Avoid spending way too much money on store-bought Almond Paste when you can make it in about 5 minutes for half the cost!
Newly updated photos, this post has proven to be my #1 post during the holidays! Making homemade Almond Paste is the easiest most cost-efficient way! This post includes affiliate links to my favorite products used to make the almond paste.
Have you been avoiding recipes like these Italian Almond Cookies because of the exorbitant cost for a can of almond paste? Well look no further. For about the same cost of one can, you can make about 3-4 batches of homemade almond paste, in about 1/8 of the time it would take you to get into the car and buy some at your local grocery store (if they even have it that is).
While you are welcome to use real almonds, almond flour is the easiest way to go in my opinion. It literally took me about 5 minutes to make almost 12 ounces of almond paste. The can that you buy at the grocery store is typically around 10 ounces. Wrapped tightly in saran wrap, or in a jar or tupperware, the paste will stay fresh for about 3 weeks.
Simply pulse the almond flour (or meal) and powdered sugar in your food processor for a couple of seconds.
Then add the almond extract and egg whites.
Pulse again until a dough ball forms and no longer sticks to the sides of your bowl.
And that’s it my friends! Homemade almond paste ready for all of your incredible recipes! Enjoy!
- 1 1/2 cups Almond Flour
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1-2 tsp almond extract
- 1 egg white slightly beaten
- Using a food processor, pulse the almond flour and powdered sugar a few times to break up any clumps.
- Add 1 tsp of almond extract and pulse to combine.
- Test at this point to see if it has enough almond flavoring. I really like almond so I added 2 teaspoons.
- Add egg white and to your food processor on for 2 minutes.
- At this point, the mixture should be smooth and formed a ball.
- If dough is still sticky add 1 tbsp more of almond flour.
- Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator.
Recipe Video
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well, this is a wonderfu posting. I have often liked to make german stollen and the really good ones have a moist wonderful filling through the middle consisting of almond paste. The cost of the canned stuff has made me look at other holiday coffee cakes, especially because I make at least six at a time. Thank you very much.
Thank you Carol! I think everyone should know this!
Wow How cool! I never would buy the stuff in the can, because I have this thing about buying things in can’s 😉 , so good to know how to make my own ! Thank you!
Does anyone know if this is the same type of almond paste that they sell in the Dutch delicatessens?
I don’t…sorry!
Can you use whole almonds finely ground? And how much would you use in place of almond flour?
Thank you
This will make marzipan not almond paste. Reduce your sugar to one half cup to make paste!
Actually this is an almond paste recipe as it has almond extract. Marzipan has rose water.
Can I use this recipe to cover a fruit cake??
It is pretty pliable, so I am assuming yes.
The main difference between US/European almond paste and marzipan is the ratio of ground almonds (almond meal) to sugar. Generally, almond paste will have roughtly equal proportions of almonds and sugar (plus other ingredients) and marzipan will have a higer ratio of sugar (up to 75% sugar) plus other ingredients.Apr 25, 2012
Actually, this is almond paste. Almond paste ( in the United States) is equal portions of sugar and almond with egg white. Marzipan has whole egg and 75% of the base is sugar instead of 50-50 ratio.
Love your recipes Seaside Baker!! I’ve made & used this recipe in several cakes & bars. DELISH. I could just spread this over a hard crust bread!
I see you have a recipe for French macaroons. Do you have one for the expresso/coffee flavor macaroons?
Thank you for such a simple recipe!!! I’ve been wanting for years to try my hand at Banket…a Dutch treat but can never seem to find almond paste. A couple times I was “tricked” into buying marzipan labled as paste and it completely destroyed the end product (no one could chew through it!) The fact you had the recipe in imperial measures and not that silly metric was a huge benefit too….not every cook has a scale in the house! I just made this and will use it in my baking tomorrow!
Silly metric, hrumph!
Metric is an amazingly accurate way to bake quickly & consistently.
