Stevia sweetened Dominostones

 

A Dominostein (plural Dominosteine) is a german christmas sweet. The base consists of Lebkuchen, next is a layer of sour cherry or apricot jelly and a layer of marzipan, cube scone is covered with a thin layer of dark chocolate.

When looking into the ingredients for this recipe I found out that the Dominostein was invented in 1936 by Herbert Wendler in Dresden.

The layered praline was targeted for a broader audience because of a cheaper price than the other products of Wendler’s praline factory.

During the scarcity of food during World War II the Dominostein gained popularity as a replacement praline.

It is still popular as a must have Christmas sweet in stockings and on Christmas

When looking into the ingredients for this recipe I found out that the Dominostein was invented in 1936 by Herbert Wendler in Dresden.

The layered praline was targeted for a broader audience because of a cheaper price than the other products of Wendler’s praline factory.

During the scarcity of food during World War II the Dominostein gained popularity as a replacement praline.

It is still popular as a must have christmas sweet in stockings and on christmas cookie plates – Weihnachtsteller.

 

 

Here the recipes I have used and a few tips on how to assemble this stones.

Makes approximately 60 stones

You need the Lebkuchen biscuit base  and the Marzipan mass recipes.

Follow the instructions of the Lebkuchen base, filling the batter into a small baking tray 28.5cm x 18xm , about 2.5cm deep. The batter should not fill the try to the rim, leaving space for the other two layers. Make sure you oil the pan very well to avoid the cake breaking apart later down the line.

Make marzipan with the Marzipan recipe while the Lebkuchen is baking in the oven, you need about 400g finished Marzipan mass.

I use two medium egg whites, 14g Amaretto, 1knife tips stevia and about 360g finely ground Almonds, maybe more if the mass is too sticky. – prepare and set asside.

While the Lebkuchen is cooling left in the tray prepare the jelly.

 

For the jelly layer:

Prep time: 10 min

Cooling/ setting: 1.5-2hours

 

For the jelly layer you need:

• 160g frozen berries (I used black forrest mix) – or use fresh orange segments.
• 100ml water
• 1 heaped tbsp. Great Lakes unflavoured Gelatin
• 1 knife-tip Stevia-sweet 90% powder dissolved in the fruit water mix.

Note: getting the sweetness to the desired level is a matter of trial and error, the best thing is to start with a smaller amount of whatever Stevia you have on hand, it can be ready-use, liquid or tabs (need to be dissolved too), adding more is easier than diluting – you could end up with a huge amount of treat -Don’t have any Stevia yet? – you can always use normal sweetener products until you are set up.

 

Place frozen berries and water with stevia in pan, sprinkle the Galatin on top and heat until the berries are soft, it does not have to boil.

Fill into an new bowl and leave to cool a bit before poring on top of the baked Lebkuchen base.

Make sure it is fully set before starting to adde the Marzipan layer. – you could freeze it to set.

 

Adding the Marzipan layer:

Use a grease proof paper for rolling out the marzipan to slightly less than 5mm thickness, a bit larger than the actual tray.

Take the tray with the set jelly layer and lay it face down on top of the marzipan sheet.

Hold around the edges and flip back to right side up, peel of the paper and trim the edge back to so that the marzipan layer is same size as the other two layers.

Use the spare marzipan to make some marzipan-potatoes rolled in cocoa powder.

 

 

Now turn the 3 layer cake over onto another greaseproof paper or chopping board.

Trim the edges to make everything nice an straight. ( I froze the trimmed cuttings for another time)

Then cut the sheet cake into squares.

Coating in chocolate

For the chocolate outer:

200g   90% Lindt chocolate – or any other chocolate you prefer.

If you want the recipe to be 100% sugar free use unsweetened backing chocolate.

Melt fully on low heat slowly.

Remove from heat and leave to cool just enough that is is not steaming hot anymore but not starting to set.

Poor into a small deep bowl to utilise the chocolate effectively, giving you a deeper dipping pond.

Use a skewer to pierce bottom of the stone dip head over into the melted chocolate. Maybe use a spoon to poor chocolate onto the edges.

If the marzipan layer does not want to stay one the stone after lifting off with the skewer press it down a bit and it should be fine.

Let excess chocolate drip off, turn over and use a fork to slide around the skewer letting the covered stone sit on it and pull the skewer out to the bottom gently.

Slide the stone off the fork onto some cling film and leave to set.

Repeat until all stones are covered. – This takes a while.

 

Storing:

Because you have raw egg white in this mass you don’t want to leave it too long before eating the Dominostones.

I have kept them in the fridge for 4days.

If you are preparing them in advance, leave them un-coated before freezing them. On the day of use just thaw them and decorate as desired.

 

Which sweets have you made this year?

Enjoy festive season

MK