Berlin (dpa) - Sure, those Santa hat-shaped biscuits are fine, but are they three-dimensional? These marzipan treats bring edible Santa hats to life with bright-red marzipan, a white sugar pearl as a bobble and desiccated coconut for a furry snowy rim. With a little remodelling, they can even be reworked as Christmas stockings. In this recipe from cookbook author Christiane Kührt, the biggest job is shaping the marzipan mixture and decorating it with icing, sugar pearls and coconut. There's a trick to this part. "So that the coconut shavings stick as snow on the brim and the pearl as the bobble on the tip, the icing must not be fully dry yet, because then it acts like a glue," Kührt says. Her measurements are for nine little hats. "You can make them smaller, then you will get more," she says. However, you need to take care, as they can quickly turn light brown in the oven. "These Santa hats should only be baked at 160 degrees. At 180 to 200 degrees the sugar darkens too quickly." A special touch comes from rose water. "A well-stocked supermarket will have it in the baking section. If not, you will find it at the chemist," Kührt says. If you don't like the aroma of rose water, you can replace it with two drops of bitter almond flavouring, she says. Curious? Time to get baking. Ingredients for about nine Santa hats For the dough: 200 g marzipan paste 50 g icing sugar 1 medium egg white 30 g flour 50 g ground blanched almonds 2 tbsp rose water (optional) For the decoration: 100 g icing sugar about 3 tbsp lemon juice red food colouring 30 g desiccated coconut 9 large white sugar pearls Preparation: For the dough, line a baking tray with baking paper. Coarsely grate the marzipan paste and put it in a mixing bowl. Add icing sugar, egg white, flour, almonds and rose water if using. Knead everything first with the dough hooks of a hand mixer, then with your hands, until smooth. Divide into portions a little larger than a walnut. Roll into balls, then shape into slightly conical Santa hats. Set the flat bases on the tray. Chill the hats for at least 45 minutes so they keep their shape when baking. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Bake the hats in the middle of the oven for about 15 minutes; they should not darken. Remove, then leave to cool completely and firm up. For the decoration, mix icing sugar with lemon juice and food colouring in a small bowl to a thick but still flowing icing. Tip the desiccated coconut onto a small plate. Line a board with baking paper. Dip each hat tip-down into the icing, let it drip briefly and set on the paper. Immediately place a sugar pearl as the bobble on the tip. As soon as the icing pools at the base, press the underside into the desiccated coconut and use your fingers to form a white rim all around. Leave the Santa hats to dry on baking paper. The following information is not intended for publication dpa/tmn cwg yyzz n1 amc (The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
