C – The last time we made marzipan it didn’t turn out as well as we expected.
The mixture was really sticky. It was so sweet that I felt like I was going to get a cavity after just one bite. Worst of all was it didn’t seem to hold up. We were trying to make green turtle heads for our little chocolate turtles.
We ended up making a few passing ones, but we ended up throwing most of the mixture away. I hated seeing all those good ingredients going to waste. But, it was so bad I just couldn’t recover it.
I have been having nightmares about this pumpkin project. What if this happened to me again? I can’t handle another sticky mess on my hands and wasting a lot of ingredients.
After a bit of research, I figured what we did wrong the last time. We were in too much of a hurry and took on way too much.
One thing about marzipan is that it has to set up a bit. It’s like sugar cookie dough. You have to refrigerate sugar cookie dough before you can mold and shape it.
It also depends on the environment you are in. We were in a really hot kitchen that day. It made the sugar melt more than we anticipated.
There’s also a rule with sugar, add more to make it more flexible add less to make it stiff. If you ever wonder why the creamy ice creams have so much sugar in them it’s because lots of sugar allows the cream to stay soft.
I was so surprised how well this recipe worked out. The marzipan wasn’t as sticky as the last one we made. It did help that I worked on this on a cool morning, and we didn’t have anything boiling or steaming in the kitchen yet.
The stickiest part was adding the food coloring. It’s sticks and once you roll it back in to a ball it doesn’t stick anymore.
I was also happy with the taste of this marzipan. I didn’t add almond extract this time. I just didn’t like the taste of it the last time. Instead, I added vanilla. It made it taste like a really good sugar cookie dough.
| Halloween Week 2015: Vanilla-Flavored Marzipan Pumpkins |
- 1½ cups almond flour, sifted
- 1½ cups powdered sugar, sifted
- pinch of salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg white
- Orange and green gel food coloring
- Place almond flour, powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract and egg white into a food processor. Process until a ball forms.
- Remove dough from the food processor and place on a clean surface. Knead it a few times and tightly wrap in plastic wrap.
- Place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Once ready to use, bring to room temperature before using.
- Divide the dough. We used about ⅛ of dough for the green stems snd about ½ of the remaining dough for orange. I left the remainder of the dough tan. Just a drop or two of the gel food coloring will do. You don’t need a lot to get a good color.
- Roll the orange and tan colors into 1 inch round snakes. Divide into 8 equal pieces. You can also cut a few into smaller sizes if you would like or add two together to make large pumpkins.
- Roll them out into balls.
- Slightly flatten each of the balls.
- Using the tip of a pastry brush, pierce a hole on top and on the bottom. This will allow you to keep track of where you lines begin and end.
- Using a toothpick, create lines from the top hole to the bottom hole. All around each pumpkin.
- Roll out the green marzipan into a very thin small snake. Then cut into ½ inch pieces.
- Wet the tip of the green marzipan pieces and place inside the top hole.
- Place on a serving platter. Carefully remove from the plate as you eat because they may stick to the plate. You may want to place each one on wax paper or parchment paper so they won’t stick to the bottom of the plate.
- Serve.
- Enjoy!
Yum! I also liked that this dough isn’t super sweet. It’s enjoyable to eat. I ate more than my fair share of them. I think adults and kids will love this candy.
Make these with kids or make them and bring them to a party. They are great.
Adapted from: http://www.daringgourmet.com/2014/06/23/how-to-make-marzipan-almond-paste/