Amaretto Almond Paste

I was planning to try out a dutch recipe called gevulde speculaas (filled spice cookie or bar) and the filling is almond paste. I tossed around the idea of whether to make or buy and decided I'd just buy. It just wasn't that easy. Seems they were already sold out at all the stores in my area so I was back to "guess I'll try and make it". Scanned out several recipes and decided to go with a combo of two different ones. It's pretty straightforward. It's also fine if you happen to have some amaretto liquor around or don't mind buying some for this recipe and having lots leftover :) I used almond meal so that made it real quick.

Ingredients
1-1/2 cup ground almonds (blanched)
1-1/2 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons *amaretto*

Mix together. Knead well -- if too sticky -- add a few teaspoons icing sugar until it's a nice cohesive consistency (see how mine turned out in photo above). Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest (in the fridge) anywhere from overnight to a week before using. Apparently it is supposed to develop more flavor the longer it sits. I'm planning to let mine sit until December 24th.

*2 teaspoons almond extract + 4 teaspoons syrup can be substituted for amaretto.*

If you don't want to purchase a full-size bottle just for one recipe see if your liquor store sells single serving bottles - these contain 50 ml (approx. 4 tablespoons).