Food - Drink
Marzipan Vs. Almond Paste: What's The Difference?
By CATHERINE WOMACK
Many terms and ingredients in the culinary world are so similar that they can cause confusion. For instance, you may know marzipan as a soft, paste-like confection made of very finely-ground almonds, so when a recipe calls for "almond paste," you may wonder if this ingredient is different from marzipan, and how.
While both marzipan and almond paste are made from the same type of nut, marzipan has a smooth, pliable texture and contains more sugar and less almonds, giving it a sweeter flavor. Marzipan can be used much like sugar fondant, whether rolled into flat sheets to drape over cakes or molded into shapes for edible decorations.
Almond paste has a coarser texture and a richer, more nutty flavor than marzipan, since it generally contains more nuts and less sugar. This paste can easily be added to the foundation or filling of pastries without making them too sweet, and is an essential part of many cakes, tarts, and classic Italian rainbow cookies.
Since these confections are so different, they shouldn't be used interchangeably in cake decorations or candies. In recipes where these ingredients aren't the star, you can add sugar to almond paste to make it taste more like marzipan, or reduce the amount of sugar in your recipe to replace almond paste with marzipan.