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Almond paste is made from groundalmonds oralmond meal and sugar in equal quantities, with small amounts of cooking oil, eggs, heavy cream orcorn syrup[1] added as a binder. It is similar tomarzipan, with a coarser texture. Almond paste is used as a filling in pastries, but it can also be found in chocolates. In a type of commercially manufactured almond paste calledpersipan, ground apricot or peach pits are added to save money.
Almond paste is used as a filling in pastries of many different cultures. It is a chief ingredient of the Americanbear claw pastry. In the Nordic countries almond paste is used extensively, in various pastries and cookies. InSweden[2] (where it is known as mandelmassa) it is used in biscuits, muffins and buns and as a filling in the traditional Shrove Tuesday pastrysemla[3][4] and is used in Easter and Christmas sweets. In Denmark (where it is known as marcipan or mandelmasse), almond paste is used in several pastries, for example as a filling in the Danish traditional pastrykringle. In Finland almond paste is calledmantelimassa.[citation needed]
In theNetherlands, almond paste is calledamandelspijs.[5]
In Germany, almond paste is also used in pastries and sweets. In German, almond paste is known asMarzipanrohmasse.[citation needed]
It Italy it is known as "pasta di mandorle". The soft paste is molded into creative shapes by pastry chefs which can be used as cake decorations or to makefrutta martorana.[6]
Almond paste is the main ingredient of the traditional Frenchcalisson candy inAix-en-Provence.[citation needed]
In Turkey, almond paste is traditionally made inEdirne.[citation needed]
