Staying faithful to tradition, you have to have a kransekage at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. While I’m not a big fan of pure marcipan, with a little tinkering it’s okay. Especially, when nougat is involved. The recipe below calls for marcipan, with at least 60% almonds, but I actually used a mint chocolate variety from Odense, and I have to say it didn’t make the kransekage worse, on the contrary … and I do so love mint chocolate.
KRANSEKAGE NUMBERS WITH NOUGAT
KRANSEKAGE:
200 G MARZIPAN, 60% ALMONDS
40 G ICING SUGAR
15 G EGG WHITES, LIGHTLY WHISKED
60 G SOFT NOUGAT/GIANDUJA
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius.
Roughly grate the marcipan and knead it together with icing sugar.
Add the egg white and knead it to a firm, but still slightly soft, dough.
Divide it into 4 pieces and press them flat and long on a table sprinkled with icing sugar.
Cut the nougat into 4 bars. and divide them into smaller pieces, making it easier to bend it in shape within the marcipan dough.
Lay the nougat pieces in the middle of each piece of dough and fold the marcipan around to give a triangular piece.
Place them on a baking sheet lined baking paper.
Carefully shape the pieces into numbers.
Place an extra baking sheet underneath the first, while baking, so that the kransekage does not burn at the bottom.
Bake them in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown.
Let the kransekage cool on a rack.
ICING:
15 G EGG WHITES
85 G ICING SUGAR
A FEW DROPS OF LEMON JUICE
Whisk all the ingredients into a solid icing.
Put it in a piping bag with a small round tip, and decorate the kransekage with stripes.
