Rustic Rose Marzipan

Long, LONG ago, (as in 20-30 years ago), Sunset magazine published a delicious recipe for home- made marzipan. I carefully tore out the page and kept it for years, but alas, I must have lost it somewhere along the winding road of my life.

Well, I've taken the idea of that recipe and turned it on it's head a bit.

So here's my unique take on home-made marzipan. Instead of a really fine grind on the almonds, I grind them a bit more coarsely, just to get that yummy nutty flavor going on.

When adding flavoring to the mixture, it's much more typical to use orange flower water or almond extract. But I've been experimenting a bit. I've found that rose water mixes very well with the almonds for a delicate and wonderful new flavor.

And in an homage to the original Sunset recipe, I shaped the candies just as they did long ago, into little loaves of "bread."

Rustic Rose Marzipan

Ingredients:

1 cup blanched almonds
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp rose water (found in ethnic or specialty food markets)
4 tbsp of corn syrup

Place the almonds in a food processor.
Grind for approximately 1 minute until the almonds resemble fine crumbs.
Add 1 and 1/2 cups of the powdered sugar, the rose water and the corn syrup and process until the mixture resembles a thick paste.
Turn the mixture into a mixing bowl.
Knead the dough in the bowl, and, if needed, mix the remaining powdered sugar in little by little. Knead until the dough is smooth, pliable and not sticky anymore.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Shape the marzipan mixture and place on the parchment. The dough can be shaped into balls, fruits, animals, breads or whatever you like. Let dry for 2 hours. And enjoy!