SC - Almond Paste/marzipan

[Helen]

Hi,
    Please tell me the difference between marzipan and almond paste.   I thought
marzipan was made from the paste. But the tube of paste I see in my local store
has the same ingredients listed as the tube of marzipan beside it.  The color is
a little different.

Thank you,
Helen

DianaFiona at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 09/12/1999 10:36:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> harper at idt.net writes:
>
> << I was
>  wondering if a satisfactory homemade version could be produced in my
>  Cuisinart.  Any tips?  I checked the Florilegium and found nothing.  A
>  web search produced too much -- most of it was recipes *using* almond
>  paste, and the few recipes for making it had ingredients like eggs, which
>  did not appear on the label of the stuff I bought on Friday.  I would be
>  grateful for some guidance.
>
>  Brighid >>
>     I almost always make my own almond paste--it's ridiculously expensive to
> buy, but easy enough to make. You can indeed just grind it up in the food
> processor, adding sugar and rosewater/ water/whatever to taste. A couple of
> things to consider, though........
>     Almonds ground in the processor won't be as finely or evenly ground as
> their commercial counterparts. To get them finer, grind in small batches,
> and/or use a coffee grinder. Sometimes a coarser grind is fine for what you
> are doing, and you can just toss them in the processor and go, but if it's an
> issue, use the coffee/spice grinder, in small handfuls.
>     One problem I have is keeping the grinding dry enough when using the
> processor. Adding the sugar and liquid helps the action along past a certain
> point, but I tend to add too much liquid. Again, sometimes it doesn't matter,
> but the last batch I made was supposed to be molded into shapes and colored
> for tidbits at a Royal lunch. It turned out so sticky that even some more
> ground almonds didn't help enough to make it be handlable. And it was quite
> sweet enough (I hate too-sweet marzipan, another of the reasons I prefer
> making it.), so I didn't want to add more sugar......... I ran out of time to
> peel and grind more almonds, so it didn't get used. But it sure did make
> great chocolate/ marzipan bread after the event! ;-)
>
>                 Ldy Diana, wandering kitchenward after a piece..........
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