Homemade marzipans. Christmas recipe

How to prepare homemade marzipan .

I have to admit that making today’s recipe, homemade marzipan , has made me excited and fun.

Starting to model figurines with almond paste has seemed to me the most homemade and Christmas thing I have ever done.

I saw myself as in those advertisements where Christmas appears with the whole house adorned in red and gold, the children decorating the tree dressed in oars jumpers and the fireplace lit, that is, one hundred percent Christmas card.

The truth is that I do not have a fireplace or children or even had the house decorated, but, jokingly, it was very fun. In Spain we use marzipan in many recipes, always as a base to prepare delicious desserts.

In the blog you can find from some traditional almond panellets or the classic panellets with pine nuts or the empanadas , Pan de Cádiz , marzipan eels, almond soups , Gloria bread , delicacies or yolk sweets , very similar to Santo’s bones .

The secret to the success of this dessert is based on the quality of the ingredients . This is even more important due to the fact that these are practically raw in their elaboration. the oven blow should last a few minutes, only to achieve a certain exterior consistency of the marzipan.

Thus, any low-quality product would be much more noticeable and could spoil our production. 

Preparation of the dough and shape of the marzipan

1. Mix the sugar with the ground almonds. It is essential that the sugar is ground since if the grains would not be noticed and there would not be a smooth and uniform paste. This way we avoid that the marzipans are granulated.
2. Separate the white from the yolk of the egg and reserve the yolk in the fridge covered with plastic wrap.
3. We will use it at the end of the process to paint the marzipans.
4. We lightly beat the white and add it to the almond with sugar.
5. Mix well with a fork, breaking up the lumps, until fully integrated.
6. We will have a mixture with a sandy appearance.
7. The dough should be sticky, but not excessively stick to the hands. If it were too sticky it would mean that the white was too big and we solve it by adding a little more almond and sugar in equal parts.
8. If, on the other hand, the dough is a little dry, we can always add a little bit of water. The sign that it is dry is that it will crack too much when handled.
9. With slightly moistened hands, we compact the sandy mixture until it forms a completely uniform and smooth ball.
10. We wrap it in plastic and let it rest for an hour so that everything finishes hydrating.
11. We divide the ball into equal portions, around 15 grams of weight. If we have a kitchen scale we can check each time so that all the portions are of the same weight.
12. This way we will have all the marzipans of the same size.
13. If they are left over (which I doubt) we can freeze this dough for another day, or do double what I indicate in the recipe to have for another day.

Baking and presentation of marzipan

1. We preheat the oven to 200º C.
2. We shape each of the dough portions into marzipan.
3. We are placing them on a baking tray covered with sulfurized paper.
4. We paint each marzipan with the yolk that we have reserved. And we bake at 200º C for 2-3 minutes through the strong grill and we watch so that it does not burn us. You just have to see how the marzipans are browning, in 2 minutes we will see that they are delicious.
5. We let them cool in the same tray, because when they are hot they are very fragile.

Although most of the desserts you consume on Christmas dates are purchased, this is an easy and delicious option to enjoy after-dinner with something homemade, made by you, of yummy.

Here you have a step by step in photos where I show how to prepare this recipe for Christmas marzipan . Do not miss any detail so that they come out of you delicious.

Trivia for a yummy marzipan

• Today’s recipe is one of the quintessential classics on all Christmas tables in our country, but the origin of this dessert dates back far back in time.
• There are endless theories about it, whether in the time of ancient Greece or in Persia, as it seems to be named in the book of The Thousand and One Nights , it is an ancient sweet.
• There is a reference in the first French cookbook for the 17th century, and Italy locates its origin in Sicily in 1193 by the nuns of a monastery.
• Whatever the true story about its origin, what is certain is that it is a jewel of pastry, due to the simplicity and exquisiteness of each bite.
• It is worth using quality almonds such as those of the Marcona variety to make these typically Christmas sweets.
• It is not necessary that they stay in the oven for too long, when we see that they begin to take color it is time to remove them.
• If we leave them too long they will cook, leaving them with a hard and less juicy outer layer. The most difficult part remains, you have to let them cool down to be able to taste our marzipans. Can you hold on?
• In this simple way we have about 30 homemade marzipans. I assure you that you have nothing to envy to any other you buy, I promise you they are delicious.

Types of marzipan

In the market you can find a lot of types of marzipan: eels, potions , the famous yolk cake …

• The so-called eels, typical of Toledo , are nothing more than marzipan modeled in the shape of an eel. But with fruit filling, sweet potato, yolk and angel hair. Decorated on the surface with candied fruit and egg whites.
• The empiñonadas, marzipans that are covered with pine nuts.
• Delights (with candied yolk).
• Yolk cakes (candied yolk filling).
• Gloria cakes (with sweet potato confit).