Chocolate Covered Marzipan!

MY favorite, and apparently, a lot of other peoples' too. At least that's what they told me.

(recipe from a website, my addition in bold)

8 ounces almond paste
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup

-Break the almond paste into small pieces over a medium bowl.

-Add 1 cup of the confectioners' sugar, and work it in with your hands until incorporated. It will be crumbly.

-Add another 3/4 cup of sugar, and work it in really well.

-Pour in the corn syrup, and work it in until evenly blended.

-Spread remaining sugar out on a clean work surface, and knead the dough until smooth and uniform, 3 to 5 minutes. If the dough seems too sticky, knead in more sugar.

-Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about an hour. It should have the consistency of modeling dough.

Now, the corn syrup makes this whole deal really really sticky so i just keep adding confectioner's sugar until i can pry the dough off my hands.

Covering it in Chocolate:

-i just melt about 3/4 of a bag of chocolate chips in a small pot, stirring constantly on low heat. *Chocolate burns really easily so be careful. contrary to popular belief, the beloved cocoa bean does not taste good in every form.

-by this point the marzipan should have been rolled out on sugared wax paper and cut into squares or rolled into balls. i put the wax paper on a wire rack thingy to give it leverage when moving it in and out of the refrigerator.

-laying the marzipan on a fork, dip each piece into the chocolate and fold it over the marzipan until covered.

-scoop out the piece of heaven with the fork and let the chocolate drip off nice and clean and lay the piece back on the wax paper.

-before the chocolate starts to harden, top each piece with a nice garnish if desired. i put like to put pistachios in a plastic bag and smash them into bits with a hammer. sometimes i even garnish the marzipan with them. i have also used cinnamon, cocoa powder and fleur de sel. ***when using large crystal salt, USE ONLY A LITTLE! it's very potent and learning the hard way is not a tasty treat. i don't use all these garnishes on the same piece. that's over kill.

-refrigerate. any remaining marzipan can be refrigerated for up to 8 weeks so don't press the panic button. at least, not for this.