Homemade Almond Paste can be made in as little as 5 minutes with just 5 ingredients. It is a versatile and delicious filling that will elevate your almond desserts to the next level. Not to mention all the money you’ll save from not having to buy premade almond paste.
Over the years, I’ve used homemade almond paste in so many different desserts and they have always been a hit. If you love almonds, making your own almond paste will give you limitless options for delicious almond desserts.
Plus store bought almond paste is not exactly cheap. So this homemade version is going to save you money while making you the star of the office bake off!
Table of Contents
What is almond paste?
Almond paste is essentially almond and sugar processed together to form a paste with the help of a binder, in this case egg white.
It is typically incorporated into a recipe as a filling like this Almond Apple Tart, cut into cubes and tossed into these Almond Scones or this Almond Croissant French Toast Bake, or rolled out and tucked into pastries like Almond Rugelach.
Almond Paste vs. Marzipan vs. Frangipane
Almond paste and marzipan are very similar in nature. They are both made with mostly almond flour and sugar.
➤ The main difference is that almond paste has less sugar and is primarily used as a filling in baked goods.
➤ Whereas marzipan has a lot more sugar so it is sweeter, smoother, more pliable, and is used primarily to make candies and cake decorations.
You can make marzipan from almond paste by adding more sugar, simple syrup, or corn syrup, but you can’t make almond paste from marzipan.
Frangipane, on the other hand, is a completely different animal. It is an almond cream that is enriched with butter and whole eggs. Whereas only egg white is used in almond paste and marzipan for binding.
Here are some recipes using frangipane you might want to try to see the difference. And they’re not only limited to almond frangipane either:
- Plum Tart with Frangipane
- Pear Tart with Pistachio Frangipane
- Pineapple Tart with Coconut Frangipane
- Almond Croissants
Why you’ll love this recipe
- This easy almond paste recipe requires just 5 ingredients.
- And it takes only 5 minutes to whip up.
- You can make a large batch and freeze leftovers for another day.
Ingredients and substitutions
As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips:
- Almond flour – is the main ingredient for almond paste. I usually use fine almond flour for a smoother texture. But you can substitute almond meal, or grind whole almonds to make your own almond meal or almond flour.
- Powdered sugar – I prefer this over granulated sugar for a smoother texture. Though I have seen recipes that use granulated sugar. If you want to substitute granulated sugar, I would highly recommend blitzing it in the food processor to make it a little finer.
- Salt – just a few pinches to enhance the flavor.
- Egg white – one egg white is used to bind everything together.
- Almond extract – adds an incredible almond flavor making your almond paste 10x more flavorful, add a little or a lot depending on how strong you would like the flavor to be.
Tolls you’ll need
Depending on what tools you have available, you can make this recipe using:
- A food processor: this is especially useful if you are planning to grind whole almonds to make your own almond meal or almond flour.
- A stand mixer.
- And if you don’t have either, you could use a mixing bowl and a fork.
How to make Almond Paste
The following instructions, step-by-step photos, and tips are here to help you visualize how to make the recipe. You can always skip straight to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
Using a food processor
The easiest way and my preferred way to make almond paste uses a food processor. This mixes the ingredients very quickly and also creates a smoother paste.
Add all the dry ingredients in the food processor bowl fitted with the metal chopping blade. Turn it on to distribute the ingredients evenly. Alternatively, you could mix the dry ingredients with a whisk in a mixing bowl before adding to the food processor to ensure the almond flour and powdered sugar is mixed evenly.
Add egg white and almond extract to the dry ingredient mixture. Turn the food processor on and allow it to process until a smooth paste forms. You will need to scrape the bottom and side of the food processor to make sure everything is well mixed. Then immediately scrape the mixture out and wrap in plastic.
Using a stand mixer
Whille I prefer making almond paste using a food processor for a smoother end product, you can certainly still make it without one. It is still super easy to make with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. This method will yield a paste with slightly coarser grain.
Similar to the food processor method, mix all the dry ingredients together in the stand mixer bowl. Turn it on and mix to distribute evenly.
Then beat the egg white and almond extract into the dry ingredients until the almond paste comes together. It will be very sticky, use a spatula to scrape it out and wrap in plastic immediately.
Make it by hand
Follow all the steps above using a mixing bowl and a fork. When you mix the egg white into the dry mixture, it will be very sticky, just keep kneading it together with the fork until you get a uniform paste.
Baker’s Tips
- This recipe makes about 7 to 7 ½ oz of almond paste. This is the same amount you’ll get from a package of Odense almond paste, which is widely available in grocery stores.
