For about 60 stars: 600 g raw marzipan, 200 g icing sugar, 40 g roasted and ground hazelnuts (hazelnut semolina), 10 g ground cinnamon, 3 egg whites.
Knead a dough from the ingredients and roll out on icing sugar about 8 mm thick. Cream 2 egg whites and mix with 160g icing sugar until firm and spreadable. Spread thinly onto the marzipan dough and leave to dry for about 15 minutes. Now cut out the stars and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Dry more than bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes at lower heat, making sure that the top of the stars do not brown.
It is important to work very cleanly and not to use flour!
The marzipan cinnamon stars taste best fresh, you can not keep them for long.
With Waldemar Thomas at the confectionery Gehlhaar in Wiesbaden
.Gottfried Keller tells of one "who treated his piece of white bread like marzipan," expressing great appreciation for this confection, once again from the Orient. Marzipan had arrived in Europe with the Crusaders. The secret of its production was brought to Königsberg by Swiss confectioners, who had access to the necessary ingredients in the trading city. In 1809, the first manufactory was founded.
Almonds, sugar and rose water, the secret of marzipan is quickly told, but more can be said about its quality. Alfred Kulling, who with his wife Ute took over the Wiesbaden confectionery Gehlhaar, whose origins lie in Königsberg, uses around 60% almonds for his marzipan, and the small, expensive ones from the Mediterranean countries, not Californian jumbos. He also does not use bitter almonds in the dough. This allows him to keep the sugar content lower than industrially produced marzipan, which has to be prepared as a "maschinengängige" mass.
Not to mention rose oil. Kulling uses Persian, which is considered the best and is the most expensive. Gehlhaar marzipan contains then no preservatives and should therefore not be older than four weeks. It is unlikely to get that far, but it is far superior to the crunchy, sugary standard marzipan and worth a sin any time. Despite its tenderness and distinct almond flavor, Königsberg marzipan tastes heartier than others because it is flamed, which causes the surface to brown, as it caramelizes slightly in the process.
With connoisseurs, Königsberg-style marzipan enjoys a special reputation, so much so that the Gehlhaar confection, as it is proudly inscribed in the cozy confectionery, is shipped all over the world. "From Oslo to Rolandia in Brazil", says Alfred Kulling. Then things get busy in the bakery, and the ten of them have their hands full to produce the required quantity of no less than five tons of marzipan confectionery. All the cakes and biscuits are also homemade.
With the marzipan confectionery, for example, you have the choice between tea confectionery, also with filling, or edge marzipan with rose fondant, of course also in beautiful gift packaging. 500 g in a wooden box cost 28 euros.
Due to his visit to the Gehlhaar confectionery, the market leader has become a marzipan aficionado, which is saying something given his long-held aversion. He is particularly fond of a pastry made entirely without flour, which requires raw marzipan paste. For heavenly good cinnamon stars after Alfred Kulling's recipe.
Konditorei Gehlhaar
Alfred and Ute Kulling
Klarenthaler Str. 3
65197 Wiesbaden
Tel.:0611-442832, Fax: 441413
E-mail: info@gehlhaar-marzipan.de
Homepage: <link http: www.gehlhaar-marzipan.de _blank>www.gehlhaar-marzipan.de
from Waldemar Thomas