Homemade Marzipan and Making Glücksschwein {Eat a Rainbow}

For our final week of Eat a Rainbow, I decided that we would make marzipan for the 'white international food.' Okay, technically it's more of a tan color, but I went with it. And we, then, shaped Glücksschwein, lucky pigs, in the German tradition.

I started with this, using syrup instead of egg white because of my "vegan" student. Then we added a bit more of almond meal because it was too sticky. Also, I looked long and hard for a natural food coloring; I finally found this one from India Tree whose ingredient list was: Glycerin, deionized water, vegetable juice, beta carotene, and turmeric for color. No Red No. 40. Thank goodness!

Ingredients

1½ C almond flour/meal
1½ C organic powdered sugar
2 t pure almond extract
2 T ginger syrup

Procedure

Place the almond flour and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the almond extract and ginger syrup. Mix with a spatula until a thick dough is formed. Add in the color in small increments until you get the color you want.

Knead the almond marzipan until smooth. Form it into glücksschwein.

We used some raw cacao nibs for eyes. The kids did a great job. One of my students' mothers wrote: "It was gone before I got home and had a chance to see it. Oh, well...." Next class I'll make sure to take better photos before they kids get to devour them.

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