Ways to preserve marzipan for a long time (without losing flavor)

Marzipan is widely used in pastries during Christmas. It is very common to find cakes, cookies and, other types of sweets made with this preparation that, despite the passing of the years, is always highly appreciated by lovers of desserts. It is a sweet whose dough contains chopped almonds without skin (which can be replaced by flour), sugar and egg white or water. Its consistency is very manageable, therefore, it allows you to form different figures to delight everyone at Christmas.

The big problem arises once Christmas and New Year’s Eve have passed, as well as all the festivities of the date. And it is that, whether you make marzipan with your own hands or if you have bought too much, the most common thing is that you have a lot left over. If you want to take care of your silhouette a bit from excesses in food and drink, it is best to keep this sweet for another time, even for the following year.

In this article, we bring you some ways to keep marzipan in perfect condition for much longer, without losing flavor or texture. In addition, we will include a recipe so that you can learn how to prepare it at home in a simple way and with very few ingredients.

How to preserve homemade marzipan effectively

There are many ways to preserve the raw marzipan dough that you prepare at home so that it is always kept in perfect condition. One of the best ways to do this, especially if you have a lot, is to make small, medium-sized balls that fit easily into a resalable plastic bag. You can then wrap the marzipan balls in the bag. Of course, try to eliminate all the air that remains between each one of them before closing the bag well.
Now, if you want to keep the marzipan for a few days or for next year, there are different ways to store said food. Let’s see it:

Keep the homemade marzipan for a few days

In the event that you want to keep the almond dough for a few days, as you plan to use it soon, you can keep it in the refrigerator covered with powdered or icing sugar in an airtight container. It should be noted that in this case you must consume it within 5 days.

Keep in mind that, when wrapping it, you must avoid leaving air bubbles in the preparation because this will make the marzipan dry and its texture will not be as pleasant to the taste.

Keep homemade marzipan in the freezer

In the event that you want to freeze it, make sure that the preparation is wrapped in a special bag to store in the freezer made of thick plastic. Don’t forget to remove all the air and place it in an airtight freezer-safe container.
To defrost it, you need to keep in mind that it will take you some time. You should remove it from the freezer and place it on the bottom of the refrigerator overnight. Later, let it come to room temperature for about 30 or 40 minutes before kneading it to use it again.

Ideally, freeze it in small portions so you don’t have to defrost everything and repeat the process again. Fortunately, it can be refrozen as long as you take into account that if it has air bubbles it can go bad and lose flavor.

And if you have already baked the marzipan?

In the event that it is already baked, once you have used it to decorate a cake or make cookies and figures, you can keep it fresh for about 8 weeks, that is, two months as long as it is stored in a dark and dry place. It should be noted that, although it may seem strange, the absence of moisture and the large amount of sugar it contains allows bacteria to get away, so it is very rare for the preparation to become contaminated.

Tips for preserving industrial marzipan

Unlike homemade marzipan, commercial or industrial marzipan does not need to be stored in the refrigerator and has a much longer shelf life than homemade marzipan, as it can easily be kept for a year. However, once you open the container, it should be used within 8 weeks to prevent the paste from drying out. This happens because, unlike homemade marzipan, the commercial one contains preservatives.

If you want to make figures, cut them out with a mold and store them in a cardboard box, inserting them with baking paper or thin silicone plates. That is to say, you must place a layer of marzipan shapes and a bit of baking paper, on top of another layer of marzipan and a bit of paper and so on until you finish.
Keep in mind that, in this case, it is not advisable to store commercial marzipan in a plastic container because the heat produced inside it can cause it to sweat and lose color and even spoil its flavor.
It is best to remove the dough from its original packaging and cut it into pieces before storing it in the freezer so that you can only use what you need. The procedure is practically the same as with homemade marzipan.

Recipes: how to make homemade marzipan step by step

Below, we offer you two very different but delicious homemade marzipan recipes. One is prepared with chopped almonds and the other with condensed milk.

Homemade marzipan recipe with almonds

Ingredients:

200 grams of ground almonds without skin

200 grams of powdered or icing sugar
The white of an egg
Vegetable coloring (optional)

Step by step:

Process the almonds together with the powdered or icing sugar and pour the preparation into a container.
Add the egg white and the vegetable coloring if you want to give color to the preparation and mix very well until all the ingredients are evenly combined. If you want to save the dough without cooking, you just have to take it to the refrigerator. If not, knead small portions into the shape you want and place the marzipan on a baking sheet.

Take the preparation to the oven with the temperature at maximum. Cook for 3 minutes or until the surface is golden. Remove from the oven and use immediately.

Note: you can replace the sugar with stevia or some other similar sweetener if you don’t want to consume as much sugar. The same goes for the egg. If you do not want to include the egg whites in the recipe, you can replace it with water: every 200 grams of almond flour, you should use 75 milliliters of water.

Milk marzipan recipe