Christmas Cake in a Jar

MAKES 7 JARS CONTAINING 6¾ OUNCES (200 ML)

For the dough: 5¼ oz (150 g) dark couverture chocolate, 1 large can pears, ½ cup + 1 tbsp (125 g) butter, 2/3 cup (130 g) sugar, 2 tsp (8 g) vanilla sugar, 1 pinch salt, 4 eggs, 1 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp (180 g) flour, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, 1¾ oz (50 g) ground almonds, 2 tbsp powdered sugar

For the trees: wrapping paper, 7 wooden skewers, 7 mini marshmallows

Additional: soft butter and flour for the jars, powdered sugar for sprinkling

Coarsely chop the couverture and place into a bowl. Heat up a pot of warm water on the stove and place the bowl into the pot so the couverture can melt slowly over low heat. 

Caution: water must not get into the bowl. Lift the bowl out of the water bath as soon as the couverture has melted.

Preheat the oven to 355°F (180°C), unless you have a convection oven, in which case preheat to 320°F (160°C), or a gas oven, in which case preheat to level 3. Thoroughly butter and flour the jars. Remove excess flour from the jars by shaking them. Drain the pears in a sieve, catch the pear juice in a bowl, and coarsely chop the fruit.

Using a hand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat butter, sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt in a bowl until creamy. Add in the cooled couverture and keep stirring for several minutes.

Crack the eggs one after another, separate the egg whites from the yolks, and mix the yolk in with the dough. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, and almonds and stir that mixture into the dough. Beat the egg whites with powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Then carefully fold the egg white mixture into the dough.

Next, distribute the dough amongst the jars and bake them on the middle rack of the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. Afterward, place the cake on a wire rack and let cool.

Using a cookie cutter as a stencil, trace fourteen Christmas trees on a piece of gift wrap and cut them out. Glue them together with a skewer in between, inscribe with a name, and stick mini-marshmallows on the treetops. Place every jar in a paper muffin liner, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and stick the paper Christmas trees into the jars. These make for great table decorations.

 

It is a quote. Christmas Cookies Dozens of Classic Yuletide Treats for the Whole Family 2015