There are constantly great new low-carb products coming to the market. Well, many of them are unhealthy and full of artificial, weird ingredients. The main purpose of these products is not to make you healthy — the main purpose is to take your money. However, sometimes you find great, quite natural products which give some variety to the healthy low-carb lifestyle.
After finding a powdered sweetener consisting of erythritol and stevia there is no way back. It is sweet without the bitter aftertaste of stevia and it has only very little of the cooling effect of erythritol. I tried the sweetener in cooking and baking, and found that it makes really nice marzipan. This great recipe I want to share with you, my dear readers, and wish you happy holidays! 🙂
Tips for making the sugar-free marzipan
This marzipan is easy to make and it’s ready in no time. I recommend sifting at least the powdered sweetener, so that there are absolutely no lumps in the marzipan. For the best result, you can sift the almond flour as well.
If you are concerned about using raw egg whites, you can use pasteurized egg whites, or egg white substitute made from pasteurized eggwhite powder and water.
You can add almond extract for enhancing the flavor. However, if you can get bitter almond flavor (NOT bitter almonds or bitter almond oil), that would give even more authentic marzipan flavor. I’ve bought my bitter almond flavor from Germany, but I wouldn’t wonder if you can buy bitter almond flavor online or even from your local store.
Store the leftover sugar-free marzipan tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated. The marzipan dries quickly and becomes hard if not covered.
Use this sugar-free low-carb marzipan for making decorations or marzipan confections, just like you would use the traditional sugar-laden marzipan.
My experiments with the sugar-free marzipan
I love to create all kinds of sugar-free and gluten-free delicacies for the holidays. I haven’t seen any commercial versions of low-carb marzipan, so for a very long time I had planned to develop a proper alternative to sugar-laden marzipan. Especially chocolate covered marzipan confections are my favorite holiday treats, so now it was the right time to go and develop a proper low-carb, sugar-free marzipan.
I’ve got some books with marzipan recipes. Two of the books are low-carb cookbooks, third book is a massive Finnish edition full of sugary and gluten-filled recipes, which I love to convert into sugar-free, gluten-free low-carb alternatives.
One low-carb cookbook — my favorite — is The Low-Carb Baking and Dessert Cookbook by Ursula Solom. The recipes for marzipan confections in that book use pure almond paste, which is high-carb and filled with sugar.
The other low-carb cookbook is a Swedish book, Bakglädje med LCHF by Annika Rogneby (yes, I love to collect cookbooks in different languages, well, no wonder, I’m a linguist…). There is also a recipe for low-carb marzipan or actually for almond paste. However, I wasn’t satisfied with that recipe either. It uses erythritol crystals as sweetener, which have gritty mouthfeel and give the typical “cooling effect”. It also uses water as binding agent. Well, I haven’t used to use water in marzipan… I prefer egg whites.
Since I wasn’t completely happy with the existing the low-carb marzipan recipes, I had to develop one myself. I took the massive Finnish dessert book and pored over the recipe for marzipan. That was simple: almond flour, equal amount of confectioner’s sugar, a couple of egg whites and some bitter almond flavor.
I had just received a sample package of powdered Zsweet sweetener. I’ve always thought it’s pure erythritol, but to my surprise it contains also stevia! Well, I have had also pure powdered erythritol, and this Zsweet seems to taste much better. You can feel a little bit of the cooling effect of erythritol, but it’s far away from being that intensive like in the pure powdered erythritol. Zsweet is also sweeter, so you need it less than pure powdered erythritol. UPDATE: Since Zsweet doesn’t seem to be available anymore, I’ve recently used Confectioner’s Style Swerve. It’s really fine powder and tastes great, making it just perfect for this sugar-free marzipan!
My sugar-free, low-carb marzipan experiment was a great opportunity to explore more of this Zsweet sweetener. For the first experiment, I used just some 3.5 oz (100 g) of both almond flour and Zsweet, one egg white and a couple of drops bitter almond flavor. The texture was perfect, but the taste was far too sweet. I shaped some balls out of the marzipan and glazed them with very dark chocolate, hoping that the dark chocolate balances the excessive sweetness. Well, it did it to some extent, but I wanted to get better tasting marzipan. Oh, perfectionism!
