Ersatz Marzipan

[rojash]

Showing my age here...
When I was a kid , my mum used to make marzipan from semolina and almond essence; I think it was something they did in WWII.
The thing is I preferred it to the real thing (I think - it could just be the nostalgic glow).
Does anyone have a recipe?

[ursula62]

Try this site, it has a few wartime recipes.

http://www.annabella.net/print/marzipan.html

[rojash]

Thanks ursula62, an interesting site.
But their recipe uses soya flour and golden syrup, so if anyone knows one with semolina, I'd be grateful.

[ursula62]

I also found a link to a German site that claimed to have used mashed potato and almond flavouring during the War. (As you probably know, marzipan is traditional at Christmas in Germany, and no marzipan means no Christmas! )

[ursula62]

Here you go!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/food/junes_recipes/june_recipe 106.shtml

[rojash]

Thanks for the second link ursula62. I notice they use vanilla essence, but of course I may have got it wrong about by mum's version, and just assumed almond essence.
Anyway, I'm going to try making it both ways!

[woofgang]

can't open the last link so here's another recipe in case its different It comes from the BBC book "the wartime kitchen and garden"

4 oz margarine

4tbsp water

2 tsp almond essence

8oz semolina

8oz sugar

Melt the marg with the water and add the almond essence. Put the semolina in and work it togetthe runtil it has absorbed all the liquid. Stir in the sugar. Turn out of the pan and allow to cool slightly then roll out and use. do not allow it to get cold or it will harden completely

[rojash]

Wow, thanks woofgang. At this rate I will get sick testing them all!

Incidentally, for some reason ursula62's link adds a copule of spurious characters. If you click it you "get a page not found", but if you look in the address bar you will see "%3C/P%3E" appended to the the end of the address. Delete these characters and hit <enter> and it gets you to the right page.