Mendiants aux Fruits Secs - Traditional French Fruit & Nut Encrusted Chocolate Rounds
Mendiants au Chocolat are a Christmas time tradition in the Provence region of France. There they have a tradition of ending the celebratory Christmas eve dinner with 13 different desserts (les treize desserts de Noël)! Before you start thinking that this must be the ultimate ritualistic sugar high, these 13 desserts are very simple ones and they represent Jesus and his 12 apostles at the Last Supper.
Each family has its own 13 desserts traditionally served after this dinner and some of the “desserts” include Mendiants made of almonds, hazelnuts, dried figs and dates, black and white nougat, Calissons d’Aix (candied melon), a thin waffle called Oreillettes, and a sweet olive oil bread called La Pompe a l'Huile. Mendiants are also given away as Christmas gifts.
Ingredients
- 1 cup dark chocolate finely chopped
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate finely chopped
- nuts Assorted
- dried fruit Assorted (I used dried apricots, cranberries, raisins, figs and pomegranate)
- pretzel bits
- coconut toasted
- butter cookie small pieces of
- peanut brittle
Instructions
- Use parchment or silpat to make the Mendiants as this will make them easy to unmould once the chocolate has set. You can also use paper cups (cupcake liners) and spoon in a little chocolate into them and then top them. Once the chocolate sets, just peel off the paper liners.
- While tempering my chocolate here, I melted the dark chocolate using the double boiler method, and then added the chopped milk chocolate to it and mixed it in to bring down the temperature. Take this tempered chocolate and drop small teaspoonful of it onto your plastic sheet/ parchment, leaving some space in between. Using the back of the spoon, spread it a little to make small circles about 1 1/2 u201c to 2u201d in diameter . Working with 5 or 6 circles at a time (or they will set quickly), place and 3 items of topping on each circle. Use toppings with colour contrast together for a nice visual effect.
- Let the circles of chocolate cool and harden (about 30 minutes to an hour depending on your weather/ climate conditions). Use up the chocolate by making more Mendiants. If the chocolate should start cooling and harden, put it back on low heat (double boiler) and melt it but do not heat it very high.
- Once the Mendiants have cooled completely and set, carefully loosen and remove them from the plastic sheet/ parchment. Enjoy them right away, or refrigerate them in an airtight container and they should keep for upto a week.
- This recipe makes about 30 Mendiants depending on the size.