Why learn how to make marzipan? Because it’s delicious and much easier to make at home than you might have thought. It does not even require baking or cooking.
If you don’t even know what marzipan is, don’t feel left out – join the club. I didn’t know anything about it until I needed to use it in a recipe.
Have you ever seen adorable edible fruits, vegetables, animals or other items sitting on top of a cake or candy or in a bakery store case. Did you ever wonder what they are made of?
It’s marzipan, a combination of blanched and finely ground almonds, sugar, and something to bind those ingredients together. The confection is also used in lots of baked goods, especially Danish pastry, and those beautiful almond crescents I lust after in bakery cases.
Grocery stores sell marzipan (typically near chips and other baking supplies), but it’s frightfully expensive. Now that I know how to make this delight, I’ll never have to pay those high prices again. Plus, when I mentioned this adventure to several friends, their eyes lit up, so I’ll revisit this homemade goodie at holiday time. It would make an easy and delicious homemade gift, like candied ginger and chocolate bark.
Marzipan came on my radar when I made my friend Marguerite’s gluten-free berry cake. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of gluten-free marzipan. The only brand I could find, Odense, claims to be gluten-free, but uses wheat starch. (The company website says that the amount of wheat contained in their marzipan is below the FDA standard so they can call their product gluten-free.) That fact, plus the $6 price tag (for more than I needed) convinced me to make my own marzipan.
Down the rabbit hole I went.
I learned a lot about commercially prepared marzipan and how to make marzipan at home:
- You can make it by cooking the ingredients, or you can make it without heating them at all.
- The ratio of ground almonds to sugar in marzipan varies tremendously depending on the recipe. I found ratios of almonds to sugar from just over 1-to-4 (in the Odense brand) to a 3-to-2 ratio in one homemade recipe.
- Marzipan need a binding agent to hold the dry ingredients together. That binding agent can be egg white, lemon juice, corn syrup or other liquid sugar, water, liqueur (especially Kirsch, which is cherry-flavored) or some combination. For food safety reasons, it is not advisable to use an egg white if you are doing the uncooked version (unless the marzipan will be baked into a pastry.)
- Some recipes give the marzipan a flavor boost with almond extract, while others do not.
- If the almond flavor is more intense, the sweet is called almond paste, rather than marzipan. However, in practice the name is not always a good guide to what percentage of the sweet is actually almonds. For example, Odense brand marzipan is 28% almonds and Odense almond paste is 45% almonds. Another brand, Love ‘n Bake, uses 40% almonds in its marzipan, making it almost like the Odense almond paste. The Love ‘n Bake almond paste is made with 66% almonds.
To see how easy it is to make marzipan, watch the video:
Luckily, I promised a neighbor some of my marzipan or I might have eaten the whole log myself.
Marzipan
Homemade marzipan is much tastier than store-bought, and a lot less expensive.
Ingredients
- 3 5/8 ounces blanched ground almonds Approximately 1 cup
- 5 2/5 ounces confectioners (powdered) sugar Approximately 2 cups
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
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Sift the almond flour and confectioners sugar together into a large bowl and mix them until they are well combined. The mixture looks like a pillowy, off-white powder.
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Mix the almond extract and corn syrup together, then add them to dry ingredients.
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Add water very slowly, by no more than half tablespoons at a time, working the mixture until it becomes dough-like. I usually begin with a fork or spatula, then switch to using my hands. Try to use no more than 1-2 tablespoons of water total - use the minimum amount that will, with the heat of your hands mixing the ingredients, allow you to roll it into a log.
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Put the log into a gallon-size freezer bag, gently roll the log a bit more to smooth it out, and refrigerate the log for at least one hour before serving or using in baked goods.
Recipe Notes
The recipe uses only 4 ingredients, 5 if you count water.
Use well-blanched almond flour that is light tan in color, not almond flour that contains the dark skins of the almonds.
I used store brand almond extract. Although I was tempted to buy the expensive stuff, it turns out that when my son, Liam, and his friends did an almond extract taste test, the store brand was actually preferred by several of my taste testers.
To serve the marzipan on its own, slice the log into pieces 1/4-1/2 inch thick.
If you want to really go to town, cut each piece in half and dip it in melted chocolate.
Here is the Gluten-Free Berry Cake that started this marzipan adventure.
