New Year’s Lucky Charms

“Lucky Pigs” (“Glücksschweinderl”)

What would New Year’s be without lucky charms?

Lucky mushrooms are given away in large numbers on New Year’s Eve with good wishes for the New Year. This year I will show you a lovingly homemade lucky charm – the “Glücksschweinderl”.

Ingredients for Macaroon Batter:

• 300g Powdered sugar
• 150g Ground almonds (or finely chopped and roasted hazelnuts)
• 140g Eggwhites

Production:

• Dryly mix the powdered sugar and ground almonds.
• Add the egg whites and heat to 65°C (the heating of such batters is best done in a Thermomix or Kenwood Cooking-Chef).
• Then pipe using a round nozzle piping bag onto a baking tray lined with baking paper into the desired shapes and bake at 160°C.

Macaroons should have a nicely cracked, shiny surface after baking. This is achieved by baking the mass without steam. The right consistency is also important! This can be checked with the help of a baking sample.

For the test bake, place a few macaroons on baking paper and bake at 160°C. If the surface is matte and hardly cracked, the batter is too firm. In this case, you add some egg white to the macaroon batter and then pipe it. A macaroon mixture that is too soft will expand too much during baking and can therefore be strengthened with sugar and ground almonds or nuts.

Filling:

• 200g Raw marzipan
•   60g Cherry Liqueor

Mix the raw marzipan with the cherry liqueur and pipe onto half of the inverted macaroons. Then cover with the remaining macaroons and decorate with pink marzipan (pigs!).

„A Happy New Year, I wish you luck and health”

Best Wishes, Dietmar