What is marzipan?

What is marzipan? Where did his recipe come up with? What kind of ingredients is? Answers to these and other questions are given in this article.

1
Marzipan and its composition

Marcipan is a sweet delicacy, known in Europe, not one century. Genuine information about where marzipan was made for the first time - no. Among the probable options are called China, Persia, Germany, etc.

Facts about marzipan:

In the XIX, marzipans from Koenigsberg and Lubek were especially famous.
The basis of sweetness is the almonds of sweet and bitter varieties, crushed to the state of flour, as well as honey or sugar in the form of powder or syrup.
Instead of bitter almonds, nut butter is often used, as well as, liquor. Often this component is absent at all.
Modern manufacturers include in the composition of sweets and additional components: natural flavors, natural and artificial dyes.
Various spices, pink water, cytrus zest, cocoa, etc. are popular as flavors.
Mass without a bitter walnut variety is deprived of a bright almond taste, so used as a decorative element for decorating cakes.
Marzipan contains about 7 g of protein, 21 g of fats and 65 g of carbohydrates.

There are other variations in the ingredients: the product, in which instead of almond nuts, the bones of apricot or peach are the name of Persian. Marzipan is called a mixture of nuts of other species and confectionery produced on the basis of nut mass. In our country, this is marciphan baking with peanuts.

2
Methods of cooking almond sweets

There are 3 methods for the production of marzipans:

Cold, without eggs in the composition of the product.
Cold with eggs.
Hot.

With a cold method of manufacture, all components of the recipe are crushed and then mixed. Sweet ingredient serves sugar powder.

With a hot method, almond flour is connected with heated sweet syrup.

3
Features Marzipan

The quality of the product is determined by the percentage of content in its composition of almond oil. The minimum indicator is 14%.

The delicacy characterize such properties as smoothness and plasticity, which allows to create figures from the almond-sugar mass of various forms (for example, thematic, for Christmas and Easter).
Marzipans do not only volumetric, still sweet almonds are finely rolled and used as a layer for chic cakes.

4
The role of a bitter nut in the marzipan

Sweet almonds is the basis of the recipe for making marzipan. In addition to sweet, use and bitter walnosis. Gorky almonds has amygdalin glycoside.

It is the bitter nut that provides a recognizable almond taste and aroma thanks to the Benzaldehyde substance. Use nuts in small quantities as seasoning. In bitter almond presents blue acid. This is poison, but it is destroyed under the influence of high t.

5
Substitutes ingredients

In order to reduce the final product, manufacturers use replays of its key components:

soy pasta instead of almond;
artificial walnut essence.

Almond paste is also added to baking instead of solid nuts.
The almond extract is the substitute for a bitter walnut.
Also, the apricot and peach bones are often in the role of almond substitutes.

6
Cooking marzipanov

There are countless recipes for making marzipan. They differ from each other by the ratio of the main ingredients: almonds and sugar, the presence or absence of other components, the use of almond essence and eggs.

The basic process from which the process of making marzipan begins for any recipe is blanching: peeled nuts are lowered in boiling water in order to make it easily skinned with them, then shred, sugar powder, syrup and fragrant seasonings are added.

The paste is whipped to a homogeneous state. Mass should be so elastic that if you make a deepening on its surface, it will not disappear within 45 seconds. Now, the paste can be cooled and give the right shape.