Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

Place nuts and corn syrup in a 2-quart saucepan. Place over low heat, and cook, stirring, until corn syrup coats nuts. Use a slotted spoon to transfer nuts to prepared baking sheet. Bake until nuts are golden brown and fragrant, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer pan to a wire rack to cool. When nuts are cool, break apart any that are clustered together.

To temper chocolate: Finely chop about 8 ounces of chocolate, and place in a metal bowl. Bring a medium saucepan filled with 2 inches of water to a simmer, and remove from heat. Set the bowl of chopped chocolate over the saucepan. Melt chocolate, stirring gently with a rubber spatula until temperature measures 118 degrees on a chocolate thermometer.

Remove bowl from saucepan, and add remaining 4 ounces of chocolate, in one piece, to melted chocolate. Stir with a rubber spatula until melted chocolate cools to 84 degrees. If necessary, remove unmelted chocolate, and reserve for future use. Place the bowl over the pan. Stir until chocolate reaches 88 to 90 degrees.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Fill a disposable pastry bag half full with tempered chocolate. Cut off 1/4 inch from tip of pastry bag. Pipe ten 1 1/2-inch chocolate circles onto one of the prepared baking sheets, and top each circle with a few nuts (do not pipe more than 10 or 15 at a time, or the chocolate will set before you have a chance to add the nuts). Repeat process until all the chocolate and nuts have been used.

This recipe yields about 55 candies.

Comments: On Christmas Eve in southern France, the holiday meal concludes at midnight with the legendary thirteen desserts (les treize desserts), which represent Christ and the twelve apostles. Fresh and dried fruits and fougasse, a rich celebratory bread, are among the treats.

Yield: 55 candies

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.