Mendiants

These are my own favourites – little discs of chocolate sprinkled with whatever you like best: almonds, candied lemon peel, glace cherries, walnuts or fat Malaga raisins. Anouchka likes to do the artistic part (while I do most of the eating). The name means ‘beggars’. Traditionally served at Christmas with toppings of dried fruit and nuts in four colours, they were meant to represent the four Roman Catholic mendicant orders (white for the Dominicans, grey for the Franciscans, brown for the