Food Fix

There's a Danish grocery that we go to whenever Husband or the Teenagers need their comfort food fix. In a drab and threadbare neighborhood of colorless food stalls and grey industrial supply shops, where cars battle with trucks for parking space, the trip to the grocery is quick. The baskets are soon filled with cheeses, freshly baked and very dense rye bread, crisp fried onions, pickles, chocolates, and sweets.

Christmas is now just around the corner, so the grocery was stocked with bars of nougat and marzipan, which we make into festive Danish petit fours called Nougat-Marzipan Broed. I made my own marzipan base from ground almond meal, icing sugar, and egg whites, inspired by Food and Style's Sienese Almond Cookies, and stuffed these with slices of Danish Soft Nougat, a rich, creamy confection made from Turkish hazelnuts and chocolate.

Nougat-Marzipan Petit Fours

1 3/4 cups almond flour

2 tablespoons white flour

3/4 cup icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

2 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Odense Bloed Nougat, cut into 1/4 inch squares

Preheat oven to 220 deg C. In a mixing bowl, blend almond flour, white flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With an electric mixer, whisk egg whites and almond extract at high speed until peaks are firm. Add this mixture to the blended flour and fold in with a spatula until just mixed.

Transfer the dough to a piping bag and pipe into silicone moulds. Insert the nougat slices into the dough.

Sprinkle icing sugar on top and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool in the moulds for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Makes about 8 petit fours, which can be sliced into smaller portions to serve.