Easy homemade keto sugar-free marzipan recipe (almond paste) that only needs 3 ingredients and takes only 5 minutes.
There is no raw egg in this recipe so you can enjoy a sweet festive treat that is sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, low-carb, keto, and even vegan! PLUS it lasts longer.
Use your homemade marzipan to make Christmas candies, decorate your festive Christmas cake, cover wedding cakes, and even dip in chocolate to make festive Christmas pudding candies.
Learning how to make homemade marzipan is one of the easiest festive recipes that you can use in so many ways. No cooking skills or decorating skills are required.
If you need more ideas for the holidays, I have 30+ healthy keto Christmas recipes for you and the best ways to use Christmas leftovers.
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What is marzipan
Marzipan is a sweet dough made with almond flour or ground almonds. The traditional marzipan recipe contains sugar, egg white, and rosewater.
Marzipan has a strong sweet almond flavor and is often used to decorate Christmas cake, fruit cakes, Battenberg cake (a light sponge cake covered in marzipan), shaped into candies and dipped in chocolate, or used to fill cookies and pastries.
Is marzipan keto?
No. Regular store-bought sweet marzipan is full of added sugar and sometimes even honey too. But with a few low-carb ingredient substitutions, you can easily make homemade keto marzipan.
This is an egg-free marzipan recipe that fits in perfectly with your low-carb diet or keto diet. Each ball only has 1.3 g net carbs, 0.5 g sugar, 2.5 g protein, 5.9 g fat, and 68 calories. A perfect sweet treat for your low-carb diet.
Marzipan vs almond paste vs fondant
Marzipan, almond paste, and almond candy dough are all very similar. They are all made from ground almonds and sugar.
What is marzipan?
Marzipan (marchpane, marzapane, maçapão, mazapán) is a ground paste of almond flour, sugar, honey, and often has added almond essence (almond extract) to make a strong almond flavor. Low-carb marzipan has a smooth texture for making candies and decorating fruit cakes, wedding cakes, Christmas cakes, or to be used inside stollen, almond croissants, and cookies.
What is almond paste?
Almond paste is made using equal quantities of almonds and sugar. It often has small quantities of added corn syrup, eggs, heavy cream, and cooking oil. It is not as fine a texture as marzipan and is most commonly used as a filling for cookies, muffins, buns, and almond-filled croissants.
What is almond candy dough?
This is a name commonly used in America. Almond candy dough is a mixture of almonds, sugar, glucose syrup, and water. It is used exactly the same way marzipan would be used.
What is fondant?
Fondant is a mixture of sugar, water, and often glycerin and gelatin. Fondant can be rolled and used to decorate birthday cakes, wedding cakes, and shaped into animals and candies. Fondant is often rolled and placed on top of marzipan to give a wedding cake the traditional white color rather than the off-white color of marzipan.
Ingredients for marzipan (almond paste)
You only need 3 simple ingredients to make a sugar-free marzipan recipe at home.
- Almond flour - or you can use almond flour meal or make your own almond meal using blanched whole almonds with the skins removed.
- Sweetener - to make this recipe keto and sugar-free, you can use your favourite sugar replacer. The recipe calls for powdered sweetener but if you don't have that, place granulated sweetener into your coffee grinder and pulse until you have made homemade powdered sweetener. The most common sweeteners are powdered erythritol, allulose, monk fruit, or a mixture of them. You can use liquid sweetener but you may need to reduce how much water you add to the keto marzipan recipe.
- Almond extract - or almond essence. These give your marzipan a concentrated almond taste. You may also want to use rose water as an optional extra if you wish.
How to make your own almond flour
If you don't have almond flour you can use ground almonds, almond meal, or you can make your own homemade almond flour. Make sure you buy blanched almonds that have had the almond skins removed.
Place whole blanched almonds into your food processor and process until you reach the texture you require. Be careful not to over-process. There is a fine balance between when you have created fine almond flour but if you process it for too long, you will make almond butter.
How to make sugar-free marzipan
This has to be the easiest sugar-free marzipan recipe. There are so many delicious keto treats and exciting ways to eat marzipan, you'll wonder why you ever bought it until now.
1: Place the ingredients into the bowl of your food processor. Pulse to mix the ground almond flour with the sweetener and almond extract (or optional rose water).
2: While the food processor is running, slowly add 1 tablespoon of water at a time to the finely ground almond flour. When it begins to look like wet breadcrumbs, stop adding more water and continue to mix until it looks like cookie dough and forms a ball.
3: Knead your dough into a small log. Wrap in baking paper or plastic wrap. Keep in the fridge to settle.
How to store marzipan
Most almond paste recipes contain raw egg or raw egg whites so storage is limited. This is an egg-free recipe so you can store it in the fridge for up to 7 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Wrap in baking paper or plastic wrap and then in an airtight container.
How to make marzipan candies
There are so many ways to use your sugar-free marzipan recipe. You can roll it out to decorate a keto Christmas cake, make marzipan balls, marzipan candies, dip in cocoa powder, cut slices and coat in chocolate, and even make mini marzipan Christmas puddings as shown.
