Each Christmas Critter is made from one walnut half, topped with raw cashew marzipan, and drizzled with bitter chocolate.

I’m going to sit at the welcome table, hallelujah!
I’ll sit at the welcome table one of these days.
I’m going to feast on milk and honey, hallelujah!
I’ll feast on milk and honey one of these days.
All God’s children going to sit together, hallelujah!
All God?s children going to sit together one of these days.
Welcome Table sang by Old Time School

Over the next few months, my family will be eating out of our pantry. I will do a series called Pantry Foods to celebrate the delectable foods that can come out of storage. Every recipe in this series will come from foods out of my pantry. To start this series, I wanted to share a bitter chocolate treat that delighted my girls on Christmas morning. Every pantry should have a few exotic ingredients — saved for those special days — to delight young and old alike.

This recipe is NOT safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet but a treat for those few special days each year.

36 organic walnut halves, unbroken
1/2c Raw Cashew Marzipan
1/4c 85% organic bitter chocolate, broken into small pieces

In a pan heat some water to the boiling point and remove from the heat. Put the chocolate pieces into a 1c Pyrex measuring cup and place the cup into the hot water. Let the chocolate have time to melt for about five minutes. Stir vigorously until smooth.

Line a glass tray with wax paper. Arrange the 36 walnut halves on the wax paper. Take the marzipan and roll out and cut into 36 equal pieces. In the palm of your hand, roll each piece of marzipan into a small ball and press each ball onto each walnut half. Arrange each walnut, topped with marzipan, very closely together to avoid wasting chocolate. With a spoon drizzle the melted chocolate onto the walnuts. If desired, drizzle left to right and then up and down to give a cross pattern. Refrigerate before breaking the critters apart. These critters make wonderful homemade Christmas gifts.

Here is a list of other Pantry Foods:
Pantry Foods: Quick Cured Green Olives
Pantry Foods: Mock White Chocolate
Pantry Foods: Bitter Chocolate Walnuts for My Sweet Valentine
Pantry Foods: Charcuterie

The pantry is a great place to hide Christmas gifts. It’s so cold down there the girls don’t like to visit.

I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah sang by kd lang