew nuts together in small batches and place the powdered mixture in a big bowl. Add 1/2 kg of icing sugar to the mixture.

2.     Add almond essence and rum to the mixture.

3.     Beat 4 egg whites till firm and mix little at a time with the mixture till a dough forms.

4.     Make small balls and dip into melted cooking chocolate a dry on a rack. Grind a handful of hazelnuts and sprinkle a little on each chocolate.

Baked Garlic potatoes with olives

We do love our French fries when we go out to eat but they are so rich in calories that we feel real guilty on consumption. So I thought why not bake the potatoes and see if it stops my cravings for fries. And voila !! It did…..the baked recipe below is as yumm as the fried option. Do try them.

Ingredients:

2 medium sized Potatoes

2 medium sized onion

½ cup green olives

2 Tbsp oil

1 tsp Garlic paste

1 tsp mixed herbs

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 deg C.
2. Chop the potato into fine slices. Chop the onions to fairly large pieces. Mix in a mixing bowl the potatoes, onions and olives. Add the oil and herbs and garlic paste and mix well until the potatoes are coated well.
3. Grease a large flat pan with little oil and spread the mixture into it and place it in the oven for ten minutes.
4. Remove and turn the potatoes upside down on the pan and put again for another  10 mins and serve hot. 

What’s your favorite way to enjoy Nutella??? ·

• Nutella with Toast?
• Nutella on Bagels?
• Nutella with Waffles?
• Nutella on marshmallows?
• Nutella stuffed cupcakes?
• Nutella sandwiched cookies?
• Nutella dipped bread-sticks?
• Nutella Banana crepes?
• Nutella Sandwiches?
• Nutella topped Brownies?
• Nutella dipped Donuts?
• Nutella with crackers?
• Nutella and churros?
• Nutella dipped chips?

My favourite way to enjoy Nutella is to dip my finger right into the jar and lick the nutella right off my fingers ;) Yummmmmmmyyyy

Nutella Fun Facts:

1. 1 Tbsp of Nutella contains 100 kcals which takes half an hour of walking to burn. Completely worth it right ? ;)
2. Feb 5^th is celebrated as ‘World Nutella day’
3. More than 70 million hazelnuts are used worldwide each day in the production of Nutella
4. Nutella® spread, in its earliest form, was created in the 1940s by Mr. Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker and founder of the Ferrero company. At the time, there was very little chocolate because cocoa was in short supply due to World War II rationing. So Mr. Ferrero used hazelnuts, which are plentiful in the Piedmont region of Italy (northwest), to extend the chocolate supply.
5. Nutella® is pronounced as "new-tell-uh" and not “nut-tell-uh”