Note: This Erdmännchen recipe was originally part of my Biscuit Advent Calendar, a one-recipe-a-day email series in December. You can find the other recipes and sign up for the next round if you want here.
Today is a twist on another classic: the “Meerkat.”
Yes, I keep repeating myself… but maybe I hadn’t quite realised how many classics there are until I started this project. Not that this variation is classical in any German sense: peanuts are an uncommon ingredient. But I love them.
The original recipe, the Bethmännchen, comes from Frankfurt (and no, it is not sausage-shaped). It’s a little marzipan-based biscuit decorated with three halved blanched almonds and sometimes dipped in chocolate.
This variation is peanut-based, and since peanuts are Erdnüsse (“earth nuts”) in German and meerkats are Erdmännchen, I’m simply translating these into… Meerkats. Yes, it’s a terrible pun. No, I will not apologise.
There’s a reason why this recipe follows directly from yesterday: it also contains marzipan. And you can absolutely use store-bought marzipan here. It works beautifully.
But I thought it would be fun to show you that marzipan can be made from all sorts of nuts (and peanuts aren’t even technically nuts, so there). For an extra peanutty version, we quickly make our own peanut marzipan first.
By the way: queen of marzipans for me is pistachio marzipan. It’s naturally green, and it is so good. Exhibit A: the Hungry Caterpillar cake I made for my daughter (not recently (and in front, my son made one, too)). I guess I am not an almond Mum after all but a pistachio one.
And now it is definitely time to bake. Note: if you do make your own marzipan you have to factor in an extra rest period for the marzipan to develop. Either way, the biscuits taste of peanuts much more than of almond paste so even if you are not a marzipan fan you could give them a try.
Erdmännchen Recipe
Makes about 40
Ingredients
- Marzipan
- 200 g marzipan
- OR
- 55 g finely ground peanuts
- 55 g finely ground almonds
- 80 g icing sugar
- 2 tsp water
- a few drops of almond essence (optional)
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp water
- 120 g unsalted peanuts
- 40 g flour
- 50 g smooth peanut butter (3 tbsp)
- 80 g icing sugar
- pinch of salt
- 70 g dark chocolate
Instructions
If you are making your own marzipan, then blend the marzipan ingredients until they come together a little. Knead into a ball and refrigerate for a few hours.
Separate the egg and keep the yolk in the fridge. Blend 70 g of the peanuts (the remainder is for the next step). Grate the marzipan and mix with the blended peanuts, flour, peanut butter, icing sugar, egg white and salt. Wrap and chill for an hour in the fridge.
Shape the dough into 40 little balls. Split the rest of your peanuts into halves (if they aren’t) and press three of those firmly into the side of each ball.
Egg wash the balls: mix the egg yolk with a tablespoon of water and brush each biscuit. At this point you can also “glue” any dropped peanut half back on.
Preheat the oven to 150°C conventional. Bake them for 15-18 minutes. Let them cool on a tray.
Melt the chocolate. Dip the biscuits into chocolate at the bottom, scraping the bottom of each biscuit over the side of the bowl so you don’t have so much chocolate on the bottom. If any peanuts fell off during baking you can stick them back on with a little chocolate. Let them dry on a piece of baking parchment.
Pack them into tins or boxes. They are not particularly delicate so I don’t usually layer them.
Enjoy!!
I hope you had a great start to the week. If you have any opinions or suggestions for me, I’d love to hear from you. And if you found the time to bake, even better. Tell me everything.