Persipan ✦

Persipan

What it is

German food law defines persipan as a paste of debittered apricot or peach kernels, and requires a marker to be stirred into the raw paste — a trace of starch — so that a laboratory can tell it from marzipan inside a finished cake. The rule exists because the paste began as the cheap stand-in during almond shortages, and was written down precisely to stop it being sold as the thing it replaced.

In the kitchen

Sharper and less sweet than marzipan, it holds its own under a heavy filling — use it in stollen and Christmas baking where marzipan vanishes into the sugar. It is softer, though, so it will not hold a modelled edge: keep it inside the bake.

Goes with

Apricot Dark rum Raisin Cinnamon Butter Dark chocolate

Same species

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

Also used with

Apricot kernel

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