One experiment I made with pure powdered erythritol since I had some leftovers in my pantry. The resulting marzipan wasn’t sweet enough, and even worse, I could feel the cool erythritol a bit too much. So, back to Zsweet.
The most satisfied I was with the experiment which contained 5.3 oz (150 g) almond flour, 3.5 oz (100 g) Zsweet, 1 egg white from an organic egg and a few drops bitter almond flavor. The texture was great and easily shapeable. The taste was sweet, but not too sugary.
In my next experiments, I tried coloring the marzipan with natural colors. I had received some free samples of red super food powder and green super food powder from iHerb. For one batch, I added the red powder before adding the egg whites, and for another batch I added the green powder. The colors in the resulting marzipan were intensive and bright! I was extremely positively surprised. I was expecting dull, weak colors, like it often happens with natural, food-based colors.
Of course you can buy ready food colorings, but I wonder how artificial they are. I prefer natural colors. Yes, and where is the challenge if you just take a ready color and add it? Come on, that’s boring! As I love challenges, I also love to search and find as natural colors as I can and experiment with those. I still want to give a try to different berry and vegetable powders. Turmeric for yellow, carrot for orange, blueberry for violet, cocoa powder for brown…!
I was also surprised that the green powder didn’t give any bad taste, it was pretty neutral. Also the red powder gave a pleasantly sweet and fresh, berryish flavor.
And now you must be wondering where the heck is the recipe for the sugar-free marzipan, so finally, here it is!
Sugar-Free Marzipan
Ingredients
- 5.3 oz = 150 g almond flour
- 3.5 oz = 100 g Confectioner’s Style Swerve OR Sukrin Melis OR other powdered erythritol
- 1 egg white from an organic egg
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract or a few drops bitter almond flavor
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour and the sweetener. Sift the almond flour and the sweetener for the best and smoothest result.
- Add the egg white and the almond extract.
- Knead until smooth. This shouldn’t take more than a minute.
- Shape and mold as you wish. Wrap the leftover marzipan in a plastic wrap to prevent it from drying. Store refrigerated.
Tips for variation
Since you can use this sugar-free marzipan just like the real stuff, the ways to vary and use the marzipan are endless.
For the ultimate holiday treat, I developed a delicacy with a salty, crunchy pistachio in the middle, covered by sweet marzipan and glazed with a generous amount of very dark chocolate… it’s a perfect combination of different textures and flavors!
You can make marzipan confections by adding chopped nuts, flavorings, or chopped dried fruits and berries. Next, I plan to make marzipan confections, where I will add chopped dried cherries or cranberries which I first will let soak in rum and stevia. If you count carbs faithfully, please take into account that dried fruits and berries contain quite some carbs, though as occasional holiday treat they are okay for most people. It should be just one or two confections you consume at a time so it doesn’t bring a huge load of carbs.
This sugar-free marzipan is great also for molding and shaping decorations on cakes and other baked goods. There are some ideas in the photo below. Well, I apologize my bad photos, I have to take better photos from better decorations in the future when I have more time to make some…
~~~ H A P P Y H O L I D A Y S AND M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S ~~~
Hi, My daughter LOVES marzipan, but has candida overgrowth so sugar is a no-no, however, she is also egg albumin intolerant. Can this be made without the egg white? Or is there a sub for it?
Thanks!
Traci
Hi Traci, I haven’t tried out, but I wonder if another keto-friendly binder like xanthan, glucomannan, guar gum, or even psyllium husk powder would work when dissolved in a small amount of water. I certainly have to experiment!
Hi – This is brilliant! I’ve not tried it yet but am very excited at the prospect. My partner has been diagnosed as an Insulin dependent diabetic so sugar is a no go area, a massive life change moment. I want to surprise him at Easter as he keeps saying he wont be able to have chocolate eggs etc this year. I want to use your recipe to make a Simnel Cake – have you tried this yet?
Thank you!
