Scandinavian Style Almond Paste

This is a wonderful almond paste to use in recipes like scones, pizzelles, almond cookies, and other pastries but is optimal for those itty bitty Danish almond cakes. I got this from a cooking magazine a few years ago. My version calls for 2 tbsp butter but you might want to up it to 3 if you find that it's not a good consistency or almond-to-butter ratio. If you don't have almond extract at hand (because you're like me and are too poor and/or lazy to buy a bottle), vanilla extract will work too. Also you need a food processor for this!

• Ready In: 15 mins
• Serves: 10
• Yields: 2 cups

Ingredients

• 2  cups  almonds (blanched are good but using whole saves $$$)
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 2  tablespoons butter
• 1⁄4 teaspoon  almond extract (vanilla extract will work fine too but almond's optimal)

Directions

1. If you're using blanched almonds, you can skip this step. But the almonds have to be skinless for this to work or else the skin bits make it all gross and I'd rather pay $4 for a large bag of skinned almonds than $9 for blanched when I can do it myself. Anyway, blanch your almonds by placing them in warm water for 15-30 seconds so all the skin peels off.
2. Pulverize the almonds in a food processor.
3. Add the sugar, butter, and almond (or vanilla) extract. Keep mixing until smooth and perfectly melded.
4. Store in a glass jar or strong airtight plastic container, you can keep it at room temperature for up to 5 days and freeze for about 2-3 months. (Providing it won't magically disappear when you and your friends taste it! lol) Yields about 2 cups.
5. When you want to unfreeze it-- DO NOT microwave, transfer it to the fridge to thaw for a couple hours.