Marzipan: description and composition. Marzipan in candies - what is it made from? What can you eat while breastfeeding - why should the diet not be severely limited? Marzipan

Description

For many, the word marzipan does not represent anything special, since this confectionery product is simply not familiar to them. Others, on the contrary, simply adore this delicious delicacy and would never give up another portion of marzipan for anything in the world.

Real marzipan is a special mixture consisting of almonds ground into flour and sugar syrup. Sometimes this name also hides a mass based on other nuts and products made from it. Marzipan buns, which are baked using peanuts, are very popular in Russia. The calorie content of marzipan is very high, so nutritionists do not recommend abusing this delicacy.

Königsberg and Lübeck marzipan are famous all over the world, and at Christmas this sweet is traditionally prepared in Germany, Norway and Holland. Regarding the culinary homeland of this nutty delicacy, it is difficult to say in which country marzipan first appeared, since Germany, France, Estonia and Italy claim this honorary title.

Marzipan can be used in different ways, that is, not only in its pure form (marzipan bread), but also for other purposes. For example, candies coated with chocolate or sugar icing are especially popular - they are called Mozartkugel. In addition, edible figures in the form of fruits or animals are made from marzipan, which are then used to decorate cakes and other confectionery products.

It is known to use marzipan as a component of marzipan liqueur and filling for complex cakes.

History of marzipan

To this day, historians and culinary specialists argue about what caused the invention of marzipan sweets. Some argue that during one of the periods of famine in Italy, due to a shortage of bread, the population tried to survive on those products that were in abundance. Most of all there were almonds, and it was this that people consumed, mixed with sugar.

But the following story about marzipan seems more likely. Even before the Italian famine, European doctors prepared sweet almond candies for those of their patients who suffered from all sorts of nervous disorders. And these candies already became popular during times of famine due to the availability of their components.

Indeed, the benefits of marzipan for the nervous system are very noticeable.

Composition of marzipan

The main ingredients in marzipan are sweet and bitter almonds, as well as sugar in the form of syrup or powder. Sometimes bitter almonds are replaced with essence, oil, almond liqueur, or even excluded from the recipe. In the latter case, the finished mass is most often used for decoration, since it does not have a specific marzipan taste.

In addition, other components can be added to marzipan. These are mainly natural flavors - orange peel, liqueurs, cocoa, rose water, spices and herbs. Lately, this sweetness cannot do without dyes, which are not only of natural origin, but also artificial. Marzipan is also made with the addition of chicken eggs.

There are 3 methods of preparing this aromatic sweet mass: cold without eggs and with eggs, and hot. The cold method is based on grinding and then mixing all the ingredients. In this case, a sweetener in the form of powdered sugar is used. And with the hot method of preparing marzipan, hot sugar syrup is added to the almond flour.

Calorie content of Marzipan: 479 kcal.

Energy value of the product Marzipan (Ratio of proteins, fats, carbohydrates):

• Protein: 6.8 g (~27 kcal)
• Fat: 21.2 g (~191 kcal)
• Carbohydrates: 65.3 g (~261 kcal)

Energy ratio (b|w|y): 6%|40%|55%

Methods for preparing marzipan

There are several methods for making it:

Cold (with and without eggs), which involves chopping the ingredients and mixing them. In this case, powdered sugar acts as a sweetener.

Hot - also involves chopping ingredients. And finally, the nut mixture is poured with thick sugar syrup.

Then this mass should be kneaded very well (like dough) so that the marzipan holds its shape (calorizator). At the same time, the proportions for preparing this delicacy are a trade secret of confectionery enterprises.

Applications of marzipan

Marzipan is rarely consumed in its pure form (marzipan cookies or bread). More often used for filling various confectionery products, their decoration (in the form of animal figures, fruits), as well as for the production of marzipan liqueur.

Useful properties of marzipan

Those vitamins that are part of almonds are included in candies with marzipan in full. After all, most recipes for making marzipan do not provide for any heat treatment of the mixture. And therefore, not a single vitamin will lose its healing properties.