Invest in a food scale… its like $15.
Signed,
An American
I work in a lab where I use metric, so I go back and forth between the two at home.
Oh my lord — thank you so, so much for a simple version of this! I have been researching this recipe for a few weeks now and have seen from simple to crazy – boiling honey, water and sugar to make a syrup, and then blanching, peeling, cooling and grinding your own almonds, etc. This ROCKS! I am very excited and grateful.
Hi! I just need confirmation. Is it ”1 and a 1/2 cup” of almond flour and ”1 and a 1/2 cup” of powered sugar or only ”one half cup” of each. Huge difference. It’s a bit confusing to me now, because I saw another comment of you in a reply to someone and there you mentioned something about ”one half cup”. May I use castor sugar? I suppose this is the same as powered sugar. Thanks for your recipe!
1.5 cups each
You want icing sugar for this recipe. If you only have castor sugar, whirl it by itself in your food processor until it’s superfine.
how many oz. does the recipe make?
thank you very much.
how about adding a bit of xanthan gum as with other gluten free flours
I used this recipe in making Banket and the filling run out and made a mess. I have made this for over 30 years using bought almond paste. Can you tell me what went wrong? thank you
Hi, can you help!
My group, DBE Brigadoon Chapter in Houston make 40+ fruit cakes (Christmas Cakes) every year for the British Festival.Previous years The Almond Co in NY kindly donated 48 lbs to us, but since they were taken over by another company we no longer get the items donated. This year I ordered 6 cans of Roland Almond paste and now I find the product is very crumbly, difficult to role out and cover the cakes. Can you suggest what I can add to the Almond paste to make it less crumbly and more pliable – do I add more powdered sugar or What. Any help would be appreciated. I have emailed the company, so they may be able to help.
Thanks Pauline Symon
Hello and thank you very much for the recipe for almond paste. I just love almond paste. Now my question to you is can I use almonds that are already ground which I buy for other things like almond tarts etc. or do I have to start with the hole almonds??
Thank you so much for this simple money saving recipe. I had a large bag of almond flour in my cupboard I needed to use up. Every Christmas season I make pignoli cookies. They are everyone’s favorite and they rant and rave over them. However they are costly to make between the almond paste and the Pignoli. So I made the paste, used all the flour up and I wrapped them in 8 oz. blocks in wax paper. Put them in a container and froze. Since then I have made the pignoli cookies, twice. Not just for Christmas anymore. I get special requests to make them because I am told mine are better than the Italian bakery’s. Wonderful! I just bought another bag of flour to make more!
Can I save this in frig for months as store bought almond paste. It does have a raw egg white the one you are showing.
Your almond paste have a raw egg white , how long can you keep this almond paste in the fridge.store bought paste keep a while in the fridge.
Thanks for sharing this! I suspected that almond flour could be us d and you confirmed it! On to my Pignoli Nut Cookies!
A true game changer!
Thanks for sharing this! I suspected that almond flour could be used and you confirmed it! On to my Pignoli Nut Cookies!
A true game changer!
I only have almond meal that has almond that are NOT balanced. Can I use that to make the almond paste?
Sorry..That was supposed to say…almonds that are NOT blanched. Is that suitable for almond paste?
Almonds are really easy to blanch yourself. It’s a really satisfying job and children love doing it for you.. put the whole almonds in a pan of boiling water for a minute or two, then strain and plunge in cold water.
Then you just squeeze them and the skins slide/pop off. EASY PEASY !
This is by far the easiest and best recipe for almond paste. I will be making a moroccan cookie, which requires the almond paste to be flavored with orange. Excellent flavor and consistency for shaping. Thank you
Merry Christmas
I tried almond flour, I found it over processed and lacking flavor.
I went to the scoop and save and purchased ground almonds they worked much better.
Hi! Can this be wrapped and frozen?
Wow, this is great news. Wish the posters would include links to their wonderful sounding recipes.