Hi Sheila, hope you’ll like the recipe! I haven’t used it in Simnel Cake but it should work well, though erythritol doesn’t brown that nicely like regular sugar if you are planning to brown the top layer under a grill.
Can I use Organic Stevia leaf in place of artificial sweetener to make this recipe. I usually like to use a touch of honey to bring the sweetness to the front of the mouth and take away from the bitter taste of the stevia. In our house we try to stick to Organic.
Hi Erin, you can definitely use stevia. By the way, I never use artificial sweeteners and recommend nobody to use them.
I am in marzipan heaven. I followed your recipe exactly and I love it! I used the Dr Oetker bitter-almond from Germany through Amazon and it was a reasonable price.
What kind of sifter can I use that the almond flour will pass through? It looks like it would be too large to pass through a regular one.
I make my own erythritol/ stevia blend using about 1/2-1 teaspoons stevia per one cup of erythritol. I double grind all of my erythritol in a large capacity coffee grinder.
Thank you so much for this recipe!
Hi Julie, so happy to hear you liked the recipe! You can also get very fine almond flour like Honeyville (though it’s impossible to get here in Finland), which might work better in this marzipan. Personally, I use a regular sifter that catches the bigger pieces of almonds in almond flour.
Tack så mycket!
Ingen orsak!
Instead of egg whites I use rose water or orange water as these give the marzipan a lovely delicate additional flavour (you can also add a couple of drops of cognac/brandy or rum if you make an adult version).
I use part xylitol which I grind in a coffee grinder and part stevia to sweeten the marzipan. I find that combining different sweeteners makes for a “rounder” sweetness than just using a single sweetener.
Hi Ute, thanks for your comment. None in my family is a friend of rose water or orange water so that’s why I don’t add those to marzipan. I also want to keep the impact to blood sugar levels to minimum, that’s why I use a combination of erythritol and stevia (Swerve or Zsweet, and add some drops of liquid stevia if additional sweetness is needed). Xylitol tends to cause upset stomach as well, so that’s why it’s not part of my pantry. But it’s great that you have found a way how to make marzipan which is exactly to your liking!
LOVE Xylitol!!! I use it in just about everything calling for sugar!! I made my own almond paste by putting slivered almonds, 2-3 T. xylitol and 1 tsp. of almond extract into my Blendtec for about 30 seconds. I eat it as a snack when I am craving something sweet. I just like it plain.
Wonderful! What a tooth-friendly treat 🙂
Could you tell me if i could cook this inside a stollen cake please? Or would it be best to leave egg out maybe? Thanks [email protected]
Hi Gemma, I’ve always wanted to try out this marzipan inside Stollen as my husband is German, but didn’t manage to try it out so far 🙂 So, unfortunately I cannot say how the marzipan stands baking. Anyway, if I baked Stollen, I would use the marzipan just like that, with egg white. If you try out, I would love to hear how it turned out!
Hi
Could you use this marzipan in place of traditional fondant for a birthday cake?
Hi, yes you can if the cake is small (8 inches in diameter at max). Just handle it very carefully and don’t make it too thin!
Wherey can I buy ZSweet. I tried super markets, Wegmans, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Kroger and Harris Teeter and they do not sell it. I searched online and could not find it.
Hi Lily! In the end of last year I contacted the company and the CEO told me Zsweet would be more available in the beginning of this year. Usually Amazon and Netrition sell it. I’ll send you email about other source where you can ask it. It’s a great sweetener and it’s really a pity that it’s not currently better available.
Hey! Love that you posted this recipe! My father is Norwegian and LOVES marzipan good-luck pigs, but after being diagnosed with diabetes type two a few years back, he hasn’t been able to eat them.
I wanted to do something special this Christmas, and attempt to make him a sugar and gluten free marzipan pig!
The zsweet though, is SUPER expensive (20-80 dollars)-and I was wondering if you would know of any cheaper solutions that would work equally as good. My dad is a bit of a picky-eater, kind of a prickly Norwegian guy–so taste is important! lol
Once again, thank you for posting this!!
