Almond Candies

Name: Almond Candies
Ingredients: 100 g almonds + 30 g for coating; 50 g orange; 50 g sugar; 0.5 tsp coffee (level)

These are incredibly delicious and soft almond candies with a coffee-orange flavor. I'm not a huge fan of coffee on its own, but I love using it in desserts and baked goods — it always adds a wonderfully refined note that makes the treat truly one of a kind. Along with the coffee, I used a whole orange, skin and all, which pairs beautifully with both coffee and almonds. The result is a delicious candy that tastes just like marzipan. In essence, that's pretty much what it is — the main difference is that traditional marzipan is usually made with store-bought almond flour, which gives a finer, more uniform grind, and the almonds are blanched and peeled. I used unpeeled almonds, which makes preparation much easier, though you're welcome to peel them if you prefer. This recipe made 12 candies for me. You can make them smaller and get 15–18 pieces.

Ingredients:

100 g almonds + 30 g for coating
50 g orange
50 g sugar
0.5 tsp coffee (level)

How to cook almond candies

Cut the orange (you'll need just under a quarter of a small orange) into thin, small pieces, skin and all.

Place all the almonds (130 g) into a food processor or blender.

Process until ground, then set aside 30 g for coating. Add the sugar to the remaining almonds and process again until thoroughly ground. If you prefer a sweeter candy, you can increase the amount of sugar — classic marzipan is quite sweet and is often made in a 1:1 ratio, meaning 100 g of almonds to 100 g of sugar. I stuck with 50 g, which gave the candies a moderate level of sweetness.

Dissolve the instant coffee in 2 tsp of hot water and stir well. Add the orange and coffee to the food processor and continue processing, pausing in between as needed.

Keep processing until the mixture becomes fairly smooth, the sugar no longer feels gritty, and the mixture takes on a thick, paste-like, pliable consistency. Using powdered sugar instead will speed things up, but regular sugar works fine too — it just takes a bit longer.

You'll end up with a delicious, soft marzipan paste like this. To make the candies easier to shape, it's best to chill the mixture in the refrigerator or freezer first.

Using 2 teaspoons, shape the mixture into individual candies and roll each one in the reserved almonds.

The inside of a candy.

On top I used soaked and peeled almonds — they come out soft and go perfectly with the soft candies. These almond candies will delight any lover of marzipan, coffee, and oranges. So delicious!