In the tales of famous German writers, marzipan is often mentioned, an amazing sweet treat, which all children dream of and which often symbolizes a childhood dream. Perhaps that is why, in the very sound of the word "marzipan" you hear something magical, mysterious, leading to the mysterious world of childhood. In fact, marzipan, the recipe for which can be found in ancient cookbooks, is just a dense mass of a mixture of finely ground almonds and powdered sugar with a little water, from which they made candies, made decorations for cakes, Christmas cakes and cookies.
Currently, Germany is famous for its marzipan sweets. Not a single children's party and Christmas market can do without this sweet treat. How to make marzipan? The classic recipe consists exclusively of ground almonds, the oil content of which allows you to achieve the best elasticity and stickiness of the mass, as well as powdered sugar and a small amount of water.
Marzipan. Classic recipe for home cooking
Half a kilogram of sweet kernels and a few bitter almond kernels need to be peeled, and for this it is scalded with boiling water. The peeled almonds are dried in a frying pan (you can in the oven) over low heat, making sure that it does not darken and does not burn. Then the kernels of the nuts need to be ground in a blender into powder. 150 grams of icing sugar must be sieved and mixed well with nut powder. Add one tablespoon of boiled water to the sugar-nut mixture from the spray gun, stirring the mixture continuously so that all of it is evenly moistened. After that, the wet marzipan mixture is passed through a meat grinder four to five times and put in a saucepan on a slow fire, stirring and gradually adding another 50 grams of powdered sugar. Ready marzipan should be uniform, elastic and sufficiently sticky. Various figures are made from it to decorate cakes or just treats for children.
There are other recipes for making this treat, for example, without heat treatment. How to cook marzipan in another way? To improve stickiness, egg white is added to the nut mixture.
Marzipan. Whipped Squirrel Recipe
250 grams of powdered almonds and 250 grams of powdered sugar are mixed well in a bowl and a small spoonful of lemon juice and egg white whipped in a thick foam are added. The mixture is first kneaded in a mixer, and then with your hands until it becomes even and plastic, so that it can be easily rolled into a thin layer or various shapes can be formed from it.
If desired, the marzipan mass is dyed in various colors using food colors. Marzipan figurines can be dipped in chocolate icing from white or dark chocolate, or you can roll the mass into a thin layer and cover it with the surface of a pie or cake instead of glaze. Various decorations in the form of Christmas trees, leaves, flower petals are cut out from a thin layer with curly molds and laid out on the surface of the cake. Marzipan mass, like clay, is easy to sculpt from it, so you can also include children in this activity.
In addition, the marzipan layer is used before coating the cake with icing or royal icing. If you simply apply a layer of glaze on the cake, it dampens and loses its decorative properties. Therefore, before you cover the cake with it, lay thinly rolled marzipan on the cake, the recipe for which it is better to use a classic, protein-free.
Ready marzipan should be stored in foil or film in the refrigerator. It retains its nutritional and taste characteristics for a long time.