- You can use this immediately in your recipes, especially ones that call for it to be used as a filling or spread since it is soft and sticky immediately out of the food processor. If you need to chop it or roll it, it would be better to keep it refrigerated for a while first.
Storage
While commercial almond paste is shelf stable before you open the package, homemade almond paste needs to be kept refrigerated since it contains raw egg white.
You can make this recipe ahead of time and keep it refrigerated for a week and up to 10 days for all your baking needs. Or you can freeze it for up to 6 months. Be sure to wrap the paste well, so it doesn’t absorb any refrigerator or freezer smell.
FAQs
Almond flour is typically more finely ground and never contains almond skin. Almond meal, on the other hand, can be coarser, can be blanched (skin removed) or unblanched (with skin). For the unblanched variety of almond meal, you will be able to see the dark flecks of the almond skin in your final product.
Almond flour and almond meal are ground almonds, and are technically the same. So you can use either one for this recipe. You can even grind your own whole almonds if that is all you have at the time. However, I prefer to use almond flour or blanched almond meal for look and uniformity.
No, marzipan is sweeter and is not a direct substitute for almond paste.
Yes, almond paste is made from real almonds. But if you prefer other types of nuts over almonds, you can ground your own nut flour using a food processor and make macadamia nut paste, pistachio paste, pecan paste, pretty much any flavor.
More basic recipes to enhance your baking
Hungry for more?
5-Ingredient Almond Paste
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour, 129 g, packed
- ½ cup powder sugar, 50 g
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 egg white
- ½ teaspoon almond extract, use 1 teaspoon for more almond flavor
Instructions
- Add almond flour, powdered sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse until evenly mixed.
- Add egg white and almond extract and pulse until a smooth paste forms. You will need to scrape the side and bottom of the food processor to ensure even mixing of all ingredients.
- Scrape the almond paste out and roll into a log using plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.
Video
Notes
- This recipe makes about 7 to 7 ½ oz of almond paste which is about the same amount as 1 package of Odense almond paste you can buy at the store.
- You can use almond meal or ground your own almond for this recipe.
- Use almond paste immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 10 days or freeze for up to 6 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I really appreciate this recipe and how it adjusts for the number of ounces, but BEWARE, the gram measurements do not adjust when making a bigger or smaller batch. I use this recipe to make almond paste for Samin Nosrat’s Almond and Cardamom Tea Cake (in her book “Salt, Fat, Acid Heat”) which calls for 9.5 ounces of almond paste. Buying 2, 7-ounce tubes of almond paste is a waste of money! Last time I made this Almond Paste recipe for 10 oz, rather than putting 1.43 cups of Almond Flour (AF) and 0.71 cups of powdered sugar (PS), I thought I should try the respective 129 grams and 50 grams of the above ingredients as it would be easier to mix using my scale. (I also used Deb El brand’s Just Whites dried egg whites since it is easier than using 1.43 egg whites, and it does not require refrigeration). After I mixed up all the ingredients for the 10 oz recipe, I weighed everything. The Almond Paste weighed only 7.4 ounces–but I need 10 ounces for my cake. In reviewing your recipe and typing in various amounts of ounces, I noticed that all the gram measurements for AF and PS in the recipes for 1 oz to 10 oz were the same. So I did the math to figure the correct amounts to use: In the 7 oz recipe, if 1 cup AF equals 129 grams, then for a one-ounce recipe, if I divide 129 grams by 7, the answer of 18.43 grams of AF would be the same as using 0.14 cups of AF. So by multiplying the 1-ounce recipe amounts by the number of Almond Paste ounces I need, I know that I should use 189.3 g of AF. I made the calculations for PS: since 0.07c PS=7.14g, multiplied by 10 it equals 71.4g PS for the 10 oz recipe.
So to make my 10 oz of Almond Paste I figured how much more AF and PS I should add to my 7.4 oz of almond paste. I added the remaining amounts and the final product was the 10 ounces I need.
Wow kudos to you Carolyn! It’s always fun to adapt and adjust a recipe to what you need and I’m glad you were able to do that with this recipe, and save having to buy almond paste and waste half a tube. Thanks for leaving a detailed comment!
Can you freeze it?
Yes you can freeze it. You can find more info on your question in the post under “storing almond paste”.
This was very easy to make. It’s a little wetter than regular almond paste, so I had to bake my bars longer. Next time I’ll double the extract, as suggested, because the flavor is a little weaker than regular paste.
