Bethmännchen

Traditionally served during the Christmas period, Bethmännchen are chewy, soft, nuggets of rose-scented marzipan joy. Lightly caramelised in the oven, they are decorated with 3 almond halves, which add a wonderful crispy crunch with a hit of roasted almond flavour.

Hailing from Frankfurt in Germany, these luscious treats are made from marzipan, ground almonds, sugar, egg and rosewater. Ridiculously quick and easy to make, you can whip these up in 10 minutes, 15 minutes in the oven and they are ready. Serve with a cup of tea, as an after dinner treat or, as is often the case in Germany, package them up and give them as a gift at yuletide.

How to make Bethmännchen

Collect the ingredients together:

• marzipan. I use shop bought.
• ground almonds
• icing sugar
• plain/all-purpose flour (use gluten free, if necessary)
• fine salt
• rose water, to taste. Rosewater is a classic and traditional ingredient in this recipe, but if you’re not a rose water fan, you can simply omit it. They will still be delicious
• egg white

Topping –

• egg yolk
• milk. Use your milk of choice, I use dairy.
• peeled, whole almonds, halved – you may not need all of these almonds but when splitting whole almonds, you may have a few casualties. Any broken halves can be chopped, or ground in a food processor, and used in baking.

How to make these incredible marzipan treats:

1. Make the Bethmännchen – roughly chop the marzipan into cubes and tip into a food processor with the ground almonds, sugar, flour, salt, rose water and egg white. Pulse until the mixture comes together and is mixed well.
2. Tip out onto a board dusted with icing sugar. Press into a small rectangle and cut into 24 cubes.You can either roll these into balls straight away or, as I like to do, I weigh each ball to check they are the same size, before rolling into a ball. Each ball should weigh 16g – 17g. Trim and adjust, if necessary.
3. Topping – very carefully split each almond into 2 halves using a sharp knife. Some may break or splinter, but the amount in the ingredients, takes this into account.
4. Beat the egg yolk with the milk and brush each marzipan ball with the mixture.
5. Stick 3 almond halves equally around each ball: the pointed end of the almond pointing upwards. Brush again with the egg wash.
6. Transfer onto baking parchment lined baking trays. Leave a little space between the cookies, as they will expand a little whilst cooking. Bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven for 15 minutes. They should be very lightly starting to caramelise when cooked. Cook for slightly longer if you prefer a darker finish.
7. Leave to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes and then lift off with a palette knife. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
8. Serve with a cup of tea, as an after dinner treat or, as is often the case in Germany, package them up and give them as a gift at yuletide.

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Made this recipe?

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