Cookaholics Bulletin Board

We needed 24 ounces of almond paste for a batch of Italian 7 layer cookies. We had a big bag of almonds, so I decided to try making it myself.

Blanching and peeling the almonds seemed like drudgery, but it really only took 15 minutes to slip the skins after a one minute blanch. Since some recipes included some water, I decided not to let the nuts dry overnight and only let them dry for about an hour.

The food processor made quick work of turning the almonds into flour and then into a paste after the sugar is added. Some almond extract for flavoring and some egg whites to bind it and it was ready for a recipe. It worked very well.

Except for adding extract, I generally followed this recipe

Some more sugar and a bit corn syrup and Marzipan should be the result. There are some other recipes out there that use corn syrup instead of egg whites to bind the paste and amount of almond extract ranges from none to a whole lot. I used 1½ for 12 ounces of almonds and it was not overpowering in the final recipe. Making it was about 1/3 the price of buying it.

I bet it tasted way better too.

You left out the recipe!

Becky, the link is in his post. Click on the "this recipe" and it will pull up the page.

I highlighted the link to the recipe. To make the 24 oz. I needed, I used 13 oz of whole almonds [before blanching]. After blanching and slipping the skins, they still weighed 13 oz. after skinning due to absorbed water.

It took about 1½ egg whites to bind the paste and I added 1½ tsp of extract that was not called for in the recipe.

As far as the cookie recipe, the one we made recently works OK, but the layers stacked so high so they look a bit odd when cut. Previously, we had used the gourmet recipe that I believe is posted somewhere on this site. It made flatter cookies and we may go back to that one. It only uses 8 oz. of almond paste.

Seven-Layer Cookies

Thanks for the recipe. Almond paste is hard to find and really expensive here, but I can get whole almonds pretty cheaply. Sigh...another thing that I will now have to make from scratch because it's better...

And I'll have to do it because it's cheaper.

Yeah, when a link is the same color as the rest of the text I often miss that it's a link.
Thanks for the highlight!