Almond Paste - How Should We Use It?

[chezcherie]

yesterday i picked up some really beautiful almond paste, made by mandelin. it is supple, and fresh and lovely to behold. what are your favorite uses for almond paste?

Edited December 17, 2004 by chezcherie (log)

[misstenacity]

Topping for Black Cake.

Andrea

http://tenacity.net

[Patrick S]

Chocolate macaroons filled with semisweet ganache or peanut butter buttercream.

[Gifted Gourmet]

The Snake: Moroccan pastry first learned about and tasted it when I lived in Morocco as a kid ... divine!

This was the hit of my catering business! You already have the almond paste so go for it! It is beautiful and you will love the taste!

check out the photo of this!!

[bloviatrix]

Frangipane and pear tarts are a favorite.

If you have the Payard cookbook he has a recipe for Apricot Teacakes that call for almond paste. These are one of those items were you can't eat just one.

[M. Lucia]

Stuff medjool dates with almond paste.

Also frangipane tarts and all those slavic filled breads.

[rickster]

Pignoli cookies

[Susan G]

Almond macaroons!

[EllenC]

Twice Baked Brioche.

[JFLinLA]

Jacques Torres bite-sized almond brownies from the Food TV web site.

I LOVE Mandelin products. Surfas carries it because I told them about the stuff. Yum!!

[Swisskaese]

You can also stuff chicken and fish with marzipan. There are two recipes in Paula Wolfert's Morocccan cookbook for chicken and fish stuffed with marzipan.

[chezcherie]

Jacques Torres bite-sized almond brownies from the Food TV web site.

I LOVE Mandelin products.  Surfas carries it because I told them about the stuff.  Yum!!

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well, then, merci beaucoup, 'cuz that's where i picked it up!

[andiesenji]

You could, if you want to do something "REALLY" different, make the following:

Here is my original recipe for a very fancy "bread" pudding.

Marzipan filled brioche bread pudding.

an original recipe by Andie

Read all directions first. This recipe takes 2 days to do it correctly

Easy Brioche Rolls Must start day before serving this dessert.

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 pkg. dry yeast

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1 egg, separated

3 whole eggs, beaten

3 1/4 cup flour

Scald milk and while hot add butter (margarine), sugar, and salt.

COOL TO LUKEWARM.

Soften yeast in the water. Add to LUKEWARM milk mixture.

Add egg yolk and beaten eggs and stir.

Add flour and beat with wooden spoon for 2 minutes.

Cover and let rise in a warm place (80-85 degrees) until more

than double in bulk, about 2 hours or less.

Stir down and beat (stir) thoroughly.

Cover tightly with foil and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from fridge and allow to come to room temp.

Take plain brioche dough and form into small buns (golf ball size works nicely), cover and let them rest for 10 minutes.

Filling

You can use store bought marzipan or make your own.

Make a rope of marzipan about the size of a tootsie roll and cut into pieces about the same width. (You don't have to shape them.)

Put one of the marzipan pieces on each bun, draw the dough up around it and pinch and twist to seal.

Place in a buttered pan with seam side down.

Cover and allow to rise about 30 minutes or until nearly doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Brush tops of rolls with melted butter.

Place pan in center of oven.

Bake till nicely browned. Remove from oven and place on a wire grid.

When cool cover loosely with a cloth and let them set out several hours.

We want them to be just a little stale.

The next step which takes this into an entire new category

Egg custard

4 eggs + 2 egg yolks, beaten till creamy

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup sweet sherry (optional)

Mix all these ingredients and beat until completely blended

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Place the marzipan filled buns in a buttered baking dish sides touching.

Pour the custard in and around the buns but do not cover the tops of the buns.

Let this stand for a few minutes then add more of the custard mix as the rolls will have soaked up some.

Place the pan in a bain marie and bake until the custard is set.

(Time varies with the size of the baking dish and the amount of custard)

For a 9 x 11 pan it should be done in about 25 minutes. Test with a thin knife blade BETWEEN THE ROLLS at about 20 minutes, then at 25 minutes. Test every 2 minutes after that until blade comes out clean.

[rajsuman]

There is a truly delicious marzipan cake recipe in Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'. I absolutely love it!

Here's the recipe:

http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm?fu...domesticGoddess

[JFLinLA]

Jacques Torres bite-sized almond brownies from the Food TV web site.

I LOVE Mandelin products.  Surfas carries it because I told them about the stuff.  Yum!!

←

well, then, merci beaucoup, 'cuz that's where i picked it up!

←

Well, you're welcome, I guess. However, the thanks really goes to the LA Times Food Section where I learned about the stuff first. Russ, was it you? Or perhaps one of the other great staff.

