Mark's Killer Eggnog Recipe

Follow the link to the recipe. Click here.

Follow the link to my eggnog recipe

Mark's killer eggnog recipe, click here.

Christmas Eve Tree Decorating Pastries - M'hanncha

We usually get our tree either on Christmas Eve or the day before but no matter when we buy or cut down our tree, we always decorate on Christmas Eve. While decorating we have eggnog and pastries. Last year, I did Chaussons Aux Pommes, well they actually I used Cherries. This year, I did M'hanncha, a great Moroccan Snake Pastry. It is rolled and coiled filo dough stuffed with almond past.

Almond Paste Filling

8-15 sheets of filo dough. I like to use 3 sheets per snake but Nancy, my pastry chef uses 5.
1/3 cup granulated sugar.
2 1/2 cups of blanched almonds
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 tablespoons orange blossom water
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Honey Water

1/4 cup good honey
2 tablespoons orange blossom water

as needed melted butter
as needed egg yolk wash
as needed fried almond slivers. (Fry the almond slivers in butter until golden.)

Fried Almonds. I used slice rather than slivers. I like the look better and that's what I had.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

First get the dough of the refrigerator and over with a damp cloth so that it does not dry out. If you bought frozen dough, and I recommend you buy your filo, make sure to defrost it IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR the night before.

Next, lets make the almond paste. This is very easy. Do not over think this. In a Cuisinart, mix the sugar, almonds, butter, orange blossom water and the 1t of cinnamon. This should take about 5-10 minutes in the Cuisinart.

You may want to make the paste a little finer than the one shown hear.

Next, and really this is all there is to it, roll our the almond paste into a snake almost as long as the filo dough's longest side. Then take 3-5 sheets of filo dough, apply melted butter gently and then place the almond paste snake in the filo and roll as shown in the picture. Create about three snakes.

Mise en place

Note that I am holding the filo in landscape.



And roll.

Roll.

Roll your snake.



Use the melted butter to grease an 8 inch pie pan. I like to use glass. Then coil the snakes into a spiral shape and apply butter and then the egg yolk wash to the coils.

Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown. While you are waiting, heat the honey until it's fluid. I like it to just start simmering. Keep hot and add the orange blossom water to it.

When you take the M'hanncha out of the oven, drizzle the honey water on top of the snake and decorate with the fried almonds. Then eat.

I also created a pistachio version. To make the pistachio version substitute pistachios for the almonds, rose water for the orange blossom water and I would cut the filling recipe in half.



I didn't and the pistachio was so solid and blocking it was hard to chew and rather lumpy but delicious.

Shape as before. You can see how much more substantial the pistachio is than the almond.

Roll as before.

Bake as before and sprinkle rose water honey water on top. I didn't add any decorations. You may want to add a little raw crushed pistachio. Then eat. Yummer.

Mark's Killer Eggnog Recipe

Here is my wonderful and tasty killer eggnog recipe. This makes about 5 cups of nog.

Ingredients
6 eggs
1 cup fine rum (I used Bacardi 8 year old rum. You can just use Bacardi dark.)
1/2 cup confectioners (10X) sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Nutmeg to grate over the top of the drink.

This is very simple. First separate the eggs.



And remember to separate them into the right bowls. As you can see here, I separated the yolks into my little 5 qt Kitchenaid bowl and the whites into my big mixing bowl.



I tried to compensate by using my handy dandy immersion blender but no go. So, I washed out the mixing bowl and did a switcheroo. Ah, bliss. Soft peaks here we come. This is definitely going to be a skiing year.





How did I make this mistake? Well, that's easy. Normally, I whip my eggs in my big copper bowl with a whisk. So, while on automatic, I simply do what I always do, put the egg whites into the big bowl. No, I'm not color blind.

Once you've straighten out the bowl arrangements, mix the rum into the egg yolks and let sit in the refrigerator while whipping the egg whites with the confectioners sugar until you get soft peaks.



Next combine the heavy cream the egg yolk mixture.



As you can see, thinking that the immersion blender would do the trick, I combined the cream into the mixture before I did the switcheroo. Next time, I'll abort and switch earlier. Anyway, then fold in the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture.



Now ladle into your serving cups



and grate some nutmeg on top, or not. Kim doesn't like the nutmeg so I leave it off for her.



Now, off to roast chestnuts and watch Fanny och Alexander. Enjoy your nog.