What type of nut is the primary ingredient in marzipan?

The primary ingredient in marzipan is almond, usually combined with sugar as ground almond meal.

To make marzipan, almonds are commonly blanched, peeled, chopped, and ground before sugar is incorporated. Almond oil or almond extract may deepen the flavor, while syrup or another binder helps produce the pliable paste. The mixture can be molded into sweets, fruit and animal figures, or thin sheets for covering cakes.

Marzipan has a wide culinary history. It appears in chocolate confections, biscuits, stollen, banket, king cakes, and Carnival pastries. Regional styles vary considerably: German Lübeck marzipan is known for a high almond content, while some commercial products contain substantially more sugar. In the United States, almond paste generally has a higher proportion of almonds than marzipan.

A common mix-up is persipan, a similar confection made with apricot or peach kernels instead of almonds. Frangipane is different again: it is an almond-flavored pastry cream rather than a firm almond-and-sugar confection. The characteristic almond aroma partly comes from benzaldehyde-related flavor compounds.