Hi Alice, and thank you for your comment! Wow, that Zsweet seems to be awkwardly expensive there. That’s a pity, because usually it’s some $10 per package (which still is not cheap…).
Well, in place of Zsweet you can use any powdered erythritol or powdered xylitol. However, those might have gritty mouthfeel and cooling aftertaste. From the powdered sweeteners I’ve tried, Zsweet is the only one which dissolves properly in non-heated food (like marzipan, jams or frostings) and even it has some cooling aftertaste, it’s not too bad.
But one idea would be to use less powdered erythritol or xylitol and add some liquid or powdered stevia to reach preferred sweetness and minimize the cooling effect and grittiness.
Actually, there is a Norwegian company “Funksjonell Mat” which makes powdered erythritol called “Sukrin Melis” (http://www.funksjonellmat.no/sukrinmelis/om/ in Norwegian; http://sukrin.com/en/sukrinmelis/about/ in English). I used that before I found Zsweet. But like I said, I always had some problems to make the sweetener dissolve properly. Now when I remember, I used it also when making marzipan and it was okay. A little bit gritty feeling, but if you use less and add some stevia, the result should be just fine.
Hope this helps!
Thank you for all the great ideas! For Christmas this year I want to make family and friends a traditional Danish nougat roll. This is a log made with marzipan one layer and hazelnut paste for the second layer. The outside is dark chocolate accented with small pieces of violet candy. The rub is I want the whole thing to be sugarless. I’m sold on Erythritol, but have no tolerance for Stevia due to its unpleasant aftertaste. Wondering if you might have any suggestions for another sugar zsubstitute besides Stevia that might blend well with Erythritol? Also if you know of a source for hazelnut flour?
Keep up the good work! Your passion really shines through!
Thank you.
J. Carr
Hi Julia! Thank you for your comment. That Danish nougat roll sounds really tempting.
There are some other sweeteners in the market which blend well with erythritol. Good old Splenda (the small packages) is one. Another is Lo Han, which is liquid sweetener made from fruit. Many people like it, but I don’t find it sweet enough. I bought one bottle of NuNaturals Lo Han Supreme from iHerb. The taste is quite pleasant but not very sweet. You might want to search for different brands.
I guess you have tried several different brands for stevia? Some have very little aftertaste and some have terrible aftertaste.
I buy my hazelnut flour from a local store. I noticed iHerb carries also hazelnut flour (Bob’s Red Mill), so does Amazon. However, if you are making nougat (or hazelnut paste), why not to try hazelnut butter, especially if you happen to find a smooth variety?
It’s great to hear that you like my blog. Hope you succeed with your Danish nougat roll! Merry Christmas!
Hello thanks for the info. Was checking the internet for diabetic fondant to make petite fours and found your site. I will try to use the mazipan for center with very small amount of rasberry jam.This looks great. Still need to find diabetic fondant. Do you have any ideas. I do like the dark chocolate idea. Maybe use that if i cant find. Thanks again for your info really enjoyed reading it.
Tara schott
Hi Tara and thanks for your question. I have made sugar-free fondant myself a long time ago and it was really nice. Unfortunately I didn’t publish the recipe yet and I wonder if I still have it somewhere. I can try to find it. I haven’t seen any commercial diabetic fondants so far. I guess for the time being dark chocolate is the best option.
Great that you like my work. Btw, did you notice that I have a recipe for sugar-free raspberry jam?
Wow!
Wonderful photos and great job! Can’t wait to try it.
Thanks so much for publishing this recipe.
Hi Jayne, you’re welcome! Hope you like it.
Do you think this product – http://www.iherb.com/NuNaturals-NuStevia-NoCarbs-Blend-3-5-oz-98-g/4891 – could also work if i don’t have zweet?
Diana, I think I have that product in individual packages and it’s much sweeter than Zsweet. If you want to give it a try, I recommend to use it much less than Zsweet. You can start with a teaspoon or maximum two, and add more if needed. I also wonder if the aftertaste of stevia in that product is unpleasant if you use it in marzipan.
Thank you! I saw this Zsweet brand on iherb but not this one. Maybe they will carry it in the future.