Anne-Marie @ This Mama Cooks! On a Diet says
November 23, 2014 at 4:11 pmI adore marizpan and your recipes looks fantastic! Plus it’s so hard to get fresh marzipan. It’s always very dried out. When I was a kid I came across a recipe in National Geographic Kids for a marizpan recipe that used potatoes and almond extract. However, this was back in the ’70s when it was hard to get almond flour or even raw almonds, so it was a decent alternative.
motherwouldknow says
November 24, 2014 at 1:58 pmAnn-Marie, So glad you like the marzipan and the recipes. Now that I know how to make it myself, I’m not buying it – so much easier and less expensive these days. A far cry from those days in the 1970’s (yes, I remember them too) when it was difficult to get raw almonds or almond flour.
Sharon (Shari) Jones says
October 6, 2018 at 11:14 pmSo, from what you’re saying, are almond flour and ground blanched almonds the same thing?
Laura says
October 11, 2018 at 9:54 pmYes. Typically almond flour is a bit finer than you can get by home grinding your blanched almonds, but in theory they are the same.
Barrett @ Dirty Laundry Kitchen says
February 12, 2015 at 5:34 pmAs a huge almond fan, I’m excited to try this sometime. Marzipan is one of the things I almost always have on hand, but how cool to make your own.
Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious says
February 13, 2015 at 12:08 amI am such a fan of almond extract. I adore this!
Joanie @ ZagLeft says
February 13, 2015 at 1:24 pmThis is a fantastic post. I love it when the opportunity presents itself and we have to teach ourselves something new. I’ve wondered how to make marzipan so I’ll be bookmarking this to try in the future.
Cyrus says
April 21, 2015 at 2:02 amI had no idea that making marzipan could be done so easy. I had always been intimidated by its seeming intricateness to make!
motherwouldknow says
April 22, 2015 at 1:28 pmCyrus – Thanks for stopping by. Do try it. Making marzipan is like making homemade Play Doh 🙂
Arman @ thebigmansworld says
April 21, 2015 at 7:58 amLaura this is a fantastic tutorial- I used to love breaking apart candy houses as a kid and almost breaking my teeth on marzipan..then getting chased with a wooden spoon.
motherwouldknow says
April 22, 2015 at 1:21 pmArman, I’m imagining you breaking the candy houses with your sister standing by, frantically calling for your mom (or mum as I guess you’d call her:)
Ashley @ Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen says
April 21, 2015 at 3:39 pmI’ve never made my own marzipan – great tutorial! I think my toddler would have fun helping out in the kitchen with this, and then making little animals/shapes that he can then eat 🙂
motherwouldknow says
April 22, 2015 at 1:21 pmAshley – I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as your toddler will. It’s a blast. Brings back memories of Play Doh for me, but this stuff is divinely edible.
Rene B. says
April 21, 2015 at 10:45 pmIt’s been over a decade since I last made marzipan: I’d forgotten how much I love it until I was reading through your post. I especially enjoy making little fruit baskets to give out for the holidays.
motherwouldknow says
April 22, 2015 at 1:19 pmRenee, How lovely that you’ve already made marzipan. I was amazed at how simple it was and how many memories it brings back for friends and relatives.
Brenda says
October 26, 2015 at 4:26 pmMy dad has a birthday on the 2nd of November and he absolutely loves marzipan. I think I am going to make this for him for his birthday instead of his usual block of swiss cheese. How long will this stay fresh?
Laura says
October 26, 2015 at 9:47 pmBrenda, I’m delighted that you’re going to make it for your dad. I’ve never been able to keep it around long enough to test its “shelf life” but I would keep it tightly covered and refrigerated for however long it lasts. I checked around the net and soem sources said to refrigerate it and others said not to do so. I would because it is basically a nut dough and I store opened packages of nuts in the refrigerator. I would imagine that it should last at least several weeks, but again, I haven’t tested it for length of storage.
Brenda says
November 1, 2015 at 8:46 pmGave my dad his marzipan tonight and he absolutely loved it! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! Do you have other recipes that you include marzipan in? My dad is curious.
Heike says
November 1, 2015 at 1:30 pmHello,
I love your recipe! I have made marzipan myself, but thank you for your tip using corn syrup, great idea! Also I would like to recommend adding a spoonful of rose water which is widely used in the orient for making sweet dishes. Try it out, it brings marzipan up a notch! Thank you for your great website!!!
Laura says
November 1, 2015 at 11:03 pmMany thanks for your kind words Heike. I’m definitely going to try your tip about adding rosewater – I do love it in Middle Eastern sweets.
David says
November 7, 2015 at 11:49 amLaura, you mention not using egg white, but what about egg whites from pasteurized eggs?. I like your tutorial.
Laura says
November 22, 2015 at 7:30 pmDavid, You’re right that using pasteurized egg whites in homemade marzipan is a good way to avoid the safety concerns associated with using raw egg whites in uncooked marzipan. Glad you liked the tutorial.