And in general, the most pronounced beneficial qualities of the substances already listed, and therefore the benefits of marzipans, are:

• strengthening the myocardium;
• cleansing blood vessels and strengthening the walls;
• removal of excess cholesterol from the bloodstream;
• ensuring normal liver function;
• red blood cell formation;
• participation in energy processes;
• protecting the body from viruses and bacteria;
• strengthening and healing joints.

In all these functions, vitamins are helped by mineral components: magnesium, iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium. All of them also take part in many processes in the body and improve the condition of various organs and tissues.

Harm and contraindications

Of course he is. Candies with marzipan are sweet and therefore can negatively affect the condition of patients with diabetes. If you eat a lot of marzipan candies, then, like any confectionery, they can lead to dental damage and metabolic disorders. But this is only possible due to the unreasonable excessive consumption of these delicacies. In this case, the well-known rule works: in moderation, poison is medicine, and in moderation, medicine is poison.

In addition, marzipan candies are an expensive and exclusive thing. Therefore, not everyone can afford to consume marzipans in truly harmful quantities. When consumed as an exquisite and infrequent delicacy, the body will cope perfectly with all their shortcomings. And at the same time, he will derive great benefit from them.

Homemade marzipan recipe

Making marzipan at home is quite simple. The longest and most labor-intensive process is chopping the nuts. The finer and more uniform you grind them (ideally into flour), the tastier the delicacy will be.

Peeled almonds (you can use other nuts to suit your taste) must be thoroughly chopped and the same amount of powdered sugar added. After adding a little rose water, you need to mash the collected ingredients into a homogeneous mass. You can add natural dye to the resulting mass, and its plasticity allows you to give it any shape and apply any patterns.

It is probably impossible to find a person in the world who would be completely indifferent to sweets. This is how we are designed, that a piece of something tasty can cause a feeling of short-term happiness. Today I would like to say a few words about marzipan, an exclusive delicacy. If you have tried it at least once in your life, you probably remembered the unique taste and wanted to know more about its composition. Marzipan can also be made at home, and in this case the quality of the final product will only benefit.

The fact is that the nut, which is the basis of the sweetness, is quite expensive. Therefore, manufacturers are trying to replace it with something else, and add chemical additives for flavor. This results in lower quality, but the product is more affordable and competitive in price.

What do we call marzipan

Many of you will now remember paste for decorating cakes, smooth and shiny. You're right, it's really about her. What is its composition? Marzipan is made from finely ground almonds and sugar. Classic marzipan is a plastic mass, which allows it to be used, among other things, to create figurines and cake decorations. It is also used as a filling for sweets.

A little history

When did the world first learn about such a simple and at the same time exquisite sweetness? In order to answer this question, you again need to pay attention to the composition. Marzipan is made from almonds, which means that the production of this product should have started where there is a lot of it. Several European countries dispute the leadership in the production of this confectionery product.

Ancient traditions of making marzipan sweets exist in Germany and Austria, Holland and Italy. But the most famous of them are produced in northern Germany. Moreover, the unique composition was kept secret for a long time. Marzipan was not really intended as an exclusive sweet. It’s just that almond flour began to be used due to the shortage or complete absence of wheat flour. I liked marzipan bread so much that they began to use it in good times, but as a dessert.

Area Specialization

It is interesting that until the 18th century, marzipan was made not only by confectioners, but also by chemists. Only much later did this skill completely pass to confectioners. And very soon this product became very expensive due to rising prices for sugar and almonds. But today this sweetness is still highly valued, but now we can already afford it. The prevalence and availability of this delicacy is very high.

Tricks of modern production

It's no secret that today many products are made from analogues or synthetic substitutes. Marzipan was no exception. The composition should include only almonds, sugar and rose water. And what is on store shelves today often has nothing to do with this legendary sweet.

