Marzipan

Massepain

What it is

Marzipan is bought by ratio rather than by name: the more almond and the less sugar in the raw paste, the higher the grade, and the Lübeck designations sit at the top of that scale. The story told in every Lübeck shop is that bakers invented it in a famine, ordered to make bread when only almonds and sugar were left in the stores — there is no record of it, and the paste had reached northern Europe from the Arab Mediterranean long before.

In the kitchen

Work it cold and briefly. Kneading warms the almond oil out and the paste turns greasy, then grainy, and will not come back — dust the bench with icing sugar, never flour.

Goes with

Dark chocolate Apricot Cherry Rose water Pistachio paste Kirsch

Same species

Bergeron apricot Almond Almond flour Almond oil Amardine Amarena cherry in syrup

Also used with

Apricot kernel oil Bitter almond

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