Frangipane Recipe: 3 Tips for Making Frangipane

Frangipane (from the Italian frangipani) is a gluten-free almond custard used to make various pastries, cakes, and tarts in French baking. The almond-based sweet is a variation of soft, spreadable pastry cream made by beating almond flour, butter, and sugar together with an egg and incorporating additional flavoring like vanilla or almond extract. The rich cream has a variety of uses: add it to the bottom layer of fruit tarts, use it as a puff pastry or pie shell filling, as seen in Italian crostata, or use it to make Bakewell tarts, which pair the light notes of almond with fresh jam and sliced almonds.

Frangipane is easy to make and only requires a handful of ingredients. Here are a few helpful tips to help you make the best frangipane:

1. 1. Swap out the almond paste for a looser texture. You can make frangipane with store-bought almond paste, but using almond meal and sugar will garner the same results and give the cream a looser, more rustic texture.
2. 2. Make your own almond meal. Make your own almond meal by blitzing blanched, peeled almonds in a food processor until they have the consistency of wet sand.
3. 3. Substitute other nuts for new flavors. Make a popular variation on traditional frangipane filling by substituting ground pistachios or ground hazelnuts for almond meal.

While frangipane and marzipan both contain almonds, they are used in different applications. Frangipane is a variation of soft, spreadable custard that bakers commonly use as a filling in tarts, galettes, and puff pastries. Marzipan is a sweet almond paste used as a candy or fondant, adding texture to traditional cakes, like German stollen, or rolled out and used like fondant.