Neapolitan Marzipan Chocolates are the perfect festive gift for the marzipan lovers in your life! These home-made marzipan chocolates are so incredibly delicious, you’ll be swamped in compliments (if you can bare to part with them that is)!
I have a confession, I am addicted to marzipan as well as chocolate! So when I was asked to come up with an idea for an edible gift for Christmas that a child could help with, my mind immediately turned to marzipan.
As a child I would make marzipan balls dipped in chocolate with my mother at Christmas time but we would just use the raw Danish marzipan that you could buy. I think marzipan is a bit like Marmite, you either love it or hate it, my son won’t touch it.
Anyway speaking to my mother the other day she told me all about the mock marzipan her and her sisters used to make using ground oats and vanilla essence instead of almonds. They would then use food colouring to make green, pink and white layers which they would then cut into diamonds. It’s amazing the things you never knew about your parents isn’t it!
I think I will try making mock marzipan one day but this story was the inspiration for my Neapolitan Marzipan Chocolates. As my treats were for Christmas I used real almonds and added the extra luxury of dark chocolate as it is such a wonderful contrast to the sweet marzipan.
My husband said these chocolates were better than any shop bought chocolates he’d tasted and after giving a bag to both our mums they agreed. Very professional was the verdict.
Not bad considering my 10 year daughter did most of the work and I just rolled out the marzipan and did the chocolate dipping it was a real team effort. I think she particularly enjoyed decorating the chocolates at the end with the flaked almonds and picking out the best ones.
How much do these Neapolitan Marzipan Chocolates cost to make?
I worked out that the 40 generous sized chocolates cost about £4 to make which if you wrapped into 5 cellophane packages (or roasting bags cut flat) of 8 chocolates each (130g) it would cost you 80p per gift. That is a phenomenal saving as marzipan chocolates cost about £5 per 100g off the shelf on average and even more if they are handmade.
How do you make Neapolitan Marzipan Chocolates?
Check out the pictures below which pick up the process after making the marzipan!
More Chocolate & Candy Recipes
- Rocky Road Fudge
- Mini Egg Chocolate Granola Bites
- Christmas Coffee Truffles
- Cookie Dough Truffles
- Raspberry Dark Chocolate Truffles
- Christmas Chocolate Bark
- Chocolate Filled Caramels
- Homemade Mounds or Bounty Chocolate Bars
- Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Peel
- Brazilian Brigadeiro Chocolate Bonbons
I would be over the moon if someone made these Neapolitan Marzipan Chocolates for me for Christmas or any time of year! So, if you know someone who loves marzipan and you have a willing helper in the kitchen I thoroughly recommend you make these. Think how impressed your friends or family will be to receive such a thoughtful gift!
Neapolitan Marzipan Chocolates
Ingredients
- 200 g ground almonds
- 200 g icing sugar
- 2 egg whites medium size
- ½ tsp vnilla extract
- few drops of red food colouring
- few drops of green food colouring or mixture of yellow & blue
- 250 g dark chocolate I used value
- 40 flaked almond slivers approx
Instructions
- Mix the ground almonds and icing together thoroughly.
- Whisk the egg whites and add to the mixture together with the vanilla extract to form a dough using a wooden spoon or your hand.
- Weigh the marzipan out into 3 equal portions and wrap 2 portions in cling film.
- To the unwrapped portion add a few drops of green food colouring and knead the colour into the marzipan on an icing sugar dusted work surface until colour is totally mixed in. If necessary add more food colouring to get a good green colour.
- Wrap the green marzipan in cling film and then take another portion and with the same process as above work in the red food colouring until a subtle pink is achieved. The last portion is left white.
- Divide a portion of marzipan into 2 and then roll out into long thin sausages with your hands (dusting the work surface again with icing sugar).
- Using a rolling pin flatten the marzipan sausages to get to a width of 2 – 2 ½ cm.
- Repeat for the other 2 portions of marzipan and lay the pink, green and white flattened strips on top of each other in 2 separate bricks.
