Easy Marzipan Cookies

These thin chewy giant marzipan cookies are so easy to make, they’re even suitable for beginner bakers. You only need one bowl, nine ingredients, and 30 minutes (or less) to make them.

This recipe is perfect if you have lots of leftover marzipan you’re looking to use up after covering a cake with it or making some simnel cakes. Specifically, I developed it because I had a) a LOT of marzipan leftover from making my Irish Christmas cake and b) a hankering for cookies and couldn’t quite see what I wanted when I searched for a recipe.

Use quality marzipan that tastes great to make these, homemade or shop-bought, whichever you prefer.

If you’re as crazy about cookies as I am you might also want to check out these quick vegan matcha cookies or these perfect vegan pumpkin cookies.

Why you’ll love them

These cookies are:

• Thin
• Crispy
• Chewy
• Soft in the middle
• Dairy-free
• Egg-free (depending on which marzipan you use)
• One-bowl
• Require no chilling time

Ingredients and substitutions

As these cookies are so simple, you only need nine basic ingredients which you can see in the image below. Under that, we’ll talk about which ingredients can be omitted, and possible substitutions you can make if you are short on anything.

Oil: You can use any plain flavorless oil like sunflower or canola oil for this recipe. I don’t recommend using olive or coconut oil (unless the coconut oil is deodorized) because their strong flavors can overpower the delicate marzipan taste.

Flour: Use regular plain all-purpose flour. You can substitute with wholewheat flour if you prefer, I have tested it and the cookies will be a little darker and speckled and have a pleasant nutty flavor.

Marzipan: Marzipan is very necessary for this recipe. Use a high-quality tasty shop-bought one or a good homemade one. I am allergic to eggs so I usually use this lovely vegan recipe for marzipan.

Water: A necessary ingredient, you can substitute with milk or almond milk for more richness.

Baking powder: If you don’t have any of this you can increase the baking soda amount by a quarter teaspoon and add half a teaspoon of cream of tartar.

Baking soda: If you’ve run out, you can increase the amount of baking powder you use by three teaspoons instead.

Salt: There’s just a little salt used to nicely contrast with the sweetness of the marzipan and the sugar, but it can be omitted if you prefer.

Sugar: Just plain granulated white table sugar is used in this recipe (vegans in the USA check to make sure your sugar hasn’t been processed with bone char). Caster sugar is also fine to use. I don’t recommend using brown sugar as it will change the flavor and overpower the marzipan.

Almond extract: This is an optional ingredient for when you want a strong taste of marzipan, and can be omitted or substituted with your favorite extract of choice.

How to make them

Making marzipan cookies is really easy, but in this section, I’ve included some detailed instructions and process photos just in case you have any doubts or would like to check in as you follow the recipe.

I’ve included cup measurements but I would like to stress that as with most baking recipes, while there is some margin for error you’ll get the best results if you weigh your ingredients.

First, preheat your oven to 320ºF (160ºC). Then grab a mixing bowl and measure the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda (also called bicarbonate of soda) and salt into it. Mix well.

Measure the marzipan and depending on how hard or soft it is (this can vary depending on the brand and whether it’s been in the fridge recently or not, room temperature, etc.) either chop it into small pieces or grate it. You can see from the photos below that I chopped it.

Add the marzipan to the dry ingredients and gently toss until it’s coated (image one below). Next, make a well in the center and add the liquid ingredients (image two below).

Pop the uncovered bowl in the microwave and microwave on high for one minute. Remove and mix together. The marzipan should have softened a little and the dough should look like image three below.

Pop back into the microwave and microwave for one-two minutes (this depends on the starting temperature of the marzipan)stopping and stirring and checking halfway until the marzipan is completely soft and all the dough can be mixed together to form a smooth dough like in the image four below.

Next, grab two large baking trays (the trays that act as shelves in the oven are fine to use) and line them with baking paper (also called brown paper or baking parchment).

Use a large cookie dough scoop to portion out the cookie dough (you should get roughly sixteen cookies), spacing the cookies at least two inches apart as they spread quite a bit (image five below). If you don’t have a scoop that’s fine, just portion out amounts that are around three tablespoons.

Depending on how large your sheets are, you may need to cook six to a tray the first time (twelve total), and then four more.

Next, roll the portions into roughly shaped balls using your hands. Roughly flatten them with your hands to make giant thin crispy-chewy cookies, or leave in balls to have smaller thicker moister cookies (I prefer them flattened). See image number six for illustration.

Place both trays in the oven, one in the bottom of the upper third, one in the top of the lower third. The trays should be fairly close to the middle but have a few inches of space between them.

Bake for eighteen minutes for perfect cookies, swapping the trays halfway at nine minutes. When the cookies are done (they will be very soft and pale and not browned around the edges, that’s fine) remove the trays from the oven and leave the cookies to cool on the trays for at least ten minutes, before carefully removing them to wire racks to cool completely.

Enjoy!

FAQs

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