Marizpan Confection Makes Christmas (for me anyway)

Again, like last year (and the previous couple of years), I have been making marzipan for Christmas. It's not really difficult, and it makes for great, small gifts. Wrap them up in cellophane, or just in a napkin. Place them in a tiny box, and you'll have a perfect little gift that people will love (unless they're allergic to nuts, that is).

Marzipan is made from almonds, usually. You can use other nuts as well. I have had success using a mix between almonds and hazel nuts. 

I mix ground nuts and powdered sugar with a 60/40 ratio. Use less powdered sugar if you want it more bitter in taste, and obviously more if you want it sweeter. 

Mix this together with a tiny amount of liquid. You can use water if you want, or orange juice. I prefer to use egg white. The egg white makes the marzipan easier to work with, to mold. 

If you want white marzipan, you'll have to remove the shell of the almonds or nuts. There's no quick way to do that. Dip them in boiling water until the shell starts peeling. Simply remove the shell. Easy enough, but now you'll have to let the almonds dry up again. I never find patience to do this, so I simply make the marzipan using the entire almond. 

It looks far less exciting when it's presented like this, but the marzipan balls are essentially ready to be eaten. We're going to cover them in chocolate too. You could also bake them in the oven if you want. 

Now comes the time to be creative. If you want to have a core of chocolate, roasted nuts, jam or fudge, then just wrap the marzipan around. These particular ones are just pure marzipan through and through. 

I continue to dip them in melted chocolate, before I roll them in chopped almonds and hazel nuts.

I also did a batch where I rolled them in sprinkles. This was a disaster - obviously I shouldn't have rolled balls in the sprinkles, I should have sprinkled the sprinkles over the balls. It's all in the word. The sprinkles were assimilated by the melted chocolate and well.. Tasted pretty good though. 

Again, great gifts. Or just a snack that will bring forth that Christmas spirit. 

Enjoy, people!