Delicious and fun to make, marzipan candy is one of the most popular holiday sweets served in Spain at Christmas time. It's a simple, easy recipe that kids will love to help you make.
Preheat the oven to 195ºF/380ºC or turn on the broiler of your oven.
Grind the almonds finely in a food processor. You want a fine enough grind to allow for a smooth marzipan, but don't want to do so far that the oils are released and you start to form almond butter.
Grind the sugar into powdered sugar (or use store bought powdered sugar).
Combine the powdered sugar and ground almonds in a medium-sized bowl.
Separate the egg white from the yolk. Add the egg white to the almond and sugar mixture and stir until well combined. It's easiest to use your hands to mash everything together into a workable dough.
You can either form the dough into shapes immediately or wrap it in parchment paper and refrigerate it for later.
Form the dough either by pressing it into candy molds or by shaping it yourself into whatever shapes you prefer. A simple idea is to form it into small log shapes and decorate it by forming lines across the top with your knife. (See how it's done in the video.)
Placed your marzipan figures on a baking sheet and paint them with the beaten egg yolk.
Place in the hot oven or under the broiler for (only) a couple of minutes, until they start to brown on top. This is done to slightly harden the outside while keeping the center soft.
Once cooled, serve immediately.
Video
Notes
You can use other types of sugar like organic demerara sugar or coconut sugar, but the marzipan figures will be darker in color and their flavor will change.You can also optionally add in either almond extract or some other extract to add flavor.If you are worried about using raw eggs, you can use a pasteurized egg white instead.I have used weight measurements here because the traditional marzipan recipes use somewhere between 200g and 250g of ground almonds for each egg. They use a similar weight for the sugar in the recipe. If you plan on using volume instead, note that the amount you are actually using can vary by quite a bit depending on how tightly you pack in your ingredients and how finely they are ground.210g sugar corresponds to around 1 cup regular sugar or around 2 cups powdered sugar. (See, it varies a lot!)If you're using volume, you may need to slightly adjust the amount of almonds and sugar used to get them just right for you. Luckily this recipe is forgiving and can be adjusted to suit your taste.I do recommend buying a nice kitchen scale, like the scale pictured above, if you plan on making more delicate recipes like soaps, cosmetics, and delicate pastries. Once made, the dough can be frozen for when you are ready to make the figures.Store cooled marzipan candy in an airtight container in the fridge for several days, up to a week.