Joan Wells says
February 8, 2016 at 11:58 amI tried this recipe and it is not marzipan! It tastes like almond flavoured sugar. I have tasted marzipan all over Europe and it is nothing like this. I wasted my ingredients making it. First time I have ever had to make a negative comment , but I do not want people to think this passes as marzipan.
Laura says
February 12, 2016 at 4:56 pmSorry to hear that you didn’t like the marzipan. Before writing this post and creating the recipe, I extensively researched marzipan and have tasted my fair share of it – in Europe and in the states. This recipe works for me and many others who have tried it. Last week I used a slight variation in Dutch pastries called rondos and banket – a number of Dutch friends raved about them, including the filling. PS – The recipe only works well with very high quality blanched almonds. If the almonds aren’t blanched (as in the ground almonds that Trader Joe’s sells) or if the almonds are not very finely ground, I can imagine that the marzipan would not taste very good.
Emily says
April 7, 2016 at 7:20 pmHI Laura,
Thanks for the good Marzipan Recipe. I just made it and it turned out really good ,soft and pliable. I like to know, if i can substitute honey for corn syrup?
some recipes call for bitter almond extract or ground bitter almond, any idea how much i can use in this recipe?. Finally what kind of coloring should be used to color the marzipan? ( preferably natural colors).
can I use cocoa butter colors?
Thank you for answering my questions.
Best Regards
Emily
Laura says
April 13, 2016 at 11:40 amEmily,
Many thanks for stopping by and for your kind words. I have never tried honey as a substitute for corn syrup. I think it would work, but can’t be sure. I couldn’t find bitter almond extract or ground bitter almond so I didn’t get to try it in this recipe. Here is some advice I found on using bitter almonds. Apparently marzipan made in Lubeck, Germany is supposed to be the best in the world. The recipe is simple, “The best marzipan recipes use a two to one ratio of almonds and sugar. The old masters don’t consider a mix that contains more than half sugar as true marzipan. A trick used to make really great marzipan is to use 1 bitter almond to every 100 good almonds in the almond mix. If you’ve ever tasted a bitter almond, you understand how only one can have a serious effect. The smallest taste is an extremely gross experience you won’t soon forget. A bitter almond uniquely alters the recipe and is always used in the best almond paste used in marzipan. One note about bitter almonds: do not be eat them in large amounts because they contain to trace amounts of cyanide.” http://www.cheftalk.com/t/7620/questions-about-marzipan While that doesn’t tell you exactly how much to use in this recipe, it does suggest that you would use very little. Using natural food colors is a great idea. I haven’t tried it, but do let me know what you find out if you play around with them. Regards, Laura
Attila says
August 9, 2016 at 1:36 pmHi … I don’t like the, even it not so much, granulated sugar feel coming from the confectioners sugar when tasting marzipan. I tried the recipe without it, but it was too sticky. Is there any good recipe without confectioners sugar and the end result is not too sticky? Thanks.
Laura says
August 11, 2016 at 4:40 pmAttila, Sorry if the marzipan isn’t to your taste. I’m not sure what you’re looking for in terms of a substitution for the confectioners sugar. You need a sweetening agent: sugar, honey, or an artificial sweetener such as swerve is required.
Faith (An Edible Mosaic) says
December 9, 2016 at 8:29 amI love marzipan, but I’ve only made it once and that was years ago. It’s so addictively delicious, and I can imagine that dipping it into chocolate really takes it over the top!
Laura says
December 18, 2016 at 6:13 pmFaith, Even thinking about chocolate-dipped marzipan brings a smile to my face. Thanks for stopping by and happy holidays.
olivia @ livforcake says
December 9, 2016 at 1:03 pmWow, this is way easier than I thought it would be! Who knew there were so many variations in recipes. Thanks for the insight!!
Erik says
December 14, 2016 at 6:02 pmI must had done something wrong. It came out really dry. I followed the recipe. Came out dry
Laura says
December 18, 2016 at 5:45 pmErik, So sorry to hear that. I have made this recipe several times and it always works for me. There may be reasons (such as the dryness of your climate or a slight difference in the amounts of various ingredients used) that could cause the marzipan to need additional water to make it hold together. If you add a bit more corn syrup, it will be sweeter, but will also possibly hold together better. Hope you’ll find the glitch and get a better batch next time.
Carol K. says
December 31, 2016 at 3:00 pmI had the same problem as Erik. Even added additional corn syrup and the full 1 Tblsp. of water. I used Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour but it was cold when I started. Wonder if that made a difference.
Laura says
January 5, 2017 at 4:50 pmCarol, Hmmm. I’ll have to try it with cold and room temperature flour to see if it makes a difference. Thanks for stopping by and letting me know your experience with the recipe.