- You can use your hands to neaten the sides.
- Cut the marzipan bricks with a sharp knife at an angle to form diamond shapes the whole way along. Then cover them in cling film.
- Now melt the dark chocolate by breaking it up and putting it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once it has started to melt well you can turn the heat off.
- Using 2 forks dip each marzipan diamond into the chocolate and on lifting out scrape away excess chocolate from base.
- Carefully slide each chocolate marzipan onto a sheet of baking paper.
- Decorate each chocolate with a sliver of flaked almond.
- Place in the fridge for 10 minutes to allow to set.
- Remove chocolates from the baking paper trimming away excess chocolate with a sharp knife if necessary.
- Wrap chocolates in cellophane parcels (I use roasting bags) with a ribbon or place in pretty boxes
- Best eaten within a week (if you can make them last that long)!
Anna (@DontCrampMyBlog)
This looks soo yummy! I eed to really try one day!
Camilla
I don’t blame you:-)
Michele
Hello,
Thank you for posting this recipe. I want to give these as gifts this yr. My 1st daughter is vegan so I think her younger sister and I may be able to make them vegan and use her favorite white chocolate with crushed candy canes! I have one question. Do you know if these will freeze well? My son lives a good distance…3-4 days for snail mail and i want to give them a freeze and send them. I will try it:) and post pictures on my blog michelescafe.blogspot.com. ..I saw this post on Google +
Camilla
Hi Michelle, dark chocolate is vegan I believe as there is no milk in it! White chocolate would just be too sweet as it’s the bitter contrast of the dark chocolate to the sweet marzipan that makes these so delicious. I imagine freezing would be ok but I’ve never actually done this but can’t see why you couldn’t, they might just get a bit wet with condensation, I actually think they’d be ok in the post as the weather is cold and I’m sure he’d eat them up in a few days or share with friends anyway. I don’t mind you showing pics on your site as long as you don’t publish the recipe and credit back to fabfood4all. Cheers Camilla
Ickle Pickle
These look delicious and what a great gift idea for Christmas! Kaz x
Camilla
Thank you:-)
Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy
These are beautiful Camilla, and what a lovely gift to give someone. I love getting homemade gifts (especially when they involve chocolate) as it shows how much thought and effort has gone in to them.
Camilla
Thanks Dannii – exactly, nothing like a homemade foodie gift;-)
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche
Oh these look fab, the layered colours are so effective! You’re so clever! 🙂
Camilla
Aaw thanks Becca;-)
MyCookingSecrets.com | Krystallia Giamouridou
It seems to me that you spend a lot of time effort making them, but they look soooo delicious in your images. Congratulations!
Camilla
That’s the joy of Christmas, but the outcome is so worth it:-)
Stella
I am not a hug chocolate fan but I do find myself enjoying chocolates sometimes. This looks yummy.
Camilla
Thanks Stella. It’s all about the marzipan:-)
Munchies and Munchkins
These look delicious Camilla, I’ve made chocolate covered marzipans a few times but normally I cheat and use store bought marzipan! Although I sometimes use food colouring gel to make it more appealing. These look fab and love the effect of the different colours. Delicious. I always used to buy my Dad handmade marzipans as he is a big fan of them but maybe I should try your recipe out this year? X
Camilla
I used to buy Anthon Berg raw Danish marzipan for such purposes in Tesco years ago but they stopped selling it and I wouldn’t eat the British stuff that is mainly icing sugar and very little almond, fine for cakes but not for fine chocolate making. My mum and I just used to roll it into balls, sometimes dye it green and just dip the tops in chocolate when I was a kid so these are a very posh version of that!
Elizabeth
What a fantastic hand made gift idea! My kids would love to make something like this! 🙂
Camilla
Thanks Elizabeth, yes my daughter loved all the rolling and mixing in the food colouring etc:-)
whatlauraloves
I’m not a fan of marzipan but I do like chocolate. So many people would love these I reckon! xxx
Camilla
I won’t judge Laura, more for me:-)