[Suzanne F]

I blend almond paste into the dough for my chocolate-chip cookies, instead of adding nutmeats.

[dexygus]

i concur with the people who mentioned frangipane tarts. also, there's an almond torte recipe in chez panisse desserts that is incredible.

[KatieM]

So I was inspired by an earlier topic to purchase a giant can of almond paste from Nutsonline. It is 5lbs. It arrived, and I said, "What was I thinking! Why did I ever think I would need this much?" I had anticipated using it in the fillings for my Christmas Danish braids (5 or 6 of them), and maybe some candies, but that's about it. I'll barely make a dent in it. My brother suggested I make some Marzipan and have a family Marzipan figure modeling contest , but I can't really think of anything else.

Any suggestions for some Holiday treats I could whip up and give as presents?

Also, what do you think is the best storage method for the leftovers?

[Kerry Beal]

So I was inspired by an earlier topic to purchase a giant can of almond paste from Nutsonline. It is 5lbs.  It arrived, and I said, "What was I thinking! Why did I ever think I would need this much?"    I had anticipated using it in the fillings for my Christmas Danish braids (5 or 6 of them), and maybe some candies, but that's about it.  I'll barely make a dent in it.  My brother suggested I make some Marzipan and have a family Marzipan figure modeling contest , but I can't really think of anything else.

Any suggestions for some Holiday treats I could whip up and give as presents?

Also, what do you think is the best storage method for the leftovers?

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I'll e-mail you some recipes. Most are dried fruits stuffed with almond paste or chocolate centers.

I store leftovers wrapped in parchment and vacuum sealed with the foodsaver.

[srhcb]

So I was inspired by an earlier topic to purchase a giant can of almond paste from Nutsonline. It is 5lbs.  It arrived, and I said, "What was I thinking! Why did I ever think I would need this much?"    I had anticipated using it in the fillings for my Christmas Danish braids (5 or 6 of them), and maybe some candies, but that's about it.  I'll barely make a dent in it.  My brother suggested I make some Marzipan and have a family Marzipan figure modeling contest , but I can't really think of anything else.

Any suggestions for some Holiday treats I could whip up and give as presents?

Also, what do you think is the best storage method for the leftovers?

←

You can never have too much marzipan!

When I was young I used to love the marzipan strawberries that came in the Harry & Davids Christmas Gift Baskets we got every year from my Grandfather. They were so good I always wanted to save them for a special ocassion, and had to hide them from my younger Brother and Sister, who considered Christmas a special enough ocassion for the purpose. By the time I usually remembered where I hid my treasure they were hard as rocks!

Why not take your brother's idea one step further and make up a whole marzipan village!

SB (probably still has a few strawberries stashed away?)

[Lesley C]

Track down the recipe for Almond Cake in Amanda Hesser's book, Cooking for Mr. Latte. It calls for 7 oz of the stuff and it's delcious.

Otherwise, vacuum pack the leftovers. There's nothing worse than crusty marzipan. Also, make sure your hands are super clean when you handle it. That stuff can ferment, and when it does, major yuck.

[Sugarnspice]

Hi!

I brought up the source for your dilemma so I should probably contribute solutions for it...

I wrap mine tightly in plastic wrap and then put it in a ziploc bag and freeze it. Keeps really well (I don't have those vacuum foodsaver gadgets).

As for use, I agree with srhcb - one can never have too much (I did order two cans in fact ).

Here is a traditional GErman "cookie" that consists mainly of almond paste.

One can replace equal parts ground almonds and sugar in some recipes with the almond paste (Joconde Biscuit as an example) One recipe (never tried that one) can be found here. In that one you would use 350 g almond paste instead of confectioner's sugar and ground almonds (175 g each) but you have to use the creaming technique to mix it with the whole eggs before adding the meringue.

Or turn almond paste into Marzipan and then make small, uneven shapped ovals (balls) and toss them with cocoa powder or melted couverture chocolate and get "Potatoes", other German holiday sweets.

This is a start...

Or ask friends if they want to buy some of it from you so that you can get fresh supplies sooner again (3 of the 14 lbs. I got - not to disappoint you, but I believe one of their cans is even 7 lbs. not 5 as you wrote went to friends of mine)

Happy Marzipan filled holidays!

[YWalker]

Gourmet had this recipe for Apricot Almond Scones a few years ago.

I'm not a fan of apricots, so I make it with dried cherries instead. They're very nice.

[ckruse]

My Danish Dad used to flatten it out and roll it aroud a a cylinder of nougat and then coat it in semi sweet chocolate. Making a Mazarin is also a possibility (kindof a butter tart shell filled with marzipan and then topped with chocolate.

[shaloop]

Aren't Amaretti made with almond paste and egg whites?