Instead of almonds, any nut can be used in the paste, but most often it is peanuts. But very often the general composition includes soy or beans, various artificial fillers and flavorings. The reader may be interested to know that old cookbook entries called for finely grating almonds with added sugar and pounding the mass in a mortar for a long time. It was thanks to this that the highest plasticity of the mass was achieved. It took a lot of time to produce sweets, which explained the high price.

Properties of marzipan

They are determined by what the marzipan is made from. The composition, which the manufacturer is required to indicate on the packaging, will indicate whether the product is worth buying. If it is almonds, then the product made from it fully retains all the properties of this healthy nut. And it is very rich in vitamins B and E, as well as other antioxidants. But most of all it contains microelements. Just a few nuts a day will provide your body with phosphorus and potassium, magnesium and much more.

Knowing which nut is included in marzipan, you will have a good understanding of what you will get if you use it regularly. Almonds remove sand from the kidneys, normalize the functioning of the liver and pancreas, and also cleanse the blood. It is a natural analgesic that also has an anticonvulsant effect. The benefits of this nut are obvious for bronchial asthma, stress and insomnia. As you can see, marzipan is much healthier than ordinary confectionery products.

Cooking at home

There's really nothing complicated about it. The main thing is to know the composition of marzipan in candies, and you can reproduce a full-fledged analogue. You will need to take 150 g of almonds and peel them from the dark shell. To do this, pour boiling water over them for a minute, and then immediately with cold water. After this, the shell can be easily removed, and the nuts themselves need to be dried on a napkin. Next, all that remains is to grind the almonds into the finest crumbs in a hand mill or blender.

Now you need to add 100 g of powdered sugar to the resulting crumbs. It is better to take an industrial one, since the homemade one does not produce such a fine grind. To this mixture, all that remains is to add a spoonful of rum and water or milk; some confectioners suggest using raw quail egg white. This is kneaded into a smooth dough. There should be enough liquid in it so that the dough does not stick to your hands and the table. If there is too little liquid, almond oil will begin to separate during the kneading process, which is completely unnecessary. From this mass you can form round candies, place a nut or toffee inside, and pour chocolate on top.

Works of art

Is it really impossible to buy high-quality candies in the store and you have to make them yourself? Not at all. There is an excellent online store Grondard in St. Petersburg. There really is marzipan, the composition of which perfectly follows ancient recipes; it is produced and packaged here both to order and in-line.

This store is very popular among residents of the Northern capital, as it provides an opportunity to make an exquisite gift, with individual design, to colleagues, relatives and friends.

Popular Ritter Sport

You don’t have to order it from an online store, since it is sold in every supermarket. How natural is “Marzipan” from Ritter Sport. The composition is not bad, but it contains no more than 16% marzipan. Everything else is sugar, cocoa, emulsifiers and syrup. Therefore, if your plans include trying a real, almond recipe, then it is recommended to find another option. In particular, you can master the home production of these sweets, since it is not too complicated. In this case, you will be exactly sure what you served as dessert today.

In our time of confectionery abundance, it is difficult to surprise lovers of sweets with anything. However, there are still amazing confectionery products in this world that people with a sweet tooth adored and still adore, both several centuries ago and today, in the twenty-first century. One of these is marzipan. Such a poetic name is given to the dessert, which is created from a mixture of sugar syrup (or powder) and almond flour.

The history of marzipan

Several states are vying for the right to be called the birthplace of such a famous sweet as marzipan. The first in this “queue” is Italy.

According to Italian legend, almond-sugar dough was invented about a thousand years ago, when Italy had a bad year due to pest infestations and severe frosts that destroyed wheat crops. The people did not have flour, but they had almonds, from which the inventive Italians allegedly began to prepare bread, marzipan paste, and later - marzipan figurines.

According to the second version, marzipan paste was invented by the best pastry chef of Byzantium; it was served only at the emperor’s table; this delicacy was not available to mere mortals. Later, the recipe for almond sweetness fell into the hands of Turkish confectioners, and then spread throughout the world.

