How to Make Homemade Almond Paste!

How to Make Homemade Almond Paste ~ this delicious, fresh almond paste recipe is made super quick and easy in your food processor.  Wrap it up, refrigerate, and get on with baking your favorite almond-y treats.

My Homemade almond paste is all natural, without the artificial flavors and preservatives in commercial brands.

I love the flavor of almonds, and love to bake with almond paste, so I couldn’t be more excited to share this with you, it’s so easy, and so delicious!  It will save you $$ and allow you to make your favorite almond-y recipes without running out to the store to buy almond paste.  This is no surprise, but the homemade stuff is even better than store bought…not only fresher, but it has a better flavor.  And you get a nice big amount, too :)  Enough to make lots of almond treats.

What is almond paste?

Almond paste is made principally from ground almonds and sugar.  It can include almond extract, or not.

Almond paste is an ingredient in many European and Scandinavian baked goods, and it’s also used in candy making.  It’s a key ingredient in macaroons and Amaretti cookies ~ and if you’ve ever had a bear claw or an almond croissant, you’ve tasted it.

Almond paste is sold in small (pricey!) tubes, usually in the baking section of supermarkets.  

What’s the difference between marzipan and almond paste?

Marzipan is an almond candy dough.  It contains half the almonds but twice the sugar as almond paste, so it’s smoother and sweeter than almond paste.

Marzipan is smoother and very malleable.  The dough is often colored or painted, and used to shape candies and cake decorations.

Marzipan looks very similar to, and is packaged the same way as almond paste, so pay attention to the labels!

What you’ll need to make almond paste:

• blanched almonds ~ these are the kind without skins.  They can be whole or ‘slivered’.  If you can only find almonds with the skins on, you can easily remove them…put the almonds in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water for 60 seconds.  Rinse in cold running water for 60 seconds.  Drain on paper towels.  When the almonds are cool enough to handle, slip off their skins.
• confectioner’s or powdered sugar
• an egg white
• salt
• almond extract
• a food processor.  If you cook, you need one of these.

How to make almond paste ~

Place the almonds in the food processor.  Process until finely ground.

Add the sugar, egg white, salt, and extract to the processor and process again until the mixture just comes together into a soft dough.

Turn the dough out onto a surface and form into a smooth log.

Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, twisting the ends.

Your almond paste is ready to use, and will keep in the refrigerator for about a month.  If you’d like to store it longer, freeze it.

Can I make almond paste without egg whites?

Yes, you can, but you’ll need to replace them with something else that will help bind the almond paste together.

You can use honey in place of sugar for a Paleo friendly almond paste.  Add the honey slowly, just until the dough comes together, you won’t need as much of it as you need of the granulated sugar. 

You can also experiment with corn syrup, or even a little bit of water.  Basically you want to add just enough so that the dough, or paste, holds together enough to form a log.  Chilling will help keep it firm.

Can I freeze almond paste?

Yes!  it’s a great idea to make a double batch and freeze it for future use (think ahead to the holidays.)

Almond paste will last a year in the freezer.

Wrap it in log form, first tightly in plastic wrap, then in foil.  I will sometimes put the wrapped logs in heavy duty zip lock freezer bags.  If you’re freezing large amounts, divide it up into smaller pieces so you can defrost what you need and leave the rest frozen.

Some of my recipes that include almond paste in the ingredient list:

White Peach Frangipane Galette

Amaretto Poppy Seed Cake

Almond Poppy Seed Butter Cookies

Make this almond paste your own ~

• You can use almonds with the skins on, if you like, it’s your choice.  The almond paste will be darker and slightly more bitter.  Not necessarily a bad thing!

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