Q: I received a rather large box of marzipan from a co-worker who recently returned from Turkey. I've only had marzipan once before, in the form of some sort of elaborately shaped marzipan animal, from a fancy grocery store in London. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to sit down and sculpt it all into animals or fruits, and I feel like there has to be a better option for it than just eating it by the handful. So what do I do with all this marzipan?
Sent by Laurel
Editor: Laurel, well you could always sculpt an Easter lamb out of it! Hmm — maybe not. Readers, any ideas for all this marzipan? What would you do with it?
Related: Almond Paste and Marzipan: What's the Difference?
(Image: Laurel via email)

Comments (25)
My family likes to embed marzipan in sugar cookies, but I'm not a huge fan of it so I couldn't vouch for how good it is. Though I imagine if you like marzipan it can't be bad.
Pie? There has to be a recipe for pie with a marzipan crust.
I would have a problem not just eating it all straight out of the box. However, if you google "marzipan filling," several enticing options appear: cinnamon rolls, apple cake, and an especially luscious-looking pear tart with lemon and marzipan filling. Plus, there's all those German Christmas/Easter breads, like stollen, that have marzipan in the middle.
Make Swedish semlor for Shrove Tuesday! My only advice would be to make the buns smaller than you think they should be to allow for optimal bun:filling ratios.
"Marzipan keeps well for 12 months if stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place."(1)
If you make layer cakes, put a marzipan layer instead of icing between the two cake layers.
Stuff dried apricots with a bit (then dip in dark chocolate.)
Make Easter eggs: tiny hummingbird to giant goose eggs - and roll in food coloring, or cocoa or colored sugars or crushed chiles.
(1) M&B of London
Looks to me like you got a box o'porn there. I can't think of a better idea than eating it by the handful! Dipping them in chocolate, THEN eating it by the handful?
@sunandtea your my soulmate!
oops! 'you're'...I got carried away.
I just discovered battenburg cake.. It's really good. Basically its cake wrapped in marzipan that looks like a checkerboard when sliced and the "checks" are all held in place with apricot jam! So good. Not so good is my way of explaining it.. So here is a link, complete with a video :)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/battenburg_cake_60878
Milkshake! they're delicious :)
I love the look of this recipe... I love stollen!
http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-stollen-daring-bakers.html
I love making a croissant bread pudding w/ almond flavoring and stud it with bits of marzipan. Finish it off with a drizzle of chocolate ganache -- its my family's favorite dessert at thanksgiving!
make banket!! (dutch pastry) I made it around christmas, and gave it away. so good.
http://latteloveleavinghome.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-baking-dutch-treat.html
also, make a yellow cake and sprinkle it will sugar/crumbled marzipan before baking. SO good.
Send it to me so I can eat it all!
Send it to me so I can dip it in chocolate and enter the happiest sugar coma, ever.
Nigella Lawson's Easy Almond Cake with marzipan:
http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/easy-almond-cake-150
yup. just eat it.
JUST EAT IT.
Make rainbow cookies out of it!
Make massapan tartlets!
http://www.dinnersanddreams.net/2011/02/massapan-maripantarts.html
Peel and slice an appropriate number of apples, mix with cinnamon sugar, make your favorite yellow cake dough, mix marzipan and eggs in the proportions 100 - 150 gram marzipan pr. egg - the mixture shouldn't be too moist.
Put the dough in a pan - which size depends on how big a batch you've made, the dough should only fill ~2-3 cm.
place the apples in the dough - make a nice pattern, or try to fit in as many as possible.
spread the marzipan mix all over. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree celcius for app. 45 minutes, or to a toothpick comes out clean. The marzipan may cheat a bit, as it tends to stick even when the cake is done.
Oh dear! You can send it to me!!
Princess cake. 'Nuff said.
Just eat it straight from the box. mmm :)
Ritter makes a bar of dark chocolate filled with marzipan. It is delicious, and I imagine a homemade version would be unbelievable.
This is my question. Thanks for all the suggestions! I see I'm going to have a lot of recipes to read through to figure out what I'm going to make this weekend. Hopefully I won't have eaten it all by the time I get around to baking. =)