Homemade marcipan is easily better (but unfortunately not cheaper) than store bought, the reason is that store bought marcipan in general skimps on the almond content (because it is expensive), but then making it yourself, you can experiment with the right content and also you can experiment with taste additives you like.

Yes, this particular marzipan is made with rose water.

Almond extract is a must to enhance the almond taste in marzipan, however my favourite optional taste additives are rose water and vanilla.

Ingredients :

• 4.5 cup of almond ground (roughly 400g)
• 3 cups of icing sugar
• 3 egg whites
• 6 tsp almond extract
• 2 tsb rose water (or 3 tsb vanilla extract)

Process :

1. Mix almond ground & icing sugar in a table top mixer
2. Mix egg whites, almond extract & rose water in a smaller bowl
3. Pour the egg, extract & rose water mix into the almond & icing
4. Start mixing on high speed for a longer time sometimes scrape down the sides of the bowl
5. If you have a STRONG blender, you can also blend the misture (the mixture is very tough and may destroy your blender)
6. Take the mixture out on a film
7. Wrap the mixture and roll it on the table while wrapped
8. Put the wrapped marzipan on something sturdy and set in refrigerator over night

Use cases :

Marzipan can easily be eaten raw as is, however in general it is used as the base for an endless variety of interesting candies and especially baked marzipan is absolutely delicious.

Raw marzipan some with cherry jam, some with dates & almonds and some with chopped walnuts. Then rolled in melted chocolate (high percentage bitter goes well with marzipan), further decorated with nuts and finally put in the refrigerator to harden.

Note that the filled marzipan becomes still better with every day you let it stand untouched in the refrigerator at least for the first week - the fillings will slowly integrate with the marzipan and make an unbelievably tasty marzipan.

Almond paste :

Notice that there is another product nearly the same as marzipan called almond paste. The difference is that almond paste is more soft.

• Marzipan used for : raw eating, raw parts of candies, baking as main ingredient.
• Almond paste used for : fillings typically in cakes.

To make almond paste (that is : soften up the marzipan), you can use several different techniques :

• Add vanilla or almond extract (not too much)
• Add water
• Loosely wrap the marzipan in foiil and steam it in a double boiler 3-5 minutes
• Place the marzipan in an airtight container for 2 days together with lemon or orange peel (the peel should not touch the marzipan)

Storage :

Marzipan should be wrapped airtight in film and then preferably put in an airtight container. If kept airtight, marzipan can be stored up to 2-3 weeks in a dark cold room, up to a month in the refrigerator and up to 6 month in the freezer (then keept in the freezer marzipan tends to dry crack, which can be mitigated using wet wrap or one of the above soften techniques).

Ideas :

• The sugar (4 calories/gram) content of marzipan is horrendous, however I have seen people using alternatives like Dates, Erithritol (0.24 calories/gram) or Xylitol (2.4 calories/gram) - I have tried the date alternative and while some of the properties of the marzipan changes, the taste is closely the same and some even like it better : healthy date based marzipan.
• I think marzipan should be able to be molded, so use molds to create beautiful figures of marzipan.
• Soak raisins or dates and maybe other fillings in rum or port before inserting in the marzipan - I imagine the alcohol would nicely amend the marzipan taste.