Marzipan is one of my favorite ingredients in bakes. It just adds such lovely rich sweetness, and I love almond flavoring. Marzipan fruitcake is one of my darlings, and I love decorating with it too! Basically, I can go through a lot of the stuff, especially at the holidays.
So for years, I made it myself using a professional pastry book- the recipe is incredibly time intensive because you have to blanch whole almonds, *peel* them, dry them, and grind them. It takes forever. But I did it, mainly because marzipan is pretty expensive. Then recently I found a recipe on Pinterest from Mother Would Know that made me go wait a minute, does that work? I couldn’t wait to try it.
And…IT DOES WORK! Just use almond flour. I can’t overstate what a time saver this is! Now I can make awesome marzipan in like five minutes.
Combine the almonds and sugar in a mixer, add the corn syrup and extract, and mix. To make a dough, very gradually add water. Done!
homemade marzipan
Course: DessertCuisine: GermanDifficulty: Easy5
minutesSuper simple money saver!
Ingredients
3 cups Almond flour (the only brand I’ve tried is from Costco but I’m sure any good one will work)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1/4-1/2 teaspoon almond extract (this is really to taste…start small and add more ifyou like)
Directions
- Combine the almond flour and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or large mixing bowl if you’d like to do it by hand)
- Add the corn syrup and extract. Mix.
- Add very small amounts of water at a time, mixing in between. You’re not looking for it to come completely together in a ball…once it holds together when you press it it’s good!
marzipan sugarplums
Now that I’ve got my marzipan, one of my favorite things to do with it is these sweet little fruits. It’s a classic, but they look so festive and taste so yummy. Rolling them in sparkling sugar makes them a bit special!
you’ll need:
- marzipan
- gel food colors
- whole cloves
- paring knife or tapered palette knife
- modeling tools
- corn syrup
- sanding sugar
Roll and pinch the marzipan into your assortment of fruits, and use cloves as needed for stems.
Let sit overnight to dry a bit, so they hold their shape when you add the sugar.
Brush corn syrup on each fruit, and roll in the sugar. Let dry overnight to set.
To make a wreath on top of a cake, pipe a ring of buttercream and arrange the fruits on it. Pipe leaves to fill in gaps.
Happy baking!!
