SC - Almond Paste

[DianaFiona at aol.com]

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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