Carol K. says
December 31, 2016 at 11:45 amHow long will this keep pls. and can it be frozen for later use?
Thank you in advance
Laura says
January 5, 2017 at 4:53 pmCarol, I’ve never tried to keep the marzipan longer than a few days and haven’t frozen it, so I don’t know. Most of the time, I’ve used the marzipan immediately for a recipe. It seems as if it should freeze, though I wonder if the consistency would become more crumbly.
Misty Garrison says
September 15, 2017 at 9:23 amMy mouth is watering after reading your site. I made marzipan when I was a teen and remember how fun and great it tasted. So happy I stumbled upon your site, will let you know how it turns out. Thanks, Misty
Laura says
September 18, 2017 at 12:24 pmMisty, So glad you stopped by. Hope you’ll become a regular here.
julie Lewis says
October 17, 2017 at 5:26 amMarzipan cannot be imported to Australia anymore. Thanks for this, it will be my job for tomorrow.
loving Christmas baking.
Kyle says
December 7, 2017 at 2:26 pmHello Julia,
Wanted to ask about Marzipan not being imported to Australia anymore. Do you know why? I am aware that most of the world’s production of almonds comes from California where genetic modification is being applied (saw it on my box of store-bought marzipan for the first time this year). Perhaps due to this tinkering, Australia doesn’t want it such crops to be brought into the country. If that’s indeed the case, then I applaud Australian officials for their decision.
Kyle says
December 7, 2017 at 2:20 pmInteresting that you use light corn syrup with vanilla (see posted image). Until seeing this recipe, I hadn’t known there to be corn syrup with vanilla. Most other recipes use egg whites (usually pasteurized). Does the corn syrup make for a moister mix (rather than egg whites)?
Laura says
January 15, 2018 at 3:58 pmKyle, It’s difficult to find pasteurized eggs where I live and corn syrup is easily available. I haven’t tried the recipe with the egg whites, so I can’t say whether the corn syrup makes the mix moister. I use almond extract, not vanilla, so I’m not sure what your comment about the vanilla is about.
Markus says
April 6, 2018 at 5:04 amAbsolutely divine ; like many other people here, I didn’t realise how easy it was to make my very own marzipan 🙂 I love strong tastes so actually ended up putting in double quantity of almond essence and also added 1 teaspoon of rose water. Me and my kids are polishing it off.
Laura says
April 10, 2018 at 4:42 pmMarkus, How wonderful that you’ve made this discovery. Glad you and your kids are enjoying homemade marzipan now.
Nancy says
May 3, 2018 at 7:00 pmI know it wouldn’t be real marzipan but I’m allergic to tree nuts but saw this lovely fruit that I believe was made with marzipan. It looked like the real fruit and it had what looked like pie fillings inside and the fruit had a hard sugar coating and stems so it looked like cherries and apples, oranges or peaches with fuzzy coating and when they cut them the filling flowed out. Looked like marzipan surrounded the filling.
So I was wondering, know it wouldn’t taste the same, if you could use like rice flour, peanut flour or something like that and put a different flavor that would represent the fruit you were making. Didn’t think regular flour would work as I would think it needed to be baked or would taste like raw flour.
Hope you have an answer, I don’t do that much baking but these looked really good. 😋
Laura says
May 4, 2018 at 11:43 amI do wish that I had an answer for you but I’ve never come across anything like what you’re describing. Your question made me wonder if there is a solution and in a few minutes of quick “googling” I came up with a couple of recipes for a semolina flour and sugar recipe that seems like it gets good reviews. Here is an example: https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/nut-free-marzipan.html Hope that helps.
Dee Myers says
December 14, 2018 at 9:48 pmCaster sugar may work for the lady who did not like powdered sugar.I despise the taste of it too. a pinch of salt can help take the edge off the sharpness of the sugar.
Caster sugar has a texture between granulated and powdered sugar.Candy recipes rarely take well to altering but try this and see if you like the results.it made a fine light marzipan.
Laura says
December 18, 2018 at 7:01 pmDee, Many thanks. I think it’s difficult to find caster sugar in the US, but I’ll bet it makes a fine marzipan.
jeewan says
December 22, 2018 at 6:20 amthis recipe was the uncooked version like to share the cooked version hearing from u soon christmas is around the corner we don get marzipan here in our country,
Laura says
December 29, 2018 at 10:56 amJeewan, Thanks for stopping by. Glad you liked this version. I haven’t done a cooked version. If you do one, I hope you’ll let us know how it goes.
