# Making Marzipan



## joyce (Jun 29, 2004)

Once again, I am having a problem in getting ready-made ingredients. This time it is marzipan.
No problem – buy some ground almonds and make some!
But, of course, no ground almonds – whole almonds with or without skins on and flaked almonds.
I used a cooked marzipan recipe so that it will keep.
I used a hand, nut grinder to grind the nuts but the texture was too rough for marzipan. 
A chef I know recommended that I put them in the freezer overnight then put them in the processor a little at a time with an equal amount of sugar (only granulated, icing and brown sugar available here). I processed them until they were fine but had to stop when they showed signs of turning into nut butter. 
I added the ground nuts and sugar mixture to sugar that I had prepared to softball toffee stage, together with egg whites and returned it to the heat to thicken, but the sugar I had ground the nuts with just would not melt properly so the finished marzipan was “gritty”.
Can any one make any suggestions as to how I can process the almonds?
Joyce


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## jock (Dec 4, 2001)

Where do you live Joyce, that you have such limited access to raw ingredients? 

Marzipan is not that complicated I think (in terms of ingredients at least.) It is essentially almonds, sugar and egg whites.

If you do a search on "Baking and Pastry - General" for "How to make marzipan" there is a process there from Joy of Cooking.

Jock


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## joyce (Jun 29, 2004)

I live in Hungary.
Actually making the marzipan is not the problem as I have made it on numerous occasions.
The problem was grinding the almonds fine enough to make the marzipan without producing nut butter.
I put the almonds through a nut mill but found they were not fine enough so upon the advice of a chef I know; I froze the milled nuts and put them in the liquidiser with some granulated sugar. The nuts were perfect but the sugar itself did not grind to a powder before the nuts became butter, consequently the sugar would not melt so the finished marzipan was gritty.
After that, I tried grinding the nuts with some icing sugar and I still had a gritty finish as the shop bought icing sugar itself was not fine enough and I do not have any suitable means to grind it to make icing sugar myself properly.
Eventually, after lots of experimenting, and advice from various people, I have solved the problem as I have been able to obtain a silk sieve (tamis de soie) to put the icing sugar through before I use it to grind with – now I have perfect marzipan.
I did find some ready-made marzipan in the supermarket here and I bought some but when I tasted it, I found that it was at least 50% wheat flour and it tasted awful. It is what they use to make marzipan flowers with to decorate cakes. The cost was horrendous – marzipan in England costs around £4 per kilo here it worked out to about £12 kilo for the inferior product.
Many of the ingredients I would normally use to cook with in England are not available in Hungary, as they do not use them in their cooking so I have to find alternatives all the time – but I must admit I am enjoying the challenge. 
Thanks for your help,
Joyce


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## jock (Dec 4, 2001)

Hungary? Wow, lucky you (I think  )

I noted your concern about the grinding the nuts to the "butter" stage but my process says that that is not only OK but actually desirable. Anyway, good luck with it.

Jock


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