Which came first: marzipan or kaju katli? Ponder this as you savour some desi flavours of the popular Christmas sweet this festive season Premium

Marzipan has had several desi tweaks over the years: from paan flavour and gold dust to a hint of cardamom and more 

I could not have chosen a more apt time of the year than Christmas season to write about perhaps one of the greatest hits of the Christmas sweet platter — marzipan.

At my home, the much-hallowed sweet I dub, the ‘Queen of the kuswar’ — which is what we Goan folk call our Christmas sweet selection — is the final result of an almost two month-long prep. One that begins its annual journey around the first week of November. From then on there’s an almost 6D-like multisensory overload of all things marzipan...

I hear it angrily gurgling away in Mum’s old, treasured copper pot as it cooks its way to completion. Each bubble plopping with an almost volcanic intensity. The heady aroma of the pot’s unctuous, molten contents wafting its way from the kitchen into my office. In the dining room, I see balls of cooled, solid marzipan being fashioned into tiny apples and oranges. Some moulded into snowflakes and portly Santas by my home-confectioner mother and her retinue of seasonal helpers. 

But the sense that stimulates me like no other is taste. I surreptitiously pilfer away a few blobs of unmoulded marzipan and take them back with me to my writing desk. Here, I savour the creamy, sweet and delicate almond-meets-rose flavour that each morsel is imbued with. 

Each bite takes me back to my childhood when marzipan was all I thought about, as Christmas and Easter season rolled by. For each Christmas, we’d have everything from the aforementioned fruits and moulded Christmas motifs to the traditional rich plum cake that was topped with thick layers of fondant icing and marzipan. Come spring at Easter, I’d see an entire ‘poultry farm’ of marzipan chickens and eggs of all sizes materialise before my greedy eyes. Always marzipan at the center of all things delicious!

Interestingly, marzipan is perhaps one of those sweets the origin of which is the subject of much conjecture. While some believe the almond, egg white and sugar candy to be the invention of a 15th century pharmacist in Tallinn, Estonia, who wanted to sugarcoat (quite literally) his medicines, there are those who look eastward. Specifically towards ancient Persia, where almond paste, sugar and rose water were knead together to amalgamate into a sweet treat like no other.

Interestingly, in India too, we have our own localised versions of marzipan that have existed for eons under various names. And in various permutations and combinations adaptive of local customs and dietary restrictions. Even the availability of ingredients has had an impact on our idea of marzipan. One that sees almonds being eschewed in favour of the easier to procure (and cost-effective) cashewnut. At home, we even make a super easy, four-ingredient, cheat’s version of marzipan that ticks all the boxes. (Recipe below)