Thank you so much for this recipe! It is my go-to for almond paste. I just make it by hand, because I don’t like having to clean my food processor! Also, just wanted to say that I made a galette des rois yesterday for Epiphany, and I just followed the recipe and made the almond paste as they had it written, and it was TOO SWEET!!! I was so mad that I didn’t just make your recipe For the almond paste. Lesson learned. Thanks again for the great recipe!
Thanks Angela! Glad to hear you this is your go-to, totally made my day 🙂
I don’t understand all these great comments about this recipe. I am sure the finished product is great and the instructions are clear – if you have a food processor, which I don’t, but I could see no reference to quantities so was unable to follow the recipe. I have had to look elsewhere. And American references to Cups are useless. I have all sort of cups but how much IS in a cup??
Thanks for the recipe anyway
Hello Laura, if you actually read through the post from top to bottom you’ll find that there is a recipe card at the end of the post with gram measurement next to the cup measurement for the major ingredients. Within the post, below the notes about how to make it in a food processor, I have a section for what to do if you don’t have a food processor. I live in the US so I write all the recipes using US cup measurement but I make all the best effort to convert everything to gram measurement for my readers outside the US. Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. Happy holidays to you and your family!
Laura, just so you know from another non-American: references to ‘cups’ in American recipes are references to actual measuring cups that you can buy in any supermarket and on Amazon etc if you’re in the UK, not to random cups in your kitchen cupboard. Plus it’s very easy to google gram conversions if you don’t want to buy some and the recipe doesn’t provide them.
A cup is 250 ml
Hello,
I have a few questions, could you make this recipe by substituting the egg whites for water? I want to use the almond paste as a macaron filling and the egg white not being cooked or baked worries me. If using it for a macaron filling, would slightly heating the egg whites work? Also, if I use corn syrup or honey instead of the egg white, would it make it too sweet, hence the water suggestion? Sorry for all the questions, haha. I have been trying to find almond paste where I live, to no avail, and your recipe keeps popping up everywhere for me, I’m taking that as a sign to make my own, haha. Thank you in advance.
Hi Stephy, I’m sorry but water won’t work since egg white is the binder. I usually use this almond paste as a filling for baked good, haven’t used it raw for anything, not sure if that’s a good idea. You could try to heat the egg white to 160F in a water bath to kill bacteria. Or you could roll it out into a flat sheet maybe 1/4″ thick and bake it off first, then cut into small circle to put inside the macaron for filling, I’m assuming you’ll have a layer of cream too as a border, similar to if you were filling the macarons with jam. This almond paste is actually not too sweet at all so if you use corn syrup or honey I think it won’t make it too sweet, I just don’t know how the texture would turn out since I’ve never done this kind of substitution. You could also reduce the amount of powder sugar if using other sweetener. Let me know how you end up doing it, I’m curious 🙂
This is great information!! Thank you so much!! Yes, I was planning to do a vanilla buttercream with the almond paste in the middle. I will definitely try out these suggestions and let you know for sure. Once again, thank you so much!!! 🙂
Actually, I believe pasteurized egg white can be eaten raw. I’m trying this recipe right now! Thx!!
Thanks for posting this. It was really easy. Makes me wonder why I’ve been buying it for so long!
Do you think dried egg white powder would work in this almond paste recipe (adding in the water with the other ingredients)?
Hi Martine, I’ve never made this with dried egg white powder but I would think it should work as long as you use the correct amount.
Get Eggs white in the dairy section of the store. They are already processed/heated for safe consumption
Thanks so much for recipe I love almond paste an fresh verse tastes so much better
Thanks for the recipe.
Great recipe! So easy to make and was perfect for my pignoli cookie recipe that uses almond paste. Bonus was that I was able to use a confection sugar replacement and make them diabetic friendly.
Thank you Trang, for sharing the recipe! It was so fun to make and the aroma when blending it…so good! I replaced the egg white with aquafaba – worked perfectly! Xx
So glad to hear you like it and the aquafaba replacement is genius! I’ll have to add that to the note section for others. Thank you!
I stumbled upon this recipe on an internet search when the supermarket was out of almond paste. I consider that day one of my luckiest days lol. I make your recipe exactly as written and everyone loves my rainbow cookies and pignoli cookies. I also use this recipe to make filling fir sweet breads. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
Thank you so much Marianne! I’m so glad to hear it works out great 🙂
Could I substitute corn syrup for the egg white?
I haven’t tried that but I think you can. 1 egg white is about 30 grams, so I would suggest using 30 grams of corn syrup, about 1.5 to 2 tablespoons. Or try to add a little bit at a time until you get the right consistency for the almond paste.