The Land of Sweets: Marzipan Mice
As our final destination in this year's block of the month is the Land of Sweets, I'll be sharing some special recipes for sweet treats that you can create at home with little helpers. Our first recipe takes its inspiration from this month's block, the Mouse King. I've combined the recipe for traditional Bethmännchen almond biscuits, found at German Christmas markets, with some darling little mouse cookies I discovered on the Canadian Living website.
To make a dozen marzipan mice you will need...
100 g almond marzipan*
50 g icing sugar
50 g ground almonds
25 g self-raising flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon of rose water (optional)
To decorate your mice you will need a handful of blanched whole almonds split in half for the ears, dried cranberries or raisins snipped in half for the eyes and a nest of dried egg noodles for the tails
* you will need good quality almond paste, that's at least 50% almonds, rather than more sugary marzipan.
You can download a printable PDF of the recipe here
Making the dough...
1. Break the almond marzipan into small pieces in a mixing bowl. Sift over the icing sugar and flour and then add the ground almonds before rubbing them together - as if you were making pastry - to break down the marzipan (a).
2. Separate the egg, and set the yolk aside for later, then add the rose water to the white and whisk them together. Add one tablespoon of the egg white mixture to the dry ingredients and combine to form the dough (b). Knead the dough and shape it into a ball, then cover in cling film and leave in the fridge for at least an hour or, as I did, overnight.
To make the mice...
3. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees/350 Fahrenheit.
4. Roll the dough into 12/13 little balls, about an inch in diameter, and arrange them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Using your thumb and forefinger, gently pinch one end to make the mouse's nose. Add two almond ears, snippets of raisin/dried cranberry for the eyes and a piece of egg noodle for the tail (c).
5. Whisk the egg yolk with a teaspoon of water and brush over the mice, then bake them for 15 minutes until they're golden (d).
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Scented rosewater is a traditional flavouring for Bethmännchen, but its distinctive taste may not be liked by your little helpers, so you could easily leave it out.
Marzipan mice make delightful handmade gifts: just pop them into paper cases and choose a pretty box to parcel them up in (mine were from Sostrene Greene).
To keep them fresh, you should probably put them into a food-safe cellophane bag before you box them, but I took mine along to a Christmas lunch as soon as they'd cooled down, so there was no need.
Happy baking,
Nicola xx
