Pine cones with fine cocoa chocolate

They look like little treasures from the winter forest – our pine cones with fine flavour cocoa. The fine marzipan aroma harmonises perfectly with the bold note of the dark single-origin chocolate, while the golden roasted almond flakes give the biscuits an elegant structure and delicate crunch. These are biscuits for the festive season that not only look wonderful, but taste fantastic too.

Recipe for approx. 25 biscuits
Preparation time: 1 hour + 20 min. baking time + 1 hour chilling time

Ingredients:

100 g soft butter or vegetable margarine
1 pinch salt
100 g sugar
80 g marzipan paste
220 g type 405 flour
½ tsp baking powder
80 g flaked almonds
50 g Costa Rica chocolate block 75 %
Icing sugar for dusting

Method:

1. Cream the butter, pinch of salt and sugar until the mixture turns pale.
2. Tear the marzipan into small pieces and gradually stir into the butter mixture.
3. Mix the flour with the baking powder and sift into a bowl. Then stir into the butter mixture a spoonful at a time until a smooth dough forms.
4. Cover the dough and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
5. Roll out the dough to a thickness of approx. 1/2 cm on a floured work surface and cut out biscuits using an oval or drop-shaped cutter.
6. Line baking trays with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180 °C top/bottom heat.
7. Arrange the biscuits on the trays with space between them. Carefully and patiently press the flaked almonds into the biscuits from top to bottom in a fan shape. Leave the bottom third of the biscuits bare.
8. Bake the biscuits on the middle shelf for approx. 10 min. until the almonds are lightly coloured.
9. Carefully place the finished pine cones on a wire rack and leave to cool.
10. Roughly chop the block chocolate and melt in a saucepan over a bain-marie.
11. Carefully dip the bottom third of the biscuits into the melted chocolate and allow the excess to drip off. Place the biscuits back on the wire rack and leave to set for approx. 30 to 45 min.

Tip: Dust the finished pine cones with a little icing sugar to make these little works of art look as though they have just been sprinkled with fresh snow from the winter forest.