Tunisian Marzipan Flowers: petits fours as simple as can be

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This article was published 13/12/2016 (3579 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every year the Free Press offers our readers our 12 Days of Christmas Cookies, which we hope provide some great recipes to try or inspire home bakers to consider a new twist on old holiday favourites.

This year, starting yesterday and running every day, Monday through Saturday, until Dec. 24, we’ll count down toward Christmas with 12 selections from the Washington Post’s annual holiday baked goods guide, which include vegan and gluten-free recipes, as well as some chocolatey classics.

These petits fours are about as simple to make as can be — especially when you use store-bought marzipan — but they DO call for some artistic ability. We studded balls of marzipan with pumpkin seeds and pine nuts, and liked the look of a combination of both.

Tunisian Marzipan Flowers

•  22 servings

NOTE: Watch these treats closely in the oven.

Ingredients
Two 200-ml (7-oz) marzipan logs
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
¼ to ½ cup pine nuts
About 80 ml (1/3 cup) roasted, unsalted, hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

Steps

Preheat the oven to 150 C (300 F).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.

Pinch the marzipan into 22 equal portions (about 10 ml or 2 tsp each); roll them into balls and place them on the baking sheet, spacing them ¾ inch apart. (The cookies will not spread much.)

Brush the cookies lightly with the egg wash, then insert the pine nuts and/or pumpkin seeds as you wish.

Bake (middle rack) for about 10 minutes or just until the pine nuts and/or pumpkin seeds are lightly browned on the edges. The cookies may develop a slight “foot” at the bottom; that is OK.

Transfer the cookies (on the baking sheet) to a wire rack to cool completely before serving or storing.

Make ahead

The balls can be rolled, decorated and refrigerated up to two days in advance. The baked cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to five days.

Adapted from Breaking Breads: A New World of Israeli Baking, by Uri Scheft with Raquel Pelzel (Artisan, 2016).

Nutrition Per cookie: 100 calories, 2 g protein, 12 g carbohydrates, 6 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 0 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fibre, 10 g sugar

— Washington Post