Mandelhörnchen
Almond crescent biscuits of marzipan, sugar and egg white rolled in flaked almonds and dipped in chocolate, baked for 20 minutes.
Photograph credit: Mandelhoernchen by SKopp · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Where This Goes Wrong
Chill the paste for a full hour.
Wet your hands to stop sticking.
Cool on the tray, as they are soft when hot.
How to Make Mandelhörnchen
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Work the marzipan, icing sugar, 1 egg white and the lemon juice to a smooth paste. Wrap and chill for 1 hour.
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Heat the oven to 170°C / 340°F and line two trays. Beat the second egg white lightly.
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With wet hands roll the paste into 24 small sausages. Dip each in the egg white, then roll in the almonds.
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Bend into crescents on the trays and bake for 20 minutes until deep gold. Cool on the trays.
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Dip the ends in the chocolate and leave to set.
What's Going On Here
Chill the dough for a full hour. That is the single most useful instruction for mandelhörnchen, the German almond crescents, because the paste is sticky and falls apart if it is warm. They are made of marzipan, sugar, egg white and almonds, and they are chewy in the middle with a crisp, nutty crust.
Grate the marzipan or crumble it and work it with the icing sugar and egg white to a smooth paste. Wrap and chill for 1 hour. Wet your hands before shaping, because water stops the paste sticking to your fingers. Roll pieces into small sausages, press them into a dish of flaked almonds and coat all over, then bend into crescents on the tray.
Bake at 170°C / 340°F for 20 minutes until the almonds are deep gold, and cool on the tray, as the crescents are soft while they are hot. Dip the two ends in melted dark chocolate and let them set on paper. They keep for 2 weeks in a tin, and they are among the best of the Christmas biscuits.
Storage and Reheating
Keeps for 2 weeks in a tin.
Good With
- Coffee
- Tea
- Mulled wine
Questions and Answers
How long does Mandelhörnchen take to make?
30 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking, plus 1 hour of Chilling, so allow 1 hour 50 minutes from start to finish. The method also needs time for setting, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 24.
Mandelhörnchen Nutrition
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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