How to make traditional frangipane cream

Frangipane cream is a typical French pastry cream, with a mild almond flavor and widely used in all kinds of cakes and biscuits. It is a cream that is made by mixing traditional pastry cream and almond cream . With it, for example, the classic Galette de Rois (Kings cake) is made or it is also a classic in pear cakes and biscuits, among many others.

What is frangipane cream

To make frangipane cream you just have to make pastry cream (with its vanilla touch) and a delicious almond cream, and we will mix them with a ratio of 1 to 2 (that is, 100 g of pastry cream for every 200 g of almond cream ).

The fact of having to make 2 different creams may seem tedious if you're just starting out in confectionery, but far from that perspective, you should know that making these creams is really simple (and the result is exceptional!).

While the pastry cream is flavored with vanilla extract, the almond cream is flavored with a liqueur - it's often flavored with dark rum or other liqueurs, I personally like to use muscatel.

I recommend you always start by making the pastry cream, so while it cools you make the almond cream and, when you finish this second one, you can mix both to make your frangipane cream.

Recipe to make frangipane cream

Frangipane cream = pastry cream + (x2) almond cream.

1) First, we make the pastry cream:

Ingredients for the pastry cream:

• 250 ml Whole milk
• 3 egg yolks (55 to 60 g of yolks)
• 45 g white sugar
• 20 g cornmeal (Maizena)
• 15 g abandoned butter
• 1 tsp Madagascar vanilla extract

Preparation of the pastry cream:

1. In a bowl, mix the sugar, the 3 egg yolks and the cornstarch.
2. Put the milk in a large saucepan, and heat it over medium heat. Add the teaspoon of vanilla extract and wait until it is about to boil (we try not to boil it).
3. When it is hot, we pour a few tablespoons of the hot milk into the bowl with the yolks, stirring to integrate. Add a few more tablespoons, stirring constantly, and finally add the rest of the milk (we do it like this, little by little, because milk that is so hot could curdle the eggs and spoil the process, so it is also important not to stop stirring).
4. Return all the contents to the saucepan and heat again, over low/medium heat, stirring constantly with the ball-end whisk.
5. After a few minutes, you will notice that there are parts that begin to densify. It is important to stir vigorously and constantly then, without removing from the heat, and you will see how all the liquid turns cream. You already have your pastry cream ready!
6. Remove from the heat, pour into a large bowl, add the butter and mix until melted and integrated and cover with transparent film (leave the film in contact with the cream, so that it does not dry out or crust).

2) Second, we make the almond cream:

Ingredients for the almond cream:

• 120g icing sugar
• 120 g softened unsalted butter
• 120 g almond flour (ground almond)
• 2 whole eggs
• 45 g of muscatel or black rum

Preparation of the almond cream:

1. Place the butter and icing sugar in the KitchenAid bowl, and mix with the paddle attachment at medium speed, until combined.
2. Add the eggs, stirring constantly, until you obtain a liquid, integrated and homogeneous paste (at the beginning of adding the eggs it may seem that it is cut, but as you continue mixing you will see that you end up with a whitish and integrated paste).
3. Add the almond flour, while you keep stirring.
4. Finally add the liquor (muscatel or rum) and stop when the dough is integrated.

3) We finish the elaboration of the frangipane cream:

To make the frangipane cream, you must mix 2 parts of almond cream with 1 part of pastry cream. Thus, in a bowl apply 300 gr of frangipane cream, and 150 gr of pastry cream, and mix with the help of a spatula until integrated (you can vary these amounts to your liking, depending on whether or not you want to keep more of the creams obtained for other elaborations or not).

Grades

• The fineness of the almond cream will depend on the fineness or level of grinding of the almond flour: to a finer flour, a finer cream; to a larger granule, a somewhat more granular cream (you will appreciate the grain of the almond a little when passing it between two fingers). Everything is correct and the result will be the same, and it will depend on the flour you have or your taste, whether you prefer it more or less fine.
• Frangipane cream, under the stricter or book theory, contains 2 parts almond cream to 1 part custard. But you can modify this proportion according to what you want to do or your preferences: if you want to make a cake with more almond flavor, you can, for example, add 70% almond cream and 30% pastry cream.