Frangipane cream is a French filling cream made from almond flour, eggs, sugar, and butter widely used in pastry but best known as the filling for the Galette de Rois, the Epiphany King’s Cake. In patisserie, it is often used in modern tarts and is an extremely versatile filling because it can be made with any kind of nuts and, if desired, gluten-free.
To lighten its buttery taste, pastry cream is generally added in the same quantity.
If you don’t have the almond flour, you can prepare it at home with a food processor making sure to freeze the nuts before grinding them, as I explain in my tutorial.
In this way, the almonds will not release their internal oils and will not give an unpleasant taste to the final product.
As with other mixtures, frangipane can be prepared in many ways by varying the proportions of flours, adding starches, cocoa, and flavors.
Today we see the classic baked preparation, created by Ernst Knam.
Also try the other basic recipes:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 12 Minutes
- Portions: for 840 g of cream
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: French
- Seasonality: All seasons, Epiphany
- Energy 469.28 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 30.11 (g) of which sugars 23.82 (g)
- Proteins 7.44 (g)
- Fat 35.10 (g) of which saturated 13.75 (g)of which unsaturated 8.03 (g)
- Fibers 3.18 (g)
- Sodium 40.31 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 7 oz butter (soft)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 cups almond flour
- 3.5 oz eggs
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 pod vanilla (or other flavors as desired)
Tools
- 1 Mixer
- 1 Bowl
Procedure
To achieve a well-made cream, the ingredients should be worked at room temperature.
With the whisk, beat the butter and sugar until you obtain a fluffy, well-whipped mixture. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them with a fork.
Add the beaten eggs in a thin stream, being careful not to deflate the mixture.
Add the vanilla and flours, mixing gently.
Frangipane cream is ready for filling tarts and cakes.
To achieve a more delicate filling and lighten the buttery taste, you can add the same weight of baked pastry cream and proceed as indicated by the recipe you have chosen. It is perfect for making modern tarts or tartlets baked in the oven.
Frangipane cream is used for making the Galette de rois or Epiphany King’s Cake; usually, for this preparation, fewer eggs are added to make it more compact, and if desired, a small amount of pastry cream can also be added.
Cooking times vary depending on the recipe you are following.
Tips
Storage
Frangipane cream by Ernst Knam can be stored in the fridge for 2/3 days; this type of storage will make it firm and compact because it is rich in butter, so it will be difficult to pipe with a piping bag.
To do so, you need to leave it at room temperature to soften but without letting it deflate; therefore, I recommend preparing it as needed.
To do so, you need to leave it at room temperature to soften but without letting it deflate; therefore, I recommend preparing it as needed.
