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This Tuesday and next, allow me to share two of my favorite holiday-time sweet treats. Today is a small bite, next week will be a dessert item. Follow me below the dingledoodlesquiggliedividerthingie fold...
I don't do much in the way of holiday cookies, but I do enjoy making candy. When it came time to decide which was my favorite, the one I wanted to share here, it was easy: Chocolate Marzipan Squares. It's been a favorite since my roommate second year in grad school gave me the Nestle Toll House Treasure Cookbook. One of my favorite sweet indulgences is almond paste, and when I saw a recipe for Marzipan Squares I had to try it. 20+ years later, I have the recipe tweaked to where it's perfect - so without further ado, here is my version of Chocolate Marzipan Squares.
You'll need a 12 oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips, one 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk (scm), and at least 8 oz of almond paste (not marzipan, which is sweetened almond paste). It doesn't matter if you use full/low/fatfree milk, it works w all of them. I say at least 8 oz because the recipe calls for 8 but I often use more, when I can find almond paste portioned at the store and not in the little 8 oz tube. You'll also need an 8x8 pan, aluminum foil, a small microwave-safe bowl, a silicon or nonstick spatula, and a butter knife.
Before you start mixing, prepare the pan. It needs to be lined with foil that comes up the sides. The first time I made this, I did not catch the part about lining the pan (recipe was NOT laid out user-friendly). It tasted great, but I had to pry out forkfuls since it wouldn't come out of the pan in one piece. OK, with that out of the way, we can start assembling!
Step 1 - Marzipan layer
In a small bowl mash the almond paste into small pieces. I used to do that with a fork, but find slicing at it w the butter knife works well too. Pour 1/3 cup of the sweetened condensed milk over the almond paste. If you've used more almond paste, scale up the milk (today I used 11oz of almond paste, and 1/4 cup of scm).
Next, I heat the mixture for 20-40 seconds in the microwave to soften the almond paste. This is not in the original recipe, but I find it makes mixing easier. Not doing so won't affect how it turns out, if you do heat it, don't let it get hot... just warm enough to soften.
Use either the nonstick spatula or the knife to mix the scm and almond paste until smooth. It is very, very sticky.
Using the spatula, spread the scm/almond paste mixture into the bottom of the pan. To avoid tearing the foil you need to work gently, pushing and coaxing the mixture into the corners. Don't worry about the top being smooth, the chocolate layer will cover it. To make it less sticky, sometimes I chill the mixture slightly, but I didn't this time and it went fine.
Step 2 - Chocolate Layer
Next step is to melt 1 1/4 cup chocolate chips with 2/3 cup of sweetened condensed milk. There should be enough with a little extra if you used under 1/4 cup making the marzipan. You can do this either in a double boiler over the stove, or carefully in the microwave, which is what I do. I heat the chips/scm for 1 minute then mix. Be very careful not to burn it. When the mixture is smooth and glossy, pour over the marzipan layer in the pan and make sure the chocolate gets into the corners. As before, don't worry if it's perfectly smooth, as this will be the bottom of the candy. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Step 3 Finishing Steps
Using the foil, lift the chilled block of candy out of the pan, and invert onto a cutting board. Carefully peel the foil off. If you have one, use a knife longer than the candy block to slice it into 6x6 or 7x7 squares, whichever size you prefer. When making them for a party, I trim the edges so that every square is neat, which also makes sure Casa Brillig nibbles the edges together :). If you'd like to decorate the tops, the recipe suggests melting together 1/4 cup chocolate chips with 1/2 tsp shortening, and then dipping whole toasted almonds halfway before placing on top of each square. I didn't do that this time. Store covered in the refrigerator, I'm not sure how long they last because they fly out of here.
I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. What are some of your favorite treats?
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Daintily nibbling on a square of sweet goodness while going to check the mailboxes:
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
This arrived in the kosmailbox juust after last night's deadline, from poe:
Loved this one by KelleyRN2.
From Dr Erich Bloodaxe RN via gmailbox:
In today's abbreviated pundit round-up, folks were talking about how Romney destroyed companies. Scarborough (on Morning Joe) was claiming Romney didn't destroy those companies - 'Market Forces' did. MRobDC had this to say.
From ursoklevar:
Best suggestion I've ever seen for naming the infamous DK quiggle-doodle-divider, from enhydra lutris.
From emeraldmaiden:
This one by here4tehbeer struck me - and not as something one would come up with after a few beers, either! Well said, truly.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
Meteor Blades updates us on the backlash Lowe's faces for caving to bigots. Multiple people mentioned calling Lowe's to register complaints; Mnemosyne and sasidechick share ways to be polite while still getting your point across. In addition, lineatus gets my nom for the last line of this comment.
Powerful diary doorguy wrote. So many good Kossacks commented inside, including another job creator, Captain Marty.
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Top Mojo for December 12th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic!
1) How interesting that we have both picked... by Meteor Blades — 166
2) I forgot to mention that the reason I've been by The Troubadour — 138
3) LOL! I don't post anything here for almost... by bobswern — 131
4) Besides, I truly hope there are a dozen posts... by bobswern — 124
5) I'm not sure that by joanneleon — 102
6) that's not a by Mnemosyne — 86
7) a great life, a peaceful death...& you beside him. by marzook — 80
8) oh shit... this is very bad news... by Hopeful Skeptic — 78
9) Ding! Ding! Ding! by jpmassar — 78
10) Some of us wondered by gulfgal98 — 76
11) Somehow I'm just not up for lectures on by teachme2night — 76
12) no long commentary on these from me since... by Meteor Blades — 70
13) Good to see you by joanneleon — 69
14) Arrow. Zing. Bullseye. An important post... by Meteor Blades — 69
15) That's unfair to Newt, he has more experience by voroki — 69
16) it works like this: by G2geek — 68
17) I am so glad that his former owners gave by blue jersey mom — 68
18) Sounds like by a gilas girl — 68
19) This is about the most righteous diary by commonmass — 67
20) You made me cry, you big doofus by KelleyRN2 — 66
21) physics? by Debbie in ME — 66
22) May 2012 be a much better year for you... by Meteor Blades — 64
23) Hey by kos — 63
24) Here's proof by ursoklevar — 62
25) Was hoping da Pootie Queen would be taken by 4Freedom — 60
26) Math theories in relation to physics by arizonablue — 60
27) clever tiger "traded up." n/t by marzook — 59
28) Democrats should be doing the same thing, IMHO... by bobswern — 59
29) Thank you... by One Little Victory — 58
30) I'm starting to feel unified!! by p gorden lippy — 58
31) Good. by Scott Wooledge — 58