By the way, marzipan was once not only a sweet, but also a medicinal product. In Tallinn, in one of the oldest pharmacies in medieval Europe, marzipan was sold as an effective remedy for migraines and mental disorders. There is nothing surprising in this, marzipan is really very healthy - almonds are a rich source of the most valuable vitamin E, and this vitamin acts on the body as a powerful antioxidant that helps fight stress and tension.

The marzipan recipe came to Russia even later, around the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was brought into the country by confectioners who came from Germany. In the times of Peter the Great, marzipan cost a fortune, so marzipan figurines were considered a luxurious gift for the nobility, foreign ambassadors, and even the emperor himself.

How is marzipan used?

Fortunately, amazingly delicious marzipan is now available to everyone. In Holland, Norway and Germany, it is traditionally prepared in almost every home for the Christmas table. This sweetness is used in many national cuisines, for culinary purposes, in a variety of forms:

• marzipan decorations are used as decor for cakes, pies and other confectionery products;
• marzipan candies are created in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes, in the form of fruits, figures of people and animals, houses, and so on, with chocolate or sugar icing;
• marzipan flowers amaze with their beauty and realism; they are even collected into luxurious bouquets;
• marzipan is also popular in its pure form - cookies, bread, and muffins are made from it;
• Marzipan fillings are also popular - for cakes and pies;
• An extremely unusual drink - marzipan liqueur.

How to make marzipan at home

Anyone who is already intrigued and wants to try such an unusual delicacy is probably tormented by an important question - is it possible to make marzipan with your own hands? Fortunately, this is possible. Making marzipan is a slow process; below are two recipes for marzipan mass.

“Cold” method of preparing marzipan

To prepare homemade marzipan for creating candies and sculpting various figures, you need to use the “cold” method.

Ingredients:

• 200 gr. peeled almonds;
• 200 gr. powdered sugar;
• one egg white;
• a teaspoon of any fruit liqueur;
• five drops of lemon juice.

Preparation: the almonds should be dried in the oven for five minutes, then finely chopped in a blender and mixed with whipped egg whites and powdered sugar, adding liqueur and lemon juice. The marzipan mass should be homogeneous, so it will need to be thoroughly kneaded until completely homogeneous - first with a spoon and then with your hands, like regular dough. The finished mixture should be wrapped in foil and stored in the refrigerator. When using marzipan to sculpt figures, it can be painted in different colors with food coloring.

“Hot” method of preparing marzipan

How to make homemade marzipan to use as cake icing? The “hot” method will help!

Ingredients:

• 200 gr. Sahara;
• 200 gr. powdered sugar;
• 200 gr. peeled almonds;
• two egg whites;
• lemon juice;
• vanilla essence.

Preparation: mix powder, sugar and egg whites in a water bath and cook over low heat until it becomes a thick cream. Next, you need to add gradually ground almonds into flour, a teaspoon of lemon juice and a couple of drops of vanilla essence. Then the mass again needs to be kneaded for a long time, like dough. The confectionery products must be coated with the mixture immediately, otherwise it will lose its elasticity.

You will learn another way to prepare marzipan (without eggs) from this video:

Perhaps some people will find the recipes difficult and quite labor-intensive. It’s okay, today you can easily buy high-quality marzipan mass in a specialized confectionery store; in particular, almond flour and ready-made marzipan mass are presented in our catalog.

When starting to work with marzipan, special attention should be paid to hygiene: the workspace and tools should radiate impeccable cleanliness. You can create masterpieces from marzipan, following the example of professional confectioners, wearing surgical gloves - it is sterile and functional, since the material practically does not stick to them.

Depending on your goals, you may need the following tools to work with marzipan:

• a smooth rolling pin, a special board made of food-grade non-stick plastic for rolling out the mass;
• a narrow knife with a sharp blade or scissors for cutting;
• stamps and molds, including three-dimensional silicone ones, cuttings for creating petals, leaves, and various marzipan figures;
• small objects with a relief surface - for embossing;
• a set of modeling stacks and blades for making recesses, applying bends of the desired type, and thinning products;
• special pins with heads made of plastic or glass to give the petals a three-dimensional shape;
• a set of tongs with embossed tips for folding, pinching edges, and laying out figures on finished cakes;
• brushes, round pastry brush (brush) for tinting products, marzipan flowers.

