Königsberg Marzipan from great-grandmother's recipe book

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 500 g almonds
• 500 g powdered sugar
• 5 almonds, bitter from the pharmacy
• 50 ml rose water (approximately – use as needed)
• candied lemon
• candied orange peel
• Cherry(s), candied
• Powdered sugar and rose water for the icing

Instructions

Working time approx. 2 hours 30 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours 30 minutes

little sugar, bitter almonds, rose water and flaming are important

Blanch and peel the sweet and bitter almonds. Let them cool, then mill them together with the powdered sugar through the almond mill. Press the resulting mixture together and mill it again – this is much more difficult. If you want the marzipan to be very fine, you’ll have to grind it a third time. This “milling” is important so that the escaping almond oil is immediately absorbed by the powdered sugar, thus keeping the dough elastic! Knead the mixture with a little rose water, adding a little more powdered sugar if necessary, but as little as possible. Then form the familiar “tea confectionery” shapes, “cups” and “hearts,” each with a raised edge, which is scored with nail scissors or the back of a knife. Place the pieces close together on a thick wooden board and hold the board under a hot grill to brown the surface (this used to be done with red-hot irons). When they’re light brown, immediately remove them from the board and brush the hot edges with rose water. The wooden board prevents them from warming up underneath; you don’t want them to bake! Quickly set the whole thing somewhere cool and let it dry a little. Fill the centers of some of the molds, small round ones or hearts, with very thick icing (mixed with rose water) and decorate with small pieces of candied orange peel, candied lemon peel, and candied cherries. Layer the marzipan in tins, with parchment between the layers, and leave the filled molds on top. Unfortunately, it never keeps for long because the family always has instant cravings—but if you have enough, it’ll taste good until Easter. If you need to save work, look for the marzipan base with the lowest sugar content and just crush the bitter almonds very finely, then knead them in with a little rose water. Never use bitter almond flavoring!