Chocolate pinecones are a nice and simple recipe to beautify your holiday table. You can use these pinecones both as placeholders and as centerpieces Anyway it is a nice no bake no cook Christmas dessert.

• 120 g =1/2 a cup Marie biscuits/cookies (digestive or similar)

• 30 g = 2 1/8 tbsp Unsalted Butter

• 3 tbsp Nutella®(or similar)

• 3 tbsp milk (if needed)

• Chocolate cereals shaped like little boats (type coco pops )

• Icing sugar/custard/confectioners ‘sugar

Preparation of the dough

 To prepare the chocolate pinecones, first prepare the chocolate dough.

 Put the cookies in a blender or mixer and reduce them to powder.

Transfer the biscuit powder to a bowl and add the butter into small pieces.

Start kneading, meanwhile add a tablespoon of Nutella at a time.

 You will have to get a soft and malleable dough, if you think it is too hard adding a few drops of milk.

 Divide the dough into 2 portions, and give the shape of a pointed arancino (you don’t know arancino? imagine a fat cone)

 Let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Decoration

With patience, insert the cereals into the dough: to simulate the shape of the pinecone proceed in circles starting from the top. Between one circle and another the cereals should be overlapped a little, as well as the “leaves” of the pinecones in nature.

 Before serving, dust the pinecones with icing sugar/confectioners’/custard sugar

 Set them on the table and then enjoy them!

Suggestion

 do not keep them in the fridge for a long time. They are stored for a couple of hours at room temperature.

I do not recommend freezing. Suggestion

You can enrich the chocolate dough with chopped dried fruit, removing a part of biscuits.

 You can replace Nutella with other types of spreads.

 You can replace the butter with spreadable cheese or fresh cottage cheese.