Almond Serpent Cake
For the pastry:
Six sheets of phyllo dough 10"long
1/2 cup melted butter
1 egg beaten with 2 tbs of water
Almond filling:
2 1/2 cups ground almond flour
1 cup confectioner sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp water
2 tbs orange flower water
1/2 cup butter
Combine almonds,sugar, cinnamon,water, orange flower water and soft butter.
Mix well until it becomes a paste, chill for 1 hour.
Separate the almond paste in to 12 equal balls, roll each ball into 5 inch long rolls.
Method
Spread out 2 sheets of phyllo dough overlapping by 1 1/2 inch, seal them with the melted butter. The sheet should be about 18 inches long.
Place 4 almond paste rolls in a row.
Fold the phyllo dough over the almond paste and roll tightly to form one long roll. Carefully push and crinkle the roll to stop the skin from splitting when coiling.
Repeat with the rest of the phyllo dough.
Brush a baking sheet with melted butter.
Start to coil one of the almond rolls bending it very gently at the beginning of the coil. Continue to form the coil with the rest of the rolls sealing the long rolls together with the melted butter.
Brush the coil with the beaten egg and bake for 25-30 min or until golden brown at 350F.
To serve:
Cool first then dust with confectioner's sugar and decorate with fine lines of ground cinnamon.

Nutty fruit delight
Makes about 24 truffles
Ingredients:
2 oz. raisins
2 oz. dried prunes
2 oz. dried apricots
2 oz. walnuts
2 oz. almonds
2 oz. salted pistachio nuts
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 pound Callebaut semi sweet dark chocolate
Cocoa powder
Powdered sugar
Grinded salted pistachio nuts
Directions:
Make a smooth paste by finely grinding all nuts, dried fruit and cinnamon in a food processor.
Divide the paste in equal parts of ½ oz. and hand roll them into little balls.
Chop the chocolate in small pieces.
Melt 3/4 of the chocolate in a double boiler and remove from heat.
Add remaining chocolate to the melted chocolate and stir well until chocolate pieces are melted away.
Dip each previously made ball in chocolate and gently roll it in the cocoa powder, grind pistachio nuts or powdered sugar.