To make marzipan balls and marzipan mini-Christmas puddings: Once you have made your keto marzipan recipe, you can either roll a tablespoon or two into a small ball by hand or you can press some mixture onto round molds. Place the balls into the fridge to set.
If you are using molds, place them into the fridge for at least 1 hour to ensure the marzipan balls are set solid then remove them onto a plate or tray covered with baking parchment paper.
To make chocolate-covered marzipan, melt some dark chocolate, sugar-free chocolate, or sugar-free chocolate crackle in a bowl. Using two forks, dip each keto marzipan ball into the chocolate coating.
To make them look like mini Christmas puddings, pour over some melted sugar-free white chocolate and allow to set.
Place a small drop of red food coloring on the top to look like a cherry.
To make marzipan candies: Slice your marzipan log into small circles then dip each one in melted chocolate.
To make marzipan fruit and marzipan shapes: Now this is where you have fun making other delicious keto treats. Add some food coloring to your marzipan and make fun shapes such as fruit, animals, and Christmas trees.
Recipes that use marzipan
There are so many ways to use marzipan such as marzipan fruits, inside stollen (a German fruit and nut loaf), Battenberg cake (a light sponge cake covered in marzipan), decorating a wedding cake, a fruit cake, a Christmas cake, sliced and dipped in chocolate, use to make almond croissants, and my favorite, to make marzipan candy.
When rolling marzipan for cake, always dust your kitchen bench and rolling pin with extra powdered sweetener. This helps to prevent your marzipan from sticking and helps you to slide a wide spatula underneath to lift and cover your cake.
If you are making marzipan candy, dust your hands with powdered sweetener.
Recipes that can use keto marzipan
- Keto "fruit cake"(low-carb Christmas cake) is perfect to cover with rolled marzipan.
- Snowball cookies - place a small ball of marzipan in the center of each snowball cookie.
- Cinnamon scrolls - add a layer of marzipan in the middle before rolling up.
- Keto Christmas fruit pies - cover the top with a small circle of almond past (marzipan).
- Low-carb chocolate chip cookies - omit the chocolate chips and place a small ball of marzipan in the middle instead.
Keto "fruit" cake 
Cinnamon scrolls Keto snowball cookies Keto fruit pies
Marzipan tips and FAQs
You can use an electric hand mixer. The almond paste won't be as fine and you will need to work it for a little longer, but you can still get a great result.
Powdered erythritol is the most popular sweetener but there are many other powdered sweeteners you can use. Monk fruit, allulose, or xylitol. You can even use liquid sweetener but adjust how much water you add to make the dough.
Yes, plus you know exactly what goes into your homemade marzipan. There is no added sugar, glucose syrup, or additives, or preservatives in homemade marzipan made with almond flour. Many store-bought marzipans are now called almond-flavored paste because they contain so few almonds and are predominantly made with sugar.
Add 1 teaspoon of water at a time to the food processor as it is running until the almond flour dough resembles wet bread crumbs.
Add a bit more almond flour (1 teaspoon) at a time to the food processor as it is running until the almond flour dough resembles wet bread crumbs.
Marzipan doesn't need cooking or baking but it can be cooked inside recipes such as muffins, buns, cookies, and cakes. If your marzipan has gone hard and you want to soften it, you can microwave for 10 seconds at a time until it softens but be careful as the almond paste can easily overheat.
Yes, wrap in plastic wrap or baking parchment then store in an airtight container in your freezer for up to 6 months.
Traditional marzipan contains raw egg white but my recipe is egg-free. This makes it perfect if you are allergic to eggs or you are scared to eat raw eggs. And by making an egg-free recipe, means it will store for longer.
📖 Recipe
Keto Sugar-Free Marzipan (Almond Paste)
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Ingredients
- 2 cups almond meal/flour
- ¾ cup powdered sweetener or more, to taste
- 2 teaspoon almond essence/extract
- 4 tablespoon water see notes
Instructions
How to make marzipan (almond paste)
- Place the almond flour, sweetener, and almond essence (almond extract) into the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until everything is completley mixed.
- While your food processor is running, slowly add 1 tablespoon of water through the chute.
- Continue to have the food processor running and add another tablespoon of water until your marzipan begins to resemble wet bread crumbs. Stopp adding any more water and keep your food processor running until a ball of marzipan (almond paste) forms.
How to use marzipan (almond paste)
- Knead your keto sugar-free marzipan and roll into a log and wrap in baking parchemnt paper. Place in the fridge to harden until you are ready to use your marzipan.You can use marzipan to decorate a keto Christmas cake, roll marzipan balls, make marzipan candies, cut slices and dip in chocolate, and even marzipan Christmas puddings as shown.
Notes
Approximate nutrition information is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. For the most accurate nutritional data, use the actual ingredients and brands you used in your preferred nutrition calculator.
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