This year a good friend has been asking me to prepare “Dominostones” together. It is a kind of German special Christmas cookie, which is normally purchased at supermarkets because fast machines can make these things much more accurately and faster than human had. However, always up for a challenge. Handmade goods of such rare nature will also be a handy gift.

First, we have to make a thin dough base.
120 g of honey (cheap honey is OK)
30 g of sugar
1 tablespoon of mixed spices (cinnamon, etc., use gingerbread spice)
100 g of wheat flour
100 g of heavy rye flour
1 egg
3 g of ammonium bicarbonate (“Hirschhornsalz”) dissolved in some warm water (10 ml)
3 g of potassium carbonate (“Pottasche”) (dissolved in a little it of warm water)

Warm up the honey a little in the microwave to make it liquid, dissolve the sugar in it. Some little remaining sugar is no problem. Add a mixture of the flour and spices (best, pre-mix as dry powder), add the egg. Add at one side the dissolved ammonium bicarbonate, mix a little, add the potassium carbonate solution at the opposite site (don’t mix these two things together).
Let the dough rest for a few hours (wrap it tightly with cling wrap; not too cold, say, 15-20°C).

Use a good pan with some anti-stick paper, be sure to roll it to a uniform layer. The size of my pan is 43×32 cm. Similar size will also work.

Bake approximate 8-10 minutes at 200°C (upper/lower heat; air convection oven you may try 180°C).

Let it cool down.

Take about 600 g of apricot jam (screen it through a mesh to remove any solids), add 150 g of water with about 9 g of agar-agar (a pale powder). Boil for 2 minutes. Let it cool down with occasional stirring, but don’t let it get firm. Apply to the dough base in one go. First leave a little distance (say, 0.5 cm) to the edge, then apply more and more ensuring that it doesn’t flow down. If to liquid, wait a little, however, it is best to apply all in one operation, to avoid forming layers of gel that can later separate.

After some cooling, apply a marzipan layer.

400 g of marzipan (baking marzipan)
150 g of powdered sugar (not icing sugar or similar mixed products, must be 100% pure powdered sugar)
Kneed the marzipan and sugar to a uniform mass by hand. This takes some effort. First work in 1/3 portions, then combine all together. First, it looks as if it cannot mix, but after a while, it will. Roll this material to a thin layer large enough to cover the full pan. Use small quantities of flour to prevent sticking.

Cut the combined layers. I like to double-stack them: dough-gelly-marzipan-dough-gelly-marzipan. It is recommended to make so nice bite size pieces, not too small. It is an item served in single-piece quantities.

Cover with chocolate, by dipping them first, piece by piece, in chocolate and removing excess chocolate with a wood stick or similar tool. It is important to liquify the chocolate glaze in water bath, don’t overheat it.
About 400 g of chocolate (dark is preferred) will be needed.

Finally, put them in a box for safe storage. Otherwise, they may get eaten faster than you believe. Better to store at about 15-18°C, constant temperature. Don’t put in the fridge.