Mass Pav – Moulded Almond Marzipan Dessert

Growing up, the house started smelling of Christmas from early December. Literally! You could smell marzipan, vanilla cream, thali sweet, cordial, Christmas cake and so much more. The best part of being East Indian though, was tasting the smells. Or rather eating the traditional Christmas sweets that weren’t good enough to give to relatives and were handed over to us kids. 😉 It was also taking a nibble while making some of them. Shh!

One of my favourites was marzipan. Not the stirring for hours to make it, but the part where we mould it into these tiny colourful shapes – flowers, fruits, stars, angels and more.

By the way, if you’re looking for the Easter egg made of cashewnut marzipan recipe, click here!

Or if you’re looking for the almond marzipan Easter eggs, click here!

Now every East Indian knows that mass-pav or marzipan is made of a paste of almonds or cashews cooked with sugar, egg whites and rose water on a slow fire stirring continuously till it forms a waxy mass. And then starts the real work of kneading it, putting it into moulds and forming all these amazing shapes.

But on a side note, when I spent those 2 years in the UK studying for my Masters, I tried to find marzipan forms or marzipan moulds one Christmas. I went to about 7 or 8 stores before finally giving up on it. The only question they kept asking me was, “You mean you actually mould the marzipan?” It seemed like a very strange notion to them. And I went to a couple of famous stores too! But no luck. Even my friends in the UK use marzipan on cakes, but not as shapes by themselves.

I’ve since found that Brazil and Portugal make fruit shaped marzipan; parts of Spain like Toledo make animal shaped marzipan; Norway and Denmark make marzipan shaped pigs for Christmas; Belgium and Netherlands use marzipan figures on St. Nick’s eve. If you have more info, I’d love to add it here.

But anyways, back to the East Indian marzipan that may have been influenced by our Portuguese heritage. We mould them and leave them out to dry. And every day a few of them quietly vanish. Who’s stealing the marzipan and quietly eating them? Probably Albert, our friendly ghost.

East Indian Marzipan Recipe

Here is the recipe we use. Cashewnut mass pav modified to granny’s measurements. Dad’s side does almond mass pav, but don’t you think it’s really tedious to blanch the almonds?

• Half kg Cashewnuts
• Three quarter kg ground Sugar
• 4 Egg Whites
• 1 chowni Rose Water (for kneading)
• 1 to 2 chownis Rose Water (for grinding)
• 2 to 3 drops Almond Essence

* Note : Chownis aka East Indian wine glasses usually measure 30 ml or 45 ml. We use the 45 ml measurement.

Grind the cashewnuts to a paste with rose water. Aren’t we lucky that nowadays we can use the mixie and don’t need to grind cashewnuts on the patha? That’s probably why our grandparents were stronger than us. They worked harder.

By the way, cashewnuts and almonds are essentially gluten free, but may come in contact with other ingredients that contain gluten depending on the facility in which they’re processed. So if you want to ensure that your marzipan is gluten free, just get your nuts from the right facility. Did that sound corny? Haha!

Sprinkle a thali or thala with powder sugar and keep aside.

Next, put the cashewnut paste into a toap (vessel) along with the ground sugar, almond essence, and egg whites that have been beaten to a stiff froth.

On a low flame, stir till it reaches a wax like consistency. Seriously, that’s a lot a stirring. If you’ve helped with stirring sweets as a kid, you’ll have strong arms.

Once the mixture is quite dry, pour it into a thala aka thali and knead till it’s mouldable. Form into 4 or 5 different colored balls and set aside.

Next, sprinkle the moulds with some powdered sugar. Mould the marzipan into tiny balls and place into moulds till they form the required shapes. Turn the mould over and hit it on the back with the wooden spoon so that the shapes pop out. Collect them and place or thalies or trays. Leave out to dry overnight.

We make about 150 to 160 pieces with this recipe using average sized moulds. If you use the bigger flowers and leaves, you should get about 120 pieces. And that’s it. The marzipan is ready to be sent out to friends and family.

PS. It’s not always easy to find these types of moulds outside India. So if you can’t find them, use any other silicon moulds shaped like Christmas trees or stars or other Christmas items and you’re good to go.

Other Recipes You Might Like

• Heavenly milk dessert for Christmas
• Walnut Fudge
• South African gypsy creams
• Chicken Tope
• Ginger Wine fermentation method

Related : If you’re looking for the marzipan Easter Eggs recipe, click here!

Next time we’ll do the recipe for the almond marzipan. 😉 Which one do you prefer to make? Almond or cashewnut mass pav?

Who Sells Traditional East Indian Christmas Sweets? I’ve been getting emails asking if I take orders. We don’t do that anymore. So we’ve made a list of East Indian sweet makers who take orders in different parts of the globe. Click here to go to the list!