In general, to work with marzipan, the same set of tools is used as for mastic, because the consistency and properties of the plastic mass are approximately the same. You can read more about the tools in our other articles.

If you sprinkle the board or other surface on which you are rolling with powdered sugar, the marzipan mass will not stick to it.

Remember the technique of modeling plasticine - it is ideal for working with treats. Armed with the above items, creating your desired marzipan decorations will be a breeze. Egg white will serve as a binding element when molding individual parts into a single figure.

You can solve the problem of poor modeling from excessively viscous marzipan by adding a little sifted powdered sugar to the mass. If the mixture is too dry and crumbly, adding a small amount of cooled boiled water will help correct the situation.

Before covering the cake with marzipan, for better adhesion, the baked goods are coated with thin jam or buttercream and cooled in the refrigerator. It is not recommended to apply the mixture to cream, egg whites or custards, as this material will melt on them.

You need to decide in advance how much mass of a certain tone will be needed, since it is very difficult to guess the proportions to obtain an identical shade. A too saturated color can be lightened by adding a piece of uncolored mass and kneading it until smooth. The dye is added immediately before use.

Paste-like thick dyes will not spoil the consistency of marzipan. It is better to mix the dye in a container so as not to stain the work area. You can read more about food coloring in our other articles.

For long-term storage in the refrigerator, the marzipan mass should be placed in a hermetically sealed plastic container, wrapped in plastic wrap when working and taken in small portions as necessary, since the confectionery material dries quickly.

Marzipan is a confectionery product made from a mixture of finely ground almond flour with the addition of powdered sugar or sugar syrup. In some cases, marzipan is usually called a mass of other types of nuts. In addition, the name “marzipan” is given to food products prepared from this delicacy. Thus, in our country, buns called “marzipan” containing peanuts are very popular.

History is silent about where this popular delicacy comes from, but a number of countries, including Estonia, France, Italy and Germany, are fighting for the right to bear the proud title of the birthplace of marzipan. However, based on the name, which can be literally translated from Italian as “Martha bread,” there is a high probability that Italy holds the palm.

One of the versions of the invention of sweets is more than prosaic: hunger was to blame. During the period when wheat was in short supply and almonds were in abundance, bread and other food products were made from it. According to another version, marzipan was prepared as a cure for mental illnesses, mood disorders, spleen and apathy, since it was believed that sweetness had a beneficial effect on the nervous system.

Real marzipan contains only three ingredients - sugar (and variations based on it - powdered sugar, syrup, sweetener), sweet and bitter almonds. The recipe also requires some changes: for example, instead of bitter almonds, you can add essence, almond liqueur or bitter almond oil. Sometimes it is excluded from the recipe altogether.

Marzipan mass, so widely used these days for decorating cakes and pastries, does not have the specific taste of real marzipan.

Manufacturers often add as additional ingredients:

• Various flavors, including cocoa, orange zest, various liqueurs, spices, rose water, etc.;
• Eggs;
• Natural or artificial dyes.

The methods for preparing almond delicacies also differ. As a rule, there are three main ones:

• The cold egg method involves grinding all the ingredients and then mixing them. Powdered sugar is used instead of sugar;
• Cold method without eggs;
• The hot method differs from the previous ones in that sugar syrup is used instead of powdered sugar.

These days, the variety of marzipan varieties can hardly be counted. It is believed that there are no less than 500 varieties of the delicacy. The title of the capital of marzipan is deservedly held by the German city of Lubeck, where marzipan is prepared according to ancient recipes, kept in strict confidence. One of the largest and most popular marzipan museums is also founded in this city.

Useful properties and calorie content of marzipan

Almond-based delicacy is an extremely high-calorie product. The calorie content of marzipan is 479 Kcal per 100 g of product, which consists of proteins in the amount of 6.8 g; fat – 21.2 g and carbohydrates – 65.3 g.

