Can you believe that you can start with almonds and sugar and end up with a creation like this? That's what I love about baking and pastry. You can use such simple ingredients and precisely mixed together with a bit of creativity, you can do amazing things that just happen to taste wonderful as well. All my family knows that I LOVE marzipan. Whether it's plain, sugar covered, fruit shaped, draped in chocolate or topping a cake, I have always liked the texture and lovely almond flavour of marzipan. In fact, I can't recall a Christmas when I haven't received marzipan in some form. However, I have never attempted making it myself and now was the time. It was fun and sure was an experience, but it was no easy feat.
Here are the ingredients I started with: blanched almonds, granulated sugar and powdered sugar. I used a full pound of each that I weighed on my kitchen scale. The glittery granulated sugar was so pretty with the bare blanched almonds and I was so excited to be trying to turn this into a smooth paste.
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The first step was to grid the almonds and sugar together in the food processor. It was ground finely and I was able to clump it together, but it was no paste. The recipe in my Marzipan book indicated to slowly add powdered sugar and knead it into a smooth paste. Easy, right? No.... After a LONG time of kneading, I needed a break! I reviewed other marzipan recipes online (the ones that do not require cooking it) and realized that I should probably add in some egg whites. So, that is what I did and I also turned to my trusty Kitchenaid mixer to help me do some kneading.
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After adding the egg whites and using the mixer, it was FINALLY coming together - yes! I created several small balls of marzipan at this point so it was easier to work with. I continued to knead it at this point, and put it on some plastic wrap to keep it moist and help it to stay together.
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After all the kneading, came the fun part - colouring it! I used my new gel paste food coloring and used green since it's just before St. Patrick's day and I'm out to make marzipan shamrocks.
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I added several drops, but wanted a brighter green, so we added more color. This was a happy process though now that we have our marzipan paste!
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Then, I rolled out the colored marzipan to the thickness I wanted and was ready to create shamrocks. But, I don't have a little shamrock cookie cutter. I tried to freehand the shamrocks, but they just didn't look good. So, I used a maple leaf cookie cutter and used a toothpick to push it out and keep it intact. Then, I cut off a few edges of the leaf shape and formed them into cute little shamrocks.
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Yeah - I did it! Not only was I able to create the paste and make something out of it, it tasted wonderful. I wrapped all the other marzipan in plastic wrap and foil and I'm attempting to freeze to see if I can thaw it later to use for more decorations. Get ready to top cupcakes you cute little shamrocks!
Meringues
