Egg-Free Marzipan (Vegan + Gluten-Free)

Making your own marzipan at home is way simpler than you think—and because this easy recipe calls for agave nectar rather than raw egg whites, it also happens to be vegan as well as gluten-free! This delicious homemade marzipan is ready in minutes and way cheaper than store-bought. Eat it plain, use it in recipes or gift it to loved ones over the holidays!

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Marzipan has always been my favorite dessert. I have relatives in Lebanon, and whenever they come to visit us or we go to visit them, we always get to enjoy gorgeous marzipan treats made to look like tiny fruits and vegetables.

I always looked forward to them growing up, and I still do today. Not only are they delicious, but those beautiful little marzipan bites also hold a special place in my heart because of where—and who—they come from.

Unfortunately, travelling between Lebanon and Canada isn’t always easy or feasible. So these days, we mostly keep in touch with family through video calls and other electronic means.

As for marzipan, it remains my favorite dessert, so I was thrilled to discover how easy it is to make it at home! All it takes is five ingredients and a few minutes of your time, and you can eat it on its own or use it in any recipe that calls for it.

If you’re feeling particularly creative, you can even decorate it however you like and give it to friends and family as a sweet homemade gift! Pretty marzipan bites would make a great alternative to baked goods if you like to DIY your Christmas gifts—and since most people don’t realize exactly how easy it is to make marzipan, you’ll probably end up impressing them, too!

About this Recipe

Traditional marzipan tends to use raw egg whites as a binder, but I’m not a fan of that for several reasons.

For one thing, I’ve spent a lot of time pregnant in the past few years, and we have three young kids at home—soon to be four. I’d rather not feed raw eggs to pregnant women or little kids, so I wanted to find an alternative that would be safer for everyone to eat.

Raw eggs also have a shorter shelf life than the substitute I use, so replacing them means I don’t have to worry about the marzipan going bad before it gets finished up! Though honestly, it’s so delicious that it’s not usually around for that long anyway.

Plus, removing the egg whites makes this recipe vegan (and keeps it gluten-free)!

Some recipes use corn syrup as a substitute for egg whites, but I’m not a big fan of corn syrup, so I use agave syrup instead. This also allows me to lower the amount of sugar in the recipe, since agave syrup is quite sweet on its own!

Required Ingredients

You’ll only need five ingredients to make your very own egg-free marzipan at home:

• Almond flour (we buy ours at Costco, but you’re free to make your own using blanched almonds)
• Icing (or confectioner's) sugar
• Almond extract (I recommend buying it in bulk if you're planning on using it often)
• Food-grade rose water
• Agave nectar (we buy ours at Costco, but you can buy the same brand on Amazon if ever you're not a member or it's not available in your area)

Note: If you’re vegan or gluten intolerant, make sure to choose your brand of icing sugar accordingly—or simply make your own using granulated sugar and cornstarch!

Required Equipment

You can easily make this recipe without any fancy equipment—simply combine the ingredients using a fork, then finish off the marzipan by kneading the mixture by hand once it becomes too sticky to continue with a fork.

However, I like to use a food processor to speed things up and yield more consistent results! We’ve had our Hamilton Beach food processor for years, and we use it all the time.

I had never used a food processor before I met my husband, but it’s seriously a game-changer. Now that I have one, I’m not sure how I ever cooked without it. It speeds up meal preparations so much, and the one we use even came with a combination slicing/grating disk that makes slicing vegetables and grating cheese a breeze!

(If you knew how disaster-prone I am, you’d understand why the grating disk is so useful to me. Grating ingredients by hand can be a lot more dangerous than you’d think.)

As I said, you can make this recipe without one. But food processors are super useful, and the Hamilton Beach one we use even comes with a five-year warranty! You can check it out below:

How to Make Marzipan without Egg Whites (Step-by-Step)

1. Combine Dry Ingredients

Add 1 ½ cups of almond flour and 1 cup of powdered sugar to the bowl of your food processor and run it for a few seconds, until the dry ingredients are well combined. (If you don’t have a food processor, simply combine them in a bowl using a fork or whisk.)

2. Add Extracts

Add 1 ½ teaspoons of almond extract and 1 teaspoon of rose water, then pulse to combine (or keep mixing using your fork or whisk).

3. Add Agave Syrup

Add 2 ½ tablespoons of agave syrup, then run your food processor until the ingredients are well combined and the mixture looks like a fine meal. (If mixing by hand, combine the ingredients as best you can using your fork or whisk and spend more time kneading manually when you reach the next step.)

4. Knead & Form Log

Once the mixture reaches the right consistency, remove it from the bowl of your food processor and press it together with your hands to form a log. (If you’re not using a food process, you’ll have to knead it by hand until it reaches the right consistency.)

And that’s all there is to it! So easy, and way cheaper than buying it at the store!

This treat is perfect for the holidays and makes a great DIY Christmas gift, but you can also mold it into any shape you like depending on the season! (Or you can just eat it as is, because let's face it, marzipan is delicious.)

How to Store Homemade Marzipan

To keep your marzipan as fresh as possible, you’ll want to store it in the fridge and only take it out when you’re ready to enjoy it. You can keep it in an airtight container or wrap up your log in plastic wrap, which will keep it from drying out.

Marzipan does firm up quite a bit in the fridge, so you may want to bring it back to room temperature before eating it or incorporating it into baked goods. If, however, you’re planning on shaping and decorating it, the firmer consistency could help!

Fun Things to Make with Marzipan

Marzipan is delicious on its own, but you can also use it in many dessert recipes! And now that you know how to easily make your own marzipan at home, these recipes probably seem a lot more within reach. (If you've ever wanted to make any of these, you know how expensive store-bought marzipan can be!)

Here are some fun things you can make using this easy marzipan recipe:

• Marzipankartoffeln ("Marzipan Potatoes")—basically just balls of Marzipan rolled in cocoa powder, as pictured above
• No-Bake Marzipan Rum Balls
• Marzipan Cake
• Marzipan Brownies

My kids also loved these adorable marzipan spiders that we made for Halloween!

Related Recipes

Or, if you like to save money by making things yourself, skip your next trip to Tim Hortons and try this instead:

• Easy Homemade Iced Cappuccino