Marzipan is a candy or a confection made of almonds and sugar or honey as a sweetener, plus flavorings such as almond oil or almond extract, rose water, or orange blossom water. Commercially produced marzipan often contains additives and preservatives such as glucose syrup, invertase, or sorbic acid.
For commercially produced marzipan, raw almonds are blanched to remove their skins, then they are ground into almond flour and roasted. Because of its light color, marzipan lends itself to dying.
What Is Marzipan Used For?
Marzipan is used in a variety of dessert and candy recipes, including everything from cookies and cakes to truffles and pralines. Marzipan is also often dyed and shaped into miniature fruits to be enjoyed on their own or used to decorate cakes. Chocolate-covered marzipan is one of the simplest ways to prepare and enjoy marzipan, whether you make your own marzipan from scratch or use store-bought.
What Ingredients Are in Marzipan?
Almonds and sugar are the two basic ingredients in marzipan, and all you need to make marzipan at home. Optionally, you can also add flavorings and/or food coloring.
Beyond the basic ingredients of almonds and sugar, the ingredients and types of marzipan vary, often from country to country. Most commercially produced, European-style marzipan does not contain egg whites so it's vegan.
Strictly speaking, marzipan is always made with almonds. However, marzipan-like confections made of nuts instead of almonds, such as pistachio marzipan, are also often referred to as marzipan.
In the United States, marzipan is a fine-textured, ready-to-eat confection, unlike almond paste. You can find marzipan in the baking aisle of well-stocked grocery stores or it can be purchased online. In some countries, marzipan contains bitter almonds, though this is not so in the U.S., as their sale is prohibited.
In Germany, which is renowned for its marzipan, especially the Lübecker Marzipan from the north German city of Lübeck, food laws regulate the different marzipan classifications. The quality of the marzipan is determined by the ratio of sugar and the raw marzipan material called Marzipanrohmasse which may not be more than 1:1. In other words, the higher the amount of almonds, the better the marzipan quality. German marzipan is often shaped like a loaf of bread, or into marzipan potatoes. For New Year's, marzipan is shaped into piglets with a clover leaf for good luck. There are numerous regional marzipan specialties, of which the filigree Königsberger marzipan with a caramelized top might be the most sought after.
British Marzipan
In Britain, supermarkets sell both white and golden marzipan. White marzipan is the preferred marzipan for dying with food coloring. It is also used to make three-dimensional cake decorations such as fruits or vegetables. Golden marzipan on the other hand is mostly used to cover cakes, such as Battenburg cake and the traditional British Christmas fruitcake.
Almost every European country has its own marzipan creations. Sicily in Italy is home to two famous specialties with marzipan, the dessert Cassata and Frutta martorana, miniature fruit-shaped marzipan. A Spanish marzipan specialty is mazapán de Toledo from the Spanish province of Toledo. Swedish Princess cake is a layered cake covered with green marzipan.
How to Store Marzipan
Marzipan needs to be stored air-tight to prevent it from drying out. Due to the oil contained in the almonds, it should be kept in a cool, dark place like the refrigerator so it won't turn rancid.
Once opened, commercially produced marzipan is a bit less prone to drying out than homemade marzipan, but try to use an opened package within seven to 10 days.
If marzipan dries out, it cannot be turned smooth again but no need to throw it out -- only the texture is affected and it is still perfectly edible. Add it to a crumble topping for muffins or coffee cake or sprinkle it over ice cream.
Can You Freeze Marzipan?
Yes, marzipan can be frozen! Freezing marzipan leftovers, whether store-bought or homemade, is the best way to prevent it from drying out. Wrap it tightly in freezer bags and freeze for up to six months. There is no need to freeze unopened commercially produced marzipan, as it is well sealed and will stay fresh until the expiration date.
More About Marzipan...
Whether you're already a marzipan fan or just wondering what to do with marzipan, we have loads of recipes and resources to meet all of your marzipan needs!
