Marzipan vs Almond Paste: What Is the Difference?

Both are ground almonds and sugar, and in the US neither has an official definition. So the line between them is drawn by each maker. One widely sold brand makes the split unusually clear: its almond paste is 45% almonds, its marzipan 28%, and both are otherwise sugar, glucose syrup and water.¹

Ratio decides the job

More almond gives a paste that stays put in the oven and tastes of nut. That is why bakers use almond paste in fillings, bear claws and almond cookies. More sugar gives a smooth dough that can be rolled, molded and colored. That is marzipan's job: fruits and figures, a covering for a cake, the center of a chocolate bar.

German rules are stricter, and Lübeck marzipan is a protected regional product. Raw marzipan paste there is peeled sweet almonds ground with less than 35% added sugar. Finished marzipan is that paste with more sugar mixed in. Lübeck's top grade, Lübecker Edelmarzipan, is 90 parts paste to only 10 parts sugar.³

You cannot turn one into the other by adding flavor. Adding sugar and glucose to almond paste gets you close to marzipan. Going back the other way means adding almonds.

Where the "almond" taste comes from

The smell most people call almond, the marzipan smell, is mostly one compound, benzaldehyde. It comes from amygdalin, which is plentiful in bitter almonds and in apricot, peach and cherry kernels. When the kernel is crushed and wet, enzymes split amygdalin into sugar, hydrogen cyanide and benzaldehyde. The same chemistry is behind amaretto.

Sweet almonds, the ones in almond paste, carry very little. In one FDA study, bitter almonds held an estimated 20 to 25 mg of amygdalin per gram, while sweet almonds tested below the detection limit.⁴ A paste made only from sweet almonds tastes nutty and sweet, with a soft marzipan note at most.

So makers add it. German rules let raw marzipan paste include a small share of bitter almonds.³ In the US, the usual route is a flavor. Another widely sold almond paste lists natural flavor after the almonds, sugar and water.² US "pure almond extract" is typically oil of bitter almond, with the cyanide removed, in alcohol and water. Two products sold under the same name can deliver very different amounts of that note.

Working with them

• Benzaldehyde has a narrow window. A little reads as marzipan. A little more reads as maraschino cherry, then cough syrup. Add it in small steps.
• Expect some loss in the oven. Benzaldehyde is volatile, and in air it slowly oxidizes to benzoic acid, which has almost no smell. Dose a fraction higher in bakery, or see heat stability.
• Natural and artificial are the same molecule. Benzaldehyde from bitter almond oil or from cassia can be natural flavor; synthesized benzaldehyde is artificial flavor. The taste is identical, the declaration is not.
• Kernel paste is a cheaper cousin, not a substitute name. Bakery suppliers sell paste made from apricot kernels cooked with sugar as an economical alternative to almond paste, with a stronger, slightly bitter almond taste.⁵ In Germany, the marzipan-style version is called persipan. It is not almond, so it cannot be sold as almond paste, and your allergen and nut-free statements have to reflect what is actually in it.
• Almonds are the cost. The more almond in the spec, the higher the price. If a supplier's almond paste looks cheap, ask for the almond percentage and whether any kernels are in it.