Marzipan (food)

Marzipan

Marzipan moulded into marzipan pigs
Alternative names	Marzapane, marchpane
Type	Confectionery
Main ingredients	Almond meal, sugar
Variations	Persipan, Frutta martorana

Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar or honey and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract.

It is often made into sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzipan and small marzipan imitations of fruits and vegetables. It can also be used in biscuits or rolled into thin sheets and glazed for icing cakes, primarily birthday, wedding cakes and Christmas cakes. This use is particularly common in the UK, on large fruitcakes. Marzipan paste may also be used as a baking ingredient, as in stollen or banket. In some countries, it is shaped into small figures of animals as a traditional treat for New Year's Day. Marzipan is also used in Tortell, and in some versions of king cake eaten during the Carnival season. Traditional Swedish princess cake is typically covered with a layer of marzipan that has been tinted pale green or pink.

In Spain it is a traditional Christmas dessert, although in Toledo, where the first written reference of this product dates back to 1512, it is eaten all year round. In Italy, particularly in Palermo, marzipan (marzapane) is often shaped and painted with food colourings to resemble fruit—Frutta martorana—especially during the Christmas season and on Il Giorno dei Morti (All Souls' Day) on November 2. May 9 and 10 are also special days for eating marzipan in Sicily. In Portugal, where the confection has been traditionally made by nuns, marzipan (maçapão) is used to make fruit-shaped sweets; in the Algarve region in particular it is a very common sweet. There are other regions, as Toledo in Spain in which marzipan (mazapán) is shaped into simple animal shapes, and sometimes filled in with egg yolk (yema) and sugar. In Greece and Cyprus, marzipan is made in a variety of shapes and sizes and is almost always left white. In the islands of the Aegean in particular, white marzipan is considered a wedding treat and is served to guests at wedding feasts. In Malta marzipan is used as a filling in the traditional Maltese Easter treats called Figolla.