Marzipan
Homemade marzipan is a revelation and is certainly worth the small effort involved in making it. You can use this recipe to make marzipan to coat a Christmas cake or to make chocolate-covered marzipans, which make great festive gifts.
For this recipe you will need a sugar thermometer. For the chocolate marzipans, you’ll need a 3–4cm cookie cutter.
Ingredients
For the marzipan
- 275g/9¾oz caster sugar
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar
- 100g/3½oz blanched almonds
- 200g/7oz ground almonds
- 2 medium egg yolks
- 1 tsp finely grated unwaxed lemon zest
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tbsp brandy or Kirsch
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- pinch salt
- icing sugar, for dusting
For the chocolate marzipan pieces (optional)
- 150g/5½oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely chopped
- candied orange peels, nibbed pistachios, edible silver or gold balls, to decorate
Method
Tip the sugar into a medium saucepan, add the cream of tartar and 150ml/5fl oz water. Stir to dissolve the sugar, pop a sugar thermometer into the pan and bring the syrup to the boil. Continue to cook steadily until the syrup reaches 118C. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the syrup to cool for 3–4 minutes.
Meanwhile, whizz the blanched almonds in the food processor until finely ground and mix with the ground almonds.
Tip the nuts and the remaining ingredients into the pan and, using a rubber spatula, beat until smooth. Return to a low heat and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring continuously to cook the eggs and to thicken the almond paste. Scoop the marzipan into a bowl, cover the surface with cling film and leave until cold.
Flatten the cooled marzipan into a disc, wrap in cling film and store in the fridge until ready to use.
When ready to use, dust the work surface with icing sugar and knead until smooth and softened slightly before rolling out.
To make the chocolate marzipan, line a baking sheet with baking paper. Roll out 175g/6oz marzipan to a thickness of 3–4mm.
Using a 3–4cm cookie cutter, stamp out as many pieces as you can from the marzipan and arrange on the baking sheet. Gather the marzipan off-cuts together, knead gently into a smooth ball and re-roll and stamp out more shapes. You should have about 20 pieces in all. Pop the tray in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Melt 100g/3½oz of the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Stir until smooth then remove from the heat.
Add the remaining chocolate and mix until melted and combined. Leave to cool for 10 minutes and then return the bowl to the pan of simmering water and heat the chocolate until runny again.
Gently dip one piece of marzipan at a time in the melted chocolate and turn to coat using a fork. Lift the marzipan out of the chocolate on the fork, allowing any excess to drip back into the bowl. Slide the chocolate-coated marzipan back onto the baking paper with the help of a palette knife and press your decoration(s) onto the top.
Repeat with the remaining marzipan pieces and leave the chocolate to set completely before packaging into bags or boxes.
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