Twelve Days of Holiday Treats: Mendiants

Welcome to Day 8 of

The Twelve Days of Holiday Treats!

Once again, this year, from December 1-12th I’ll post a new holiday treat recipe every day – inspiration for your holiday entertaining!

The recipes I’m sharing are small batch (perfect for this year of smaller gatherings – each recipe makes 1-dozen or a few more smaller-sized treats) that are simple to prepare and that use everyday ingredients and equipment  so hopefully you’ll be able to whip up any of these on a whim.

Today’s treat is a super simple one to make and customise according to what you have on hand: Mendiants.

Mendiants (meaning “begging”) are disks of chocolate topped with various dried fruits and nuts whose name derives from “Mendicants”, representing the four monastic orders – the colour of the toppings refers to the colour of the robes of the Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite and Augustin monks). Mendiants are part of the 12 Desserts de Noël, as celebrated in the South of France, and are traditionally eaten around the Christmas season, although these days you can find them in most chocolatiers.

Though the traditional toppings are raisins, hazelnuts, dried figs and almonds, nowadays many mendiants have veered away from tradition and incorporate nuts and seeds, fruit peel or other toppings (hello candy! and, well, for me, sprinkles!).

(no, not a traditional mendiant but fun to make for the little ones in the holidays!)

There’s no real recipe for this but my best tip is to use the best chocolate you can find. Since there are only a few ingredients, the quality matters. I’ve used white chocolate here which isn’t traditional but I liked the look of it with bright toppings for the holidays!

Yield: 12

Mendiants

Print

Easy chocolate mendiants - use toppings of your choice!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Chill Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

• approximately 120g good quality chocolate
• various toppings - dried fruits, nuts, seeds (chopped), small candies or sprinkles

Instructions

1. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Melt the chocolate in a small bowl over a simmering pan of water until 3/4 of the chocolate is melted. You can also do this on a microwave (at 50 or 60% power for bursts of 30 seconds, stirring after each 30 seconds)
3. Remove the chocolate bowl from the hot water pot and stir to melt the rest of the chocolate.
4. Use a small spoon or cookie scoop to scoop out 12 mounds of chocolate. Use the back of the spoon or scoop to smooth the chocolate until it's a flat disk, about 4cm in diameter.
5. Top with 3-4 different toppings, pressing gently so they stick to the chocolate.
6. Place the tray in the fridge for around an hour until the chocolate is set.
7. Store in airtight containers layered between parchment in the fridge.

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did you make this recipe?

please leave a comment or review on the blog or share a photo and tag me on Instagram @eatlivtravwrite !

 Glacé cherries, pumpkin seeds and flaked almonds make a very merry combination!

What toppings will you put on your mendiants this holiday season?

Stay tuned to see what tomorrow brings and in the meantime…

Check out the rest of the 12 Days of Holiday Treats:

Day 1: Rice Krispie Wreaths

Day 2: Cranberry Cheesecake Bars

Day 3: Peppermint Bark

Day 4: Orangettes

Day 5: Rocky Road Chocolate Crackle Slice

Day 6: Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

Day 7: Orange Pim’s

Day 8: Mendiants

Day 9: Chewy Chocolate Mint Crackle Cookies

Day 10: Apricot, Coconut and Cranberry “truffles”

Day 11: Chocolate, Cherry and Almond Brownies

Day 12: Peppermint Hot Chocolate

OR

Check out last year’s 12 Days of Holiday Cookies:

Day 1: Easy Three Ingredient Shortbread

Day 2: Jam Drops

Day 3: Chocolate Caramel Slice

Day 4: Melting Moments

Day 5: White Christmas

Day 6: Langues de Chat

Day 7: Chocolate Coconut Slice

Day 8: Cornflake Biscuits

Day 9: Rocky Road

Day 10: Honey Joys

Day 11: Rum Ball Truffles

Day 12: Giant Florentine Cookie (to share)

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