I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to a 4 day weekend! Having four days off when not having to take any vacation days makes it even more exciting. Of course it’s probably going to be raining, but what can you do? I’ll probably be mostly in the kitchen anyway, which is no bad thing! With all the mini egg recipes around, I thought I would bring you something a little different that you could try this Easter. I haven’t been able to find any mini eggs in Switzerland *sad face*.
Marzipan is a traditionally eaten in the form of a “Simnel Cake” at Easter time in the UK, and being a lover of all things almond I wanted to try something new. After all I’m sure there will be plenty of chocolate eggs around.
These cookies are sweet and moreish. The gooey layer of marzipan in the middle keeps things soft and flavourful, and it’s encased by layers of crisp golden brown cookie for added texture.
To add something different, I decided to try stamping a pattern onto the cookies and I am so happy with how they turned out! If you aren’t really a fan of fancy decorating then this would be the perfect option for you. I used some little stamps and created a pattern which turned out looking a little like lace. Â I love that some stamps come out blotchy and some solid, it adds interest to the design and when they are all together on a plate they look so inviting. Also how cute is that “Handmade with Love” stamp? I mean who wouldn’t want to receive a cookie that says “Handmade with Love”?!
The gel food colouring is the best thing to use for the stamping because it’s thick enough to hold it’s shape. Liquid food colouring wouldn’t stick to the stamp and you would end up with a bit of a soggy blob rather than a nice pattern. If you can find some Easter themed stamps, that would be even better, but really anything you have is fine. The great thing about the stamps is you can adapt these cookies to fit any occasion.
The cookie dough for this recipe is adapted from my Lemon Thyme and Mint cookies. The cookie itself is quite crispy, but the layer of marzipan really softens it up, perfect with a cup of tea!
What do you have planned this Easter weekend? Hopefully you’ll get to enjoy some days off work and spend some time with friends and family… and of course eat lots of good food!
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Stamped Marzipan Layer Cookies
Yield: Approximately 20 cookies depending on the size of your cutter.
Ingredients
90g Butter at room temperature
280g Plain Flour
60g Caster Sugar
1 Tbsp + 1 Tsp Milk*
1 Egg
1/4 Tsp Almond Extract
160g Marzipan
Decoration
Gel food colouring in a colour of your choice
Rubber Stamps**
*Note on milk. You may only need 1 Tbsp depending on the environment you are in (ie. if it is more humid where you are). I needed the extra tsp as it is winter and quite dry.
**I bought new rubber stamps to ensure that there was nothing inedible left on the stamps. If you want to use stamps that have already been used with ink, clean them thoroughly before use.
Steps
1. Beat the butter, sugar, almond extract and egg together in a bowl, until smooth.
2. Add the flour and mix until you have a breadcrumb like mixture. Add 1 Tbsp milk and stir until the dough comes together. Add another teaspoon of milk if needed. Bring the dough together with your hands then wrap in it cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
3. Once the dough is chilled cut it in half and roll out into 2 even sized rectangles of about 15cm x 20cm. Roll the marzipan into the same sized rectangle. Place the 3 layers on top of each other in the sequence cookie dough – marzipan – cookie dough, then roll out so that the dough is about 1/8 inch thick and the marzipan is sandwiched by the 2 layers of cookie dough. Use a cutter of your choice to cut out biscuits and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Try and get the biscuits cut out as close together as possible, as this dough cant be balled up and rolled out again due to the layering of dough and marzipan.
4. Put some gel food colouring onto a plate and spread into a flat layer. Dip your stamp into it and press onto the biscuits in whatever patterns you like. It may help to blot the stamp once on a piece of kitchen roll before stamping onto the biscuit.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes or until just golden brown. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.
Note: I found that a larger sized cookie cutter works better for this recipe (I used an approx. 6cm cookie cutter).
