Making almond paste yourself is very easy (and delicious)
A little Sunday afternoon messing around in the kitchen meant I’ll never buy almond paste from the supermarket again. Because honestly: this is so delicious!
I wanted to bake an apple pie with the apples that had fallen from our own apple tree. That wasn’t planned, because it had been windy, and luckily I had everything I needed for a pie at home. Oh wait: everything except almond paste. The people at Veldkeuken said it really needed to go in there – because I wanted to make that recipe – after all. And almond paste is of course also incredibly delicious in apple pie. No soggy base, but that lovely sweet-and-bitter flavor of the paste alongside the fresh, tart apples, mmm. But I really didn’t feel like cycling to the supermarket. What to do?
Make it yourself
Luckily, my friends from Amelisweerd didn’t let us down. The cookbook also explained how to make almond paste yourself. And to my great delight, you hardly need anything. Almonds, sugar, an egg and lemon zest: done. Coarsely ground almond flour was still in the cupboard, left over from a macaron phase, and we always have sugar and an egg in the pantry. Weigh, stir, set aside, taste: good grief, this is delicious. Much tastier than the ready-made paste you can buy. Much more bitter, and therefore more delicious. Of course, you can still customize the paste to your liking. A splash of orange blossom water would seem incredibly delicious to me, for example. That’s for next time; first I’m sharing this recipe. With all credit to Veldkeuken, of course.
How to make almond paste
- Put all the ingredients together in a food processor and mix until a cohesive dough forms.
- You can let the paste develop in the refrigerator for a few days; the flavor will improve. And if you want to keep it, you can of course freeze it.
- That’s it! I told you it was easy, didn’t I? It immediately makes me want homemade filled speculaas, or filled cookies, or another apple pie like this.
