Reading the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm in my childhood , I came across several times the strange word “marzipan”. What is it - no one explained, and then the Internet was not. From the text, it became clear that marzipan is something very tasty and beautiful. So in memory he remained. And only after years, finally, it became known what it is. It turned out that marzipan is a sticky paste made from a mixture of almond and powdered sugar, from which various figures are made to decorate cakes and pastries. This delicacy came to us from Europe, where many cities are still arguing for recognizing themselves as the author. The manufacture of marzipan varies not only in different cities and countries, but even from restaurant to restaurant. The ratio of components and additives may differ. In total, there are several hundred of them. Of course, there is no point in citing everything, but we will necessarily describe a few.
How to make marzipan classic?
For it, you need 250 grams of almonds and sugar, 2 raw protein, a few drops of lemon juice.
Boil the nuts with boiling water and remove all the skins. Grind almonds and sugar into fine powder, sift. Add lemon juice to all the powder, adding a little protein, knead the plastic dough. It should be dense, sticky, reminiscent of plasticine.
How to make marzipan mix?
In this recipe, for 175 grams of ordinary almonds, 10 pieces of bitter, 100 grams of powdered sugar, 40 grams of cherry vodka and one protein are added.
Prepare almonds, as in the first recipe, mix with powder, knead the dough. At the very end add vodka.
How to make honey marzipan?
A glass of nuts will need 3 tablespoons of liquid honey, 3 eggs, a baking powder, a glass of flour.
Grind the chopped almonds with honey and add flour a little, constantly kneading the dough. Add baking powder at the end.
How to make marzipan nutty?
It will take 450 grams of hazelnuts, 175 grams of powdered sugar, 235 grams of sugar, 1 protein, 3 yolks, 10 grams of lemon juice, 5 drops of vanilla essence.
Prepare the nuts. Mix sugar, nuts and powder. Mix everything else separately. In the first bowl, make a funnel, pour in the liquid and knead in a thick dough.
The resulting marzipan paste can be colored with food colors or coated with colored aerosols on top of the finished figures. You can store the mass wrapped in cling film in the refrigerator. In order to make figures, you need to roll a ball from marzipan paste, put it on a clean surface, cover with a film on top and roll it into a pancake a couple of millimeters thick. And already from this pancake the figures themselves are made.
Decoration options - infinity. In Europe, many cities have marzipan museums where statues and compositions made only from it are stored. We will not rise to such heights, but we will try to make a rose.
So how to make roses from marzipan? To do this, we will need marzipans in three colors: red, yellow and green. From the yellow marzipan we make a kind of droplet - it will be the middle of the rose. We put it on a toothpick so that the wide part is on top. We cut a six-petal daisy from red marzipan. Notch the petals, not reaching the center. Put the resulting petals on the skewer close to the core. Give the petals a little shape, making the edges thinner and the center convex. One by one, but not in a row, but after one bend the petals to the core, slightly bending the edges of each outward. So you can get a rose bud, if you want to make it more magnificent, repeat the operation with another chamomile, but bend the petals outward more strongly. With a star shape, you need to cut future leaves from green marzipan. They should be pulled out a bit and cuts along the edge for greater resemblance to real ones. Leaflets dress just below the flower.
Marzipan is an expensive pleasure, but the amount of jewelry that can be made from it will more than pay off the costs.