Of course, marzipan is by no means a dietary product. Eating even 100 g per day significantly affects the total calorie content of foods eaten per day. The combination of a large amount of fats and carbohydrates in one product can have a very negative impact on the figure and is not recommended for consumption by those who are on a diet.

Due to the fact that marzipan contains almost only almonds, the delicacy is rich in vitamin E, which this nut contains in abundance. The vitamin, in turn, is a powerful antioxidant that takes an active part in the fight against stress and emotional tension. In addition, vitamin E helps protect the cells of our body from pathogenic external factors and prevents their changes caused by various diseases.

For normal functioning, the male body needs proteins found in meat products. A woman, because she is very energetic, needs carbohydrates, which are abundant in fruits and sweets, scientists say. Yes, cakes, chocolates, and sweets are the most effective products that quickly lift a woman’s mood and charge her with energy. But what to do if you are breastfeeding? What sweets can a nursing mother eat? After all, sometimes you want something like this so badly, but an apple or a banana doesn’t save you.

It’s not so easy for a young nursing mother, because she needs to very carefully monitor her diet (everything that mom eats). And, despite this, now there are no special restrictions on the choice of products for the baby’s mother, because the mother’s milk should be nourishing and healthy, that is, filled with all the substances necessary for the growth and development of the baby. But you can’t get this from water and crackers.

Nutritionists also say that a nursing mother can safely eat the foods she ate during pregnancy. Being in the mother's tummy, the baby has already become familiar with all these tastes, so they will not be new to him. If you still don’t dare return to a normal diet, then you can introduce foods into your diet gradually, being sure to pay close attention to your baby’s reaction to them.

A woman who is breastfeeding should not give up sweets either. You just need to approach this issue more selectively. Yes, cream cakes and most candies should still not be eaten while breastfeeding. But there are plenty of other goodies that will completely satisfy your desire. We are announcing the entire list of sweets that a nursing mother can eat.

Sweets you can eat while breastfeeding:

• Marshmallow. Choose white marshmallows, without artificial colors or chocolate icing.
• Ice cream. Now organic ice cream based on natural milk and cream, without preservatives, dyes and flavors, has appeared on sale. Yes, it costs a little more than usual, but you won’t eat this sweetness every day.
• Paste.: There are many recipes on the Internet. Or you can buy ready-made ones. When buying marshmallows in a store, pay attention to its composition: no dyes, sweeteners, or flavors! And, preferably, it should be based on pectin and not gelatin.
• Marmalade. The healthiest marmalade is found in the organic food aisle. What to look for when choosing marmalade? See the point about marshmallows.
• Condensed milk. True, it contains too much sugar, so you need to eat it with caution and preferably after the baby is 1 month old. It is better not to eat condensed milk in its pure form, but to add it to tea instead of sugar. By the way, grandmothers often recommend its use if you need to increase lactation. Although this method of increasing breast milk supply has not been confirmed by scientists, many mothers say that it helps.
• Halva. Halva can also be eaten while breastfeeding. But remember, it is made from a large amount of sugar, so you should not abuse it, in order to avoid the baby from developing a rash, itching and tummy pain.
• Milk soufflé and panna cotta. Yes, yes, if you prepare such desserts yourself (and they are not so difficult to prepare) and from natural ingredients, then why not?

• Candies. Give preference to natural candies without chocolate, because cocoa is a strong allergen. If the little one does not have an allergic reaction, then you can eat 2-3 candies a day. The best sweets are caramels (without dyes or flavors), jellies, toffees, etc. You can also make homemade sweets from dried fruits or lollipops.
• Meringue or meringue. This sweet is very easy to prepare at home. Therefore, from time to time you can treat yourself to such a protein delicacy.
• Dried fruits. Dried apricots, raisins, prunes, dried apples and pears are also good sweets. Only when choosing dried fruits, you need to be absolutely sure that they have not been additionally processed in any way.