Marzipan Eel from Toledo, Christmas pastry

Instructions

FIRST DAY

Prepare the marzipan.

1. In a large bowl mix the ground almond with icing sugar, honey and water.
2. Start mixing the ingredients with the help of a silicone spatula. Once it begins to acquire a more solid consistency, knead it with our hands.
3. Knead the dough very well until a uniform, smooth and manageable consistency is achieved. It will take a while.
4. Flatten to shape a disc, wrap very well in film and let stand in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Make candied yolk.

1. Add the yolks in a bowl and whisk, set aside.
2. In a saucepan add the water together with the sugar, place at medium heat.
3. Without stirring, leave until it reaches a temperature of 221ºF/105ºC. It will help you to use a digital thermometer.
4. Incorporate the syrup to the yolks, we will do it in a fine and continuous thread at the same time that we beat to avoid that the yolks curdle.
5. Once we have added all the syrup, pour the mixture into the saucepan and place at medium low heat.
6. Cook at the same time that whisk, constantly, until these begin to thicken. It will take a while to get the right consistency.
7. Remove from the heat, pour the yolk into a container and film.
8. Let it cool completely and keep in the fridge for 24 hours.

SECOND DAY

Shape the base of the marzipan eel.

1. Take 450 g of marzipan and stretch with a rolling pin, cover the rest with film to prevent it from drying out. The marzipan dries very easily.
2. Sprinkle some icing sugar on the work surface, this will help the marzipan not adhere to the work table. Shape a cylinder with the marzipan.
3. Once we have the cylinder, shape it into a "tail" by refining one of the ends.
4. To help me in shaping, I used as a template a disc with a diameter of 9,85 inches/25 cm (base for cakes).
5. Place a square, or circle, of baking paper on the base for cakes and, on top of this, the eel tail.
6. Press with your fingers along the entire surface of the marzipan except for the edges. Flatten the surface.
   

Fill the marzipan eel.

1. Put the candied spaghetti squash in a piping bag and the candied yolk in another one.
2. Fill half of the eel with candied squash and the other half with candied yolk.
3. Using a spatula, smooth the surface and join the two fillings.
4. Store in the fridge while preparing the rest of the marzipan.

Prepare the top of the marzipan to cover the eel.

1. Take the rest of the marzipan and shape a flattened circle.
2. Using a rolling pin, stretch the marzipan to a slightly larger diameter than the piece we have already shaped and filled.
3. Roll the marzipan disc onto the rolling pin.
4. Remove the filled marzipan from the fridge.
5. With the help of the rolling pin, place the marzipan disc on the base of the eel.
6. Very carefully, adjust the marzipan and shape it. Cut the surplus and wrap it in film, it will be used to make the top decorations.

Create the decorations and place them on the eel.

1. Shape the whiskers and ornaments that we want to place on our eel. Remember to cover them with film each time you finish forming each one of the pieces.
2. Moisten the surface of the marzipan where we are going to place the pieces with water. The water will serve as "glue".
3. Place all the decorations (whiskers, eyes, nose...) and create relief, if desired. We can help ourselves with a knife or wooden stick for it.
4. To create the scales I have used a Saint Honoré tip, but you can use any tool that allows you to create this effect. Otherwise, you can always do it with a knife.
5. Once we have all the eel decorated, cover very well with film and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
6. If we bake directly, it is very likely that we will lose the scales and the reliefs.
   

THIRD DAY

Bake.

1. Preheat the oven to 518ºF/270ºC. If your oven does not reach this temperature, preheat it to the maximum.
2. Place the eel on a perforated tray lined with baking paper.
3. Brush the whole surface of the eel with beaten egg.
4. Place in the oven at medium height and bake for 5 minutes.
5. Place the grill and bake for 2-3 minutes more.
6. Important: The higher parts should be browned first. In my case what I did was to cover them with aluminum foil once they had the desired color. It doesn't matter if we open the oven for a moment to cover them. That way we will avoid burning some areas while the rest of the eel finishes browning.
7. Take out and let it cool completely on a rack.

Make the royal icing.

1. In a bowl mix the icing sugar together with the egg whites and a few drops of lemon juice.
2. We must achieve a consistency of delineated.
3. Place it in a piping bag with a very fine tip. In case of not having, we make a very small cut in the tip of the piping bag.

Decorate the eel.

1. We must decorate the eel once it has cooled down completely.
2. Transfer the eel into a cake base, so we can serve it here.
3. Decorate the surface of the eel with the royal icing. At this point you can do it completely to your liking. In my case I have left you an idea of how to carry it out.
4. To place the eyes, pipeh a small quantity of royal icing and, with the help of some tweezers, place the silver caramel balls/sprinkles.
5. Finally, fill the central hole with frosted/candied fruit of our choice. The most common is to use apricots and cherries, but we can use the ones we like the most.
6. Serve.
   

Notes

• On this occasion I have made marzipan using almonds, icing sugar, honey and water. On other occasions, as in this Pan de Cádiz, I use egg white. I read that the process of making eel was done this way and I decided to do it this way.
• The quality of the ground almond is very important. Not only for the taste, but for the final texture. If it is of poor quality, the almond will be very dry and the dough will need more water to be added. I leave this to your choice because I know we are talking about an expensive ingredient, but it is certainly worth using a good quality. You can even grind it at home, buying Marcona almonds, for example.
• Traditionally, marzipan eel is made by grinding the almond and mixing it with the rest of the ingredients. In this case rest is necessary for it to acquire the right consistency.
• You can buy candied spaghetti squash or do it at home. Homemade, always, is better. But this time I didn't have this variety of squash to do it and I had to use it store-bough.
• The candied yolk that I have prepared on this occasion is made with syrup instead of adding icing sugar. It is more laborious to carry out because it takes much longer to become dense, but the result is wonderful. If you want to reduce a little the cooking time, you can do it following the recipe of candied yolk that I made for the Pan de Cádiz. You will only have to double the quantities and follow the process detailed in that recipe.
  
• If you don't like any of the ingredients in the filling, you can omit it and stuff the whole eel with one of them of your choice.
• The marzipan rest time is necessary, do not omit it.
• The baking time should not be exceeded because we run the risk of drying out the marzipan too much. If your oven does not brown the surface, reduce the cooking time and place the grill to achieve a golden finish on the eel.
• If you want to make a smaller marzipan eel, you will only have to reduce quantities according to the quantity of ingredients you want to use.
• The baking time will be the same for any size.
• Royal icing can be made from egg white or albumin, as you prefer.
• The decoration with royal icing can be completely to your choice, but apparently what cannot be missing are the spots on the scales ;)
• It can be kept refrigerated, well wrapped in film, for 1 week.
  

Archivado en

• Almonds
• Candied spaghetti squash
• Candied yolk
• Christmas
• Marzipan