B says
January 17, 2019 at 8:56 amHello could you tell me if this recipe would hold up in the middle of stollen bread ? I have read for marzipan to hold firm in baking you have to use egg whites ,any info would help I so want to use your recipe ,thanks
Laura says
January 18, 2019 at 2:30 pmI haven’t tried this marzipan recipe in stollen bread, though now that you mention it, stollen is on my bucket list of things I want to bake. I would imagine that it should work because this version can be rolled out. For example, see Paul Hollywood’s version of stollen (which he demonstrates in a masterpiece class on The Great British Baking Show – and yes, I know stollen is German and not British in origin – https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/stollen_27553. If you try it, please let us know how it works. I’m definitely interested in trying stollen. And also let me know which stollen recipe you use. Thanks.
Olga says
March 4, 2019 at 2:31 pmLaura, it’s really awesome! This will quickly become a favorite in our house!
Laura says
March 11, 2019 at 1:22 pmOlga, Many thanks. I made some more just a few weeks ago – really a money saver for marzipan lovers.
Nataly says
March 19, 2019 at 1:07 pmThat recipe looks so yummy! I’ll have to try that one. Thanks for sharing.
Laura says
March 20, 2019 at 10:39 amNataly, Hope you enjoy it. Making marzipan is a snap – so much more delicious and less expensive than store-bought.
Claire Grover says
March 30, 2019 at 5:53 pmThis wasn’t great. I’ve made marzipan half a dozen times, searching for the perfect recipe. I have a pronounced sweet tooth, but this was sickly sweet to my taste. I also feel cheated out of expensive ingredients.
Laura says
April 2, 2019 at 11:29 amClaire, Sorry you didn’t like this version. As the post indicates, there are many versions out there with different ratios of almond flour to sweetener.
Al says
April 28, 2019 at 9:40 pmThank you so much for this. Was in a hurry tonight, dumped the pound of TJ’s almonds I blanched (a little too long) in the food processor, eyeballed the rest of the ingredients, realized we had only vanilla instead of almond extract, and made it anyway. It came out great, though technically not marzipan — husband who’d never touch marzipan likes this batch as he’s not a fan of almond extract. (BTW, the H2O took me by surprise as it wasn’t in the ingredient list “wait! what?” 🙂 ). Anyway, we’re part German descent and have tried lots of marzipan from all over. This was just as good, super-fresh, and no extra sorbitol or other sugars or coloring. An easy and very forgiving recipe.
Laura says
April 29, 2019 at 11:26 amAl, Delighted that you liked the recipe and honored that you found it to pass the “family heritage taste test.” As to why water is in the recipe but not listed among the ingredients, that is a convention among recipe writers. Water has not traditionally been included as an ingredient. However, that may be changing as I noticed water listed in the ingredients in a new cookbook I bought, so I’ll change my style if I’m behind the times:)
Robert Parker says
May 5, 2019 at 5:09 amYou may like to mention that there are some people that either do not like Almond, or are allergic to that particular nut.
I found this out when a friend told me they could not use Marzipan because of this.
I substituted Hazlenut for almond. I took the hazlenuts and blitzed them in a coffe grinder until they were the correct consistency, i.e. flour. I used a mix of Icing and granulateed sugar, also blitzed to break down the granules.
I did use egg as a binder, also a little honey in the water.
I have since experimented with other nuts, such as Cashew (did not work), Brazil, ( not too bad), and pistachio ( really did not work).
Laura says
May 10, 2019 at 1:45 pmRobert, Your experiments with different types of nuts are so interesting. I love that you found hazelnuts work well – I am not surprised. After all, they are the basis for Nutella and similar spreads. Glad to know too that I should not even consider substituting cashews, Brazil nuts or pistachios. I don’t use egg as part of the binder in the US unless I’m using pasteurized eggs because of a concern about salmonella.
SHELLEY MACEIL says
May 21, 2019 at 9:19 pmLove this recipe. I did used the ratio 2 almond flour and 3 sugar. Used my kitchen aid mixer and it mixed the marzipan great. Thanks for sharing.
Laura says
May 22, 2019 at 1:42 pmShelley, So glad you enjoyed the recipe. Your enthusiasm really made my day!
Christine says
June 12, 2019 at 2:39 pmHaHa I just took a chance on looking up a recipe for marzipan on line and saw your recipe! I’m gonna take a chance even tho one of the reviews said pistachios won’t work I have some pecans and a lot of pistachios on hand right now and the pure almond extract and corn syrup so I’m just gonna give it a shot I’ll let you know how it comes out
Laura says
June 20, 2019 at 11:34 amChristine – Wonderful. I’d love to hear how the experiment turns out. And if it’s a winner, I’ll have to try it myself, as I love all kinds of nut “paste”.