Day 12: National Marzipan Day

I look forward to Thursdays for several reasons.

  

First, my family goes to the donut shop for breakfast.  We started this tradition at the first of the school year, and the boys look forward to it every week.  It's not about the donuts for me, but more about the family time together before we head off in different directions for our day.

  

Second, my husband, Thomas, works from home so it is the only day of the week that we get to eat lunch together - alone - with no kids!! Today we ate at the Mean Bean Cafe. It is a small cafe with excellent food and fantastic service, AND homemade desserts. We decided to splurge today and split a piece of Peanut Butter Pie - it was delicious!! Peanut butter and chocolate are one of my favorite flavor combinations.

Lastly, if it's Thursday, then it's almost Friday!!!!  Enough said!

The marzipan right after making it.

Now, on to National Marzipan Day.  When I think of Marzipan, I think of those little fruit shapes or decorations made from it.  I have never tasted it.  I thought it was similar to fondant - which isn't very tasty - give me buttercream instead! When I googled Marzipan to find a recipe, I was pleasantly surprised. It only has 5 ingredients which you put into a food processor and Voila! - it's done!  Except, it does have to refrigerate for 24 hours before using. I found this Marzipan recipe on Allrecipes.com.  The almond taste is very powerful, so if you don't like almond extract, you may not like it. Vanilla extract could probably be substituted for it. After it refrigerates for 24 hours, I would like to try rolling into balls and dipping in chocolate - a Marzipan Truffle. I will let you know how it turns out.

(The recipe called for 2 egg whites and several of the users commented that it made the marzipan too sticky.  I started with one but it seemed too dry, so I added another one and it seemed to sticky.  Maybe sitting in the fridge for 24 hours will help.  Also, I used sliced almonds instead of blanched almonds, which will make a difference in the look of the marzipan but won't affect the taste.)