Stuffed Caramel Walnuts from Cleopatra

Cleopatra (69 a.C - 30 a.C), the Egyptian queen of legendary beauty, was famous for her amatorial charms that rendered her irresistible to the men who met her. She had a child with Caesar, Cesarione, then, after Caesar's assassination she fell in love with Anthony causing much jealousy amongst the Roman Senators many of whom accused her of being a witch. Anthony, stabbed by Octavius, dies in her arms and Cleopatra, realising her end was near lets herself be poisoned by an asp. This recipe has been deciphered from a hieroglyphic. These sweets were served at wedding banquets and given their high energy value, we imagine that Cleopatra offered them to her lovers to restore their spirits.

• Ready In: 35 mins
• Serves: 6-7
• Yields: 15 candies

Ingredients

• 50  g  almond flour
• 50  g sugar
• 1 -2  tablespoon  orange essence
• 30  walnut halves
• 50  g sugar

Directions

1. Mix the almond flour (milled almonds, grind your own in a food processor or blender if you like) with the sugar and enough orange essence to form a paste.
2. Place a little of this paste between two walnut halves and press.
3. Melt the sugar in a pan with a few drops of water and when it starts to turn to caramel, remove it from the heat source and dip the nuts inside to coat them with caramel.
4. Set them out on grease proof paper to dry.
5. Note: for an easy shortcut you can use store bought marzipan or almond paste and simply knead the orange extract into that instead of preparing your own from alond flour in step 1; then proceede with the rest of the recipe as written.