Marzipan: the original Sicilian recipe to prepare it at home

Illinois Marzipan it’s a sweet dough typical of the Sicilian gastronomic tradition used to prepare cookies and chocolates, but also to decorate cakes and cupcakes. Often confused with almond paste, another regional specialty prepared with similar ingredients, marzipan differs from marzipan due to its more compact and malleable consistency, which makes it perfect for topping traditional desserts such as cassata.

This delicious sweet is used in pastry shops all over Italy, but it is very easy to prepare at home: just mix the almond flour With the’albumshello powdered sugar and the essence of almonds until obtaining a smooth and homogeneous mass that must rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before being used in a multitude of delicious recipes.

To make it more spectacular, you can enrich the marzipan with food coloring, preferably in gel, and flavor it with various flavors, for always new and colorful desserts. Find out how to prepare it by following the original sicilian recipe: it will be ready in a few minutes.

How to prepare marzipan

To prepare the marzipan, first beat the egg white in a small bowl with a fork. 1.

In a separate bowl, mix the almond flour and icing sugar. 2then also add the essence of almonds.

Then add the egg white little by little. 3: you can adjust the amount to add depending on the smoothness of the almond flour you are using, you will have to obtain a fairly thick mixture.

Knead first with a wooden spoon and then with your hands until you get a smooth and malleable dough. 4.

Then wrap it in a sheet of transparent film. 5 and leave to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Your marzipan is ready to use however you want 6.

Advice

If you prefer, you can make almond flour at home: soak them for 2 hours in warm water, remove the skin, transfer them to a bowl and put them in the freezer for half an hour: the cold prevents them from losing oil, making them easier to knead. mass. Then mix the almonds with the sugar until you get an impalpable powder: to prevent the paste from breaking, there should be no pieces of almonds in the mixture.

Alternatively, you can make the recipe for marzipan without egg white replacing it with the same amount of water: bring to a boil with the sugar until the syrup begins to boil. Then add the almond flour, mix and proceed according to the recipe.

storage

The marzipan can be kept in the refrigerator, wrapped in transparent film, to one day to the extreme. Alternatively, you can freeze it to have it ready when needed.

History and origins of marzipan

The birth of marzipan probably dates back to the year 1000, during the period of the Crusades, when the influence of the Middle East reached Europe. In Sicily, in particular, the Arab domination led to the diffusion of new types of cereals, spices and sweet preparations, including marzipan.

The reference to the Middle Eastern origins of the recipe would already be in the name: according to some scholars the term “marzipan” derives from Arabic maw-thaban, name of the Arab silver coin that corresponded to a certain quantity of a sweet mass made from almonds, sugar and rose water, similar to the current marzipan. According to others, however, it comes from marcos breadMarco’s bread, because it was in Venice that the recipe was codified for the first time in 1300. During the Austrian domination of Sicily, the preparation then took the name of Marzipan.