On the third day of Christmas, my kitchen gives to you…homemade marzipan! More specifically, homemade marzipan tinted with Christmas colors and molded into adorable Christmas-themed shapes.
Did you know that in Italy, marzipan served over Christmas is painted with fruit coloring and shaped to look like miniature fruit? That’s actually how I remember eating marzipan as a kid — someone would usually gift us with a box of the stuff during the holidays, and I always thought they were too cute to eat. I considered making banana and peach-shaped marzipan this year, but I didn’t want to spend hours tinting candy to just the right colors to look like fruit. Besides, how cute is that little Santa? Even if I were a marzipan fiend, I probably wouldn’t have the heart to eat him. You can’t eat Father Christmas on his own holiday!
In case you’re wondering though, these adorable little treats are 100% edible, and actually quite tasty. While I generally only like almonds that are roasted or chocolate-covered, I can definitely get behind ground almonds mixed with sugar syrup and a crap load of powdered sugar. I have a feeling these would be a hit with kids, both in appearance and taste.
DIY Marzipan
Ingredients:
– 250 grams raw, peeled almonds
– 2 egg whites
– 1/2 cup white sugar
– 2 cups powdered sugar, plus more for kneading
– 1 tsp Almond extract
– Red and green gel food coloring (You can use regular food coloring, but that’s messier and doesn’t sink into the marzipan as well)
Steps:
(1) In a double boiler (or large bowl set over a pot of boiling water), whisk together egg whites and white sugar until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat, and set aside.
(2) In a food processor, grind almonds until they’re as fine as you can get them.
(3) Slowly add about 1/2 the sugar syrup mixture, and pulse until everything is incorporated.
(4) Add powdered sugar and pulse. A ball should form in your dough.
(5) Turn dough over onto a flat surface dusted with powdered sugar. Sprinkle with more powdered sugar and knead. Keep adding powdered sugar as kneaded until your marzipan is smooth and pliable.
** You’ll end up using way more than you think…my marzipan stayed stubbornly sticky for a long time and I ended up using probably close to 4 cups of powdered sugar.
(6) Break marzipan into many pieces and color them individually with food coloring. Shape as desired.
(7) Enjoy!
EAT HIM!
NO, I won’t do it!
I made the exact same marzipan recipe to make a marzipan santa last week! I left mine in the fridge before molding though and it did NOT come out pretty enough to shoot. It’s super cool (and cheaper) to do the homemade route, but not as easy to work with as I had hoped! Yours like great though 🙂
Thanks! I actually only used part of my marzipan the first day and put the rest in the fridge…haven’t tried working with it again, but now maybe I won’t anymore and just eat it plain!
I made marzipan and the marzipan came out much smoother and more like play dough
I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be! My food processor couldn’t get the almonds chopped fine enough so my marzipan was much grainier than I wanted it to be 🙁