Cranberry Marzipan BonBon's

I think a better name for these would be "Most Addictive German Candies EVER" (it's what I have so eloquently called them for the past year).  I realize that this is not the most politically correct way to describe a dessert, but oh boy oh boy, I can't stop eating these once I've started.  A few nights ago, I gave a plant of cookies away and the guy said "these are so flavorful, you almost need a tall glass of milk to go with them!"  In my little world, that's a pretty good compliment!


I going to make a wild assumption and guess that you don't know Bjoern.  Well, other than my parents and friends from Michigan, most of you don't know of his glory.  Bjoern and I met within the first few weeks of my senior year at U of M; he was a Fulbright scholar trucked over from Germany to study naval architecture and marine engineering.  Needless to say we hit it off very quickly and he instantly became one of my dearest friends (well, at least my dearest German friend, and this is a larger category than one might think!)  For Christmas last year, he gave me a tin full of these bonbons and I have been addicted ever since.  This was a decently sized tin, capable of holding at least 20 or so treats and I actually had to hide them from myself.  I put them atop my armoire, made them extremely difficult to get to and they still disappeared in less than 5 days.  The ghost of Christmas weight gain was once again rearing her ugly head.

As you can imagine, I have been begging Bjoern for this recipe ever since then.  He just sent it to me.  JUST.  His excuse was that the recipe was in German (he translated it for me) and all the measurements were metric.  I could have worked with that; I would have MADE it work.  Last week he sent me a translated copy of the recipe, still in metric but I weigh everything anyways, and I got to baking that night.  Even now I have to to tell myself "No, these cookies are for other people.  Not for you to eat.  Think of all the joy you'll bring people!"  Then I promptly eat one more.

These are addictively delicious, don't require turning on the oven and look pretty snazzy too!  Make your neighbors and yourself happy by mixing up a batch!

Cranberry Marzipan Bonbon's
Ingredients:

• 400g Marzipan
• 4 tablespoons liquor (I used St. Germain, because it's what I had on hand, and because who doesn't like liquor made of Elderflower?)
• 200g powdered sugar
• 100g dried cherries (or cranberries)
• 56g minced pistachios
• 300g dark chocolate coating
• 100g rasped coconut

Directions:

1. Mix marzipan, liquor and powdered sugar to a smooth paste
2. Chop up cherries to very fine pieces
3. Flatten marzipan paste and sprinkle pistachios  and cherry pieces on top
4. Knead the marzipan dough thoroughly and form about 50 little balls
5. Melt the chocolate
6. Cover marzipan balls in chocolate and let the chocolate start cooling down
7. Before the chocolate hardens roll them in either sprinkles or coco
8. Impress everyone