A few weeks ago, at the sourdough class at Petite France, we were invited to a small taste-test. Sébastien had his own almond paste, made with almonds that he heats up, sugar, and nothing else. And he ordered two types of commercial almond paste, both very popular with bakeries. One was very cheap, and one was the most expensive one you could get, but both contained a lot more ingredients than just almonds and sugar.
Not surprisingly, his was the best. By far. The cheap one tasted strongly of bitter almonds and apricot kernels, and the expensive one, while better, still didn't taste very much of almonds.
Lesson? Make your own. It's really simple, all you need is a food processor, almond and sugar. About equal amounts should do it. Grind the almonds, add sugar and process until you have a thick paste. Done!
Yes, homemade is great and so fast. When I needed almond paste for semlor, I couldn't find any at my grocery. I found a recipe on the web (I have a zillion cookbooks and none had an almond paste recipe!). My husband loved the paste and ate most of it right from the jar.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is Swedish and we live in the UK. We have had the problem in the past of not being able to find ready made almond paste at all in ordinary supermarkets, so this will be great recipe to have on hand next time we want to make 'kransar'. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteAnd so extremely simple to make. Easier than to scour the package for sugar contents and apricot kernels content.
ReplyDeleteVery helpful recipe to have. thank you!
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