Snowballs

Across Scandinavia, we spend time preparing a lot of little marzipan treats at Christmas. I love making these because they look pretty and festive on a plate alongside biscuits, cookies and other treats.

MAKES 20

PREPARATION TIME 30 minutes, plus chilling

COOKING TIME about 5 minutes

200g marzipan (63% almond l content is the best, but you need at least a minimum of 50%)

120g good-quality l white chocolate

100g desiccated coconut l Food-safe silver glitter, optional l Cocktail sticks l

1 Cut the marzipan into

20 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then leave in the fridge so they are cold when you add the chocolate – this allows them to dry quicker.

2 Temper the white chocolate: the easiest way is to melt half in a bain-marie, then remove from the heat and stir in the remaining half to cool it down quickly.

3 Gently insert a cocktail stick into a marzipan ball, then dip it in the melted chocolate so that it has a thin covering. Roll the ball in the desiccated coconut and leave to set on baking parchment. Repeat with the remaining marzipan balls.

4 Decorate with a little food-safe silver glitter, if you wish. If you want to flavour the marzipan, simply add a bit of finely grated orange zest when rolling the pieces. For an adults-only version, 2tbsp Amaretto works well stirred into the chocolate. For a more decadent snowball, roll the marzipan into pieces of Viennese nougat.