Browse our most festive marzipan recipes for the holidays
Learn How to Make Marzipan, step-by-step
Watch how to make marzipan potatoes, a classic German treat
What Is Marzipan Used For? Marzipan is used in a variety of dessert and candy recipes, including everything from cookies and cakes to truffles and pralines. Marzipan is also often dyed and shaped into miniature fruits to be enjoyed on their own or used to decorate cakes.
You can eat it as-is like candy, or press it into molds to make fun shapes like fruits, stars or animals. It can also be used like fondant as a cake topper or placed between two cake layers to create a flavorful divider.
The glory of marzipan is because it holds a shape easily, you can cut out or mold your own figures to decorate holiday pastries. It's also used as a kind of heavy-duty frosting for Christmas cakes because it helps long-keeping cakes (like fruitcakes) retain their moisture instead of going stale.
Marzipan gives essence to almond croissants, king cakes, stollen and some holiday cookies. It is pliable enough to behave like fondant for covering layer cakes, as in the Swedish princess cake. It may be woven into your DNA as it is mine through any number of lineages.
What Does Marzipan Taste Like? Marzipan has a very sweet, nutty almond flavor. Its texture is soft, chewy and slightly rough due to the ground up almonds.
1 Because marzipan is based on almonds, it is a sufficient content of vitamin E, in fact, as in the walnut. This vitamin in nature is a very powerful antioxidant and helps to fight stress and nervous tension.
Like sugarpaste, marzipan will start to harden when it is exposed to the air so keep any unused marzipan tightly wrapped in plastic food bags. It does not need to be kept in the fridge.
It's common for commercially packaged marzipan to easily last between six months and a year if properly stored, while artisanal one will need extra care and is likely to only last half as long (three months).
Marzipan is used to make sweet treats like candies, icing sugar, fruit cakes, cupcakes, and fruit breads. You can make your own marzipan by blending almonds, egg whites, and sugar, or you can purchase it at the grocery store, where it is sometimes sold under the name “almond candy dough.”
Also called almond candy dough, marzipan is an agreeable, multi-purpose combo of the first two, with a subtle almond flavor and unmatched malleability. Be sure to try these marzipan cake recipes.
Marzipan comes from nuts—it's traditionally made with ground almonds. In order to maintain quality standards, many countries regulate the percentage of almonds a recipe must have for it to be legally called "marzipan." This discourages the use of apricot kernels as a cheap substitute for almonds.
Commercially produced marzipan contains around 28% almonds and 21 grams sugar per 2 tablespoons so it's sweeter than almond paste. Because marzipan is stiff, it lends itself to be cut out or shaped three-dimensionally for candies shaped like fruits, or for cake and pastry decorations.
When people say they don't like Christmas cake, often they mean they don't like marzipan. Oddly, the paste elicits strong feelings while its core ingredient, almonds, often don't. For some, it tastes too bitter. “Almonds take you to bitterness, they can stop short, but they take you to bitterness.
Marzipan will start to harden when it is exposed to the air, so keep any unused marzipan tightly wrapped in plastic food bags. It does not need to be kept in the fridge, but do note the Best Before date if you remove it from the original packaging.
While there are no standards in the US for almond content in marzipan, it tends to be between 25 and 30 percent by weight. Marzipan can be eaten raw and is used to make candies, ice cakes, or as a filling.
The tip notes that the marzipan should be left to dry out, so it doesn't seep into the icing. How should the cake be stored during this "drying out period"? I make the cake 6 weeks before Christmas and store wrapped in parchment and tin foil inside a sealed tin.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me you would have to eat at least 35 kilograms of marzipan in one sitting to get a lethal dose of cyanide – at which point it really isn't the cyanide you should be worrying about. Marzipan is flavoured with almonds – and almonds contain a source of cyanide, amygdalin.
Made from finely ground blanched almonds, confectioners' sugar, and sometimes corn syrup and egg whites, marzipan is a soft dough-like mixture that can be shaped into cookies, cake toppings, or tiny figurines. It's unique in that it acts like playdough and can be used in replacement for fondant.
Introduction: My name is Saturnina Altenwerth DVM, I am a witty, perfect, combative, beautiful, determined, fancy, determined person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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