Gift homemade Marzipan Pigs Candy for new years to your loved ones to wish them prosperity and good fortune!
Homemade pink pigs made of marzipan almond paste are a symbol of good luck in Germany.
Planning a New Year's Party? Make my Champagne Jello Shots and these New Years Eve Cookies.
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📕 What are Marzipan Pigs?
A marzipan pig is traditionally prepared and gifted during New Years in the holiday season to family and friends to wish them Good luck for the new year.
The good luck piglet, prepared with pink colored marzipan mass, usually looks cute, just like a cartoon.
Different shapes and appearances are also available commercially, most commonly in Germany, Austria and Scandinavian countries.
Marzipan candy is prepared with blanched and peeled almonds and sugar, and it's typically flavored. Traditional versions also call for egg in the marzipan mass.
🍬 Ingredients
You will mostly need only 2-3 raw ingredients to prepare these good luck marzipan pigs.
- Raw marzipan mass - I prepare my marzipan from scratch. It's a no-fuss, egg-less marzipan recipe, but you can also purchase ready-made raw marzipan mass in stores. Dr.Oetker Marzipan is reliable, and this German brand offers good quality.
- Red Food coloring - You can use either gel, powder, or liquid food coloring to make your marzipan pig pink.
- Cacao powder or black food coloring pen - Optional, for the eyes. You can leave the eyes white too by keeping some marzipan mass uncolored.
If you have leftover raw marzipan, food coloring and cacao, you can also make my creepy Halloween themed marzipan creatures.
🥣 How to make Marzipan Pigs?
Here is an overview of how these candies in the shape of a pig come together. The full recipe with US and metric measurements is located further below with the video instructions.
Step 1 - prep raw mass
Cut about a thumb-sized piece of the marzipan mass for one pig.
Slice this piece into two.
Step 2 - color
Add a small quantity of food coloring to half of the cut marzipan and work the color in with your fingers.
The pig should be pink. Add the second cut marzipan half to the colored part and blend to a lovely pink. (Please, watch my how-to video, which you will find in the recipe card below).
Step 3 - shape body parts
Cut the colored marzipan pieces into body parts. You will need 1 head, 1 body, 4 legs, a snout, a tail and 2 ears.
Shape each body part. The head should be round, the body oval, the legs like sticks, the snout roundish flat, the ears like triangles and the tail elongated and rolled in.
Step 4 - attach body parts
Attach the head, limbs, rolled in tail, ears, and snout to the main larger body. You can use a tiny amount of water to help you stick the body parts.
Step 5 - finish the pig look
Make two holes into the snout (so that it looks like a snout).
Optional: Make two holes for the eyes and fill with a tiny ball of uncolored marzipan. You can color the eyes with cocoa, black food coloring or use a black food color pen.
Shape the legs to piggy legs.
Your DIY marzipan pig is ready and can be gifted and devoured as is!
📖 Recipe
Marzipan Pig Candy Recipe
Ingredients
- 7 ounces Marzipan Raw Mass *see Notes
- 5-10 drops Red Food Coloring
- pinch Cocoa Powder Unsweetened optional
To help you stick:
- Water a small quantity, lukewarm
Instructions
- Keep your ingredients ready, the marzipan mass, the food coloring, some water in a bowl to help you stick it together. The cocoa is optional.
- Slice your marzipan mass into 8 same-sized pieces.7 ounces Marzipan Raw Mass
- Take a piece and slice it into two halves. Keep one half aside and add to the other marzipan mass half, a few drops of food coloring (less is more) and mix the color into the marzipan by rolling it between your fingers and shaping it.5-10 drops Red Food Coloring
- Now combine the red colored marzipan piece with the plain half. It should appear thoroughly pink.
- Cut out the pig body parts. You will need one larger main body, one smaller head, 4 legs, 1 snout, 2 ears and one tail, which will be rolled in. Now, it's ok if they don't look like mine, you can get creative here!
- Shape the body and head (watch the video to see how). Shape the legs too, ears, snout, and tail.
- Stick together the head, body, and legs. You can use some water to help you stick together if you like.Water
- Smooth out the shape with the modeling tools and create details such as the hooves.
- Stick the curled tail, ears and snout onto the shape. Create eye and snout holes.
- You can fill the eyes with some plain marzipan or black colored marzipan. I like to use simply cocoa powder for the eye details. (simplest and least messy but you need a steady hand)pinch Cocoa Powder Unsweetened
- Store your marzipan pig in a dry and cool place. Gift it to your loved ones on New Year's Day.
Notes
- You can use pastry modeling tools to help you out and get the details right. A toothpick can do the trick too, to form the eyes and snout. Or simply use your skilled fingers.
- Make your own Marzipan from scratch at home with raw blanched almonds or buy raw marzipan mass. Most store-bought marzipan rolls are about 7 ounces or 200 grams.
Nutrition
💡 Tips
- You can also use pig molds to make your marzipan pigs. In the video, I used fondant/marzipan sculpting tools.
- Use high-quality marzipan for the best result. Homemade marzipan is a great option because you know what's in it vs. commercial marzipan, which may not contain only almonds.
- You are free to color your pigs the way you like. Pink is the norm, but you should definitely experiment a bit!
- Store your piggie candy in an airtight container away from heat, humidity and direct sunlight. Nonetheless, don't keep them in the fridge in the open or else they will harden. You can keep them in an airtight container in your refrigerator.
- These piggies are best made just a day or two before New Year so that they are still fresh when you gift them. Marzipan can turn hard and stale if you let it sit for too many days.
🐷 Traditions
The Marzipan pig tradition is still popular in Scandinavian countries such as Norway as well as the German-speaking countries, including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Back in the day, they were more commonly made from scratch, but locals tend to buy them in these regions. I make them for family and friends if I can't buy them. I recommend that you check online if you can buy marzipan pigs.
In Norway and Denmark, the marzipan pig is gifted during Christmas. In fact, people make a game of it by hiding an almond in the Risalamande or Risengrynsgrøt rice porridge. The winner gets delicious piggies.
Incidentally, in the German-speaking countries, marzipan pigs are gifted before midnight on Sylvester (31st December) or on New Year's Day (1st January).
By gifting marzipan pigs, you essentially wish someone the best of luck for the coming year.
The German marzipan pig is known as Marzipan Schwein or Glücksschweinchen (lucky pigglet). We have a saying in German when someone was lucky in a situation.
One of our common expressions is “Schwein gehabt”, which means directly translated “you got a pig”, and that means you were lucky.
It indicates, indirectly, that someone close to you offered you a New Year's pig to “gift you luck” for the coming year! So, as you can see, this small marzipan piglet, is valued!
🇩🇪 Other German New Year's Symbols
For New Year's we gift other good luck symbols and lucky charms as well.
Usually, they are made of marzipan or chocolate, but they can be prepared with non-edible things as well.
Here are some popular and common German good luck symbols, besides the pink piggy:
- Four-Leaf-Clover
- Chimney Sweep
- Red Mushroom
- Horse Shoe
- Ladybug
- Golden Coin
OMG...!!!! so darn cute. Perfect timing for the year of the pig! Sharing everywhere. Wishing you a super week.
thank you! ;D
Marzipan pigs are also common in Hungary. They too call New Years Eve, Silvester! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your Helene.
Yeah I imagine! I think it's quite an old tradition, and it must have been popular across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and happy new year to you too!