Almond chocolate balls - Marzipankartoffel

Get
300g organic almonds
1 tbsp honey (Prickly box honey, Bursaria spinosa)
2 tbsp organic cocoa powder

Do
Blanch almonds.
In a saucepan or bowl, use a puree stick to make a smooth paste from the almonds and the honey. Kneed the paste to marzipan. Cool for some time in the fridge.
Put the cocoa in a bowl.
Roll into small balls and roll them in the cocoa.
Place them on a baking tray.
Put into a preheated oven and bake at 180°c for about 10 minutes on the second shelf from the bottom.

By keeping the amount of honey small, the marzipan is dry. If it is too moist the powdery cocoa becomes moist and the outcome is more like truffles. They should feel powdery to the touch. Refrigerate.

Macadamia truffles

Four black Macadamia truffles with a red Hicksbeachia pinnatifolia and a blue Atherton Oak Nut

Get
300g organic macadamia nuts
1 tbsp honey (Prickly box honey, Bursaria spinosa)
2 tbsp organic cocoa powder


Do
In a saucepan or bowl, use a puree stick to make a smooth paste from the macadamias and the honey. Kneed the paste to marzipan. Cool for some time in the fridge.
Make small balls and roll them in the cocoa powder.
On a baking tray, bake the truffles for 15 minutes at 180°C.

Use more honey for a moister result. Serve with a fork. Refrigerate!

Baked Marzipan Biscuits

These biscuits are pure nuts and honey. They can be very brittle.

Get
300g organic almonds
2 tbsp honey (Prickly box honey, Bursaria spinosa)
Some (macadamia) nuts for decoration
2 tbsp organic cocoa powder optional
1 egg yolk

Unglazed

Do
Blanch almonds.
In a saucepan or bowl, use a puree stick to make a smooth paste from the almonds and the honey. Kneed the paste to marzipan. Cool for some time in the fridge.

Take a clean (pure linen) tea towel and role out the ball of marzipan. Use cookie cutters to get the desired shapes or make a roll and cut into pieces and decorate with nut pieces. Mix the egg yolk and paint biscuits. Put into a preheated oven and bake at 180°c for about 10 minutes on the second shelf from the bottom. They should be golden.

One traditional shape is little cones, called Bethmännchen ("a little Bethmann"). They have been around since 1393 on Christmas markets in Frankfurt. They usually contain powdered sugar, rosewater, flour and egg as well.

Click to enlarge

For our cones we made a ball, flattened it with an indentation in the middle, and added a fresh macadamia nut in the centre. Pinch the top to close around the nut.
When little bits are left over that cannot be rolled out at the end, cocoa was used to hand kneed them into shapes.
Refrigerate if done anywhere on The Mid North Coast at this time of the year.

Chocolate Nut Biscuits

Designed and baked by Ross in Bellingen

GET:
1 cup macadamia oil

2 eggs (reserve yolk of one to glaze)

0.33 to 0.5 cups of honey (to taste)

100-200g of chipped chocolate (90% cocoa)

5 cups flour (w/meal wheat or spelt - or replace with a % of nutmeal of choice to taste and may need to adjust total flour to get nice crumb consistency)

1 tsp ground cinnamon or more to taste

Here with chocolate chips

DO:
1 Mix oil, eggs and honey.

2 Add flour, cinnamon and chocolate chips and to make a biscuit crumb consistency

3 Press and smooth into papered baking tray

4 Cut to desired shape/s and size/s

5 Glaze with yolk, reserving a little

6 Garnish each biscuit with almond or nut of choice

7 Glaze nuts with remaining yolk

8 Bake in 160 C oven for 15-20 minutes

9 Remove and cool in tray for 10 minutes then recut shapes.

10 When firm remove biscuits and cool on rack

Bunya Tree Seasonal Celebrations

This living Bunya tree makes a beautiful recyclable x-mas tree. Providing food for the next 1000 years. All chocolate wrappers can be reused in the next season. No waste! Patented by Jan.

Atherton Oak Nuts

12 o'clock: Citrus australasica, 1, Cissus hypoglauca, 4, Davidson plum (Davidsonia spp.), 7, Athertonia diversifolia, 9, Linospadix monostachya, 11, Macadamia tetraphylla, centre: Athertonia nuts

The Athertonia diversifolia tree (Atherton Oak) is endemic to the North East Queensland rainforest. It is a tall tree with large lobed leaves and large blue edible fruits. Inside the most unusual blue fruit is a woody kernel that contains a nut. The nut has a brown skin like the almond. The white nut has a taste that is slightly reminiscent of macadamia nuts and coconut. It is delicious and unique.

Hicksbeachia pinnatifolia and Athertonia

"Caution should be exercised and any seeds with the flavour or odour of bitter almonds should be completely avoided." (link)

Athertonia fruit and nuts

DO:
Pick up the blue fruit as early as possible, as wildlife and fungi like to move in on them. Admire the multitudes of blues, violets and red of the fruit.

Athertonia nut shells and leaf

Peel the pith, which is white and fluffy underneath as close as possible to the kernel. Let them dry for a day. Once the pith remains have gone, crack the woody nut with a hammer.

The shell will usually split into two beautiful wooden halves with craft potential. Blanch the nut as for almonds. The white Athertonia nut is thin and flat. A light dry roast enhances the flavour even more.

Links:

Bush Tucker of the Wet Tropics, The Ma:Mu Rainforest Aboriginal people’s  traditional lands are around Innisfail, Palmerston and Millaa Millaa areas.  The area’s volcanic soils and high rainfall have produced some of the most diverse tropical rainforest in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. (PDF)

"But we now know, thanks to Bill Gammage,  Bruce Pascoe and other writers, that Aborigines deliberately shaped their environment through firestick farming and various kinds of cultivation." Jeff Sparrow, What I’m Reading

Click to enlarge

All depicted fruits were grown on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Thanks to Jan for passing on the knowledge about the endemic flora.