This French Ingredient Will Unlock a Lifetime of Pastry Potentialities

A number of years in the past, I labored at Café Besalu in Seattle, a French-style bakery that was identified for its croissants and laminated pastries. Every week, we made quarts and quarts of wealthy almond cream with butter, sugar, eggs, and floor almonds (though on the time we referred to the preparation as “frangipane”—extra on the correct distinctions under). Almond cream is a typical French dessert and pastry filling, and on the bakery, we used it to fill danishes, tart shells, and twice-baked croissants, amongst many different pastries.

When making almond cream, bakers typically incorporate almond extract to emphasise the almond flour’s nuttiness, and might also embrace vanilla extract, citrus zests, and spirits like brandy or rum for added perfume and depth. I am a fan of all of those additions, and embrace them in my recipe right here. As soon as baked, the combination takes on the feel of a light-weight, moist almond cake, making it a really perfect filling for a fruit tart, a flaky croissant, or perhaps a candy roll. It’s not solely simple to make, it is also a vital ingredient  for making ready many elegant French desserts.

Almond Cream, Almond Paste, and Frangipane: What is the Distinction?

Right this moment, many bakers exterior of France mistakenly discuss with almond cream as frangipane. In French pâtisserie, nonetheless, frangipane is a combination that’s usually one half pastry cream (crème pâtissière) and two elements almond cream. To confuse issues much more, there’s additionally a variation on pastry cream—crème pâtissière aux amandes—that’s enriched with almond flour.

Then there’s almond paste, in addition to marzipan, to think about. Each almond paste and marzipan are made with floor almonds, confectioners’ sugar, and egg whites, however there are a couple of key variations: Almond paste comprises much less sugar than marzipan, and is commonly included into baked items like Italian rainbow cookies. Marzipan, alternatively, is far sweeter, has an analogous texture to fondant, and is usually rolled into skinny sheets for draping onto muffins and cookies or consuming by itself.

The best way to Make a Aromatic, Flavorful Almond Cream

Use blanched almond flour. Many almond cream recipes instruct cooks to grind their very own almond flour by blitzing entire almonds to a rough meal. Whereas I applaud these efforts, you threat turning the almonds into nut butter—or, on the different finish of the spectrum—having to rigorously sift out bigger items to make sure the nuts are evenly floor. I benefit from the comfort of utilizing store-bought almond flour, which additionally makes for a smoother, creamier texture. Almond flour (or almond meal, because it’s typically referred to as), is available in two varieties: blanched and pure. The blanching course of removes the skins from the almonds, producing almond flour with a pale beige colour. Pure almond flour, alternatively, is floor from skin-on almonds, which supplies it a speckled look and a barely coarser texture. 

The 2 varieties style fairly comparable, although pastry cooks and bakers typically favor blanched almond flour for its finer grind and strong colour, particularly for delicate desserts like macarons or madeleines, the place a coarser grind can have an effect on the feel of the batter and provides the pastries an off-putting grittiness. However for the aim of an almond cream, the distinction actually comes all the way down to appears to be like, so use no matter you favor or is obtainable close to you. 

Toast the almond flour. Usually, the almond flour is added immediately into almond cream as is, however I like to recommend frivolously toasting the almond flour within the oven. This heats the almond’s risky taste compounds, enhancing the ingredient’s nuttiness and deepening its naturally candy, earthy flavors. 

Merely unfold the almond flour into a fair layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring a couple of times, till it’s a light-weight golden-brown colour and really aromatic. You need to ensure that the almond flour cools to room temperature utterly earlier than including it to the batter—in any other case you’ll threat melting the butter and breaking the combination. 

Give it daring taste with extracts and booze. For years, I assumed I hated almond flavoring; it typically overwhelmed no matter pastry it was utilized in and I discovered it cloying. Over time, the ingredient has grown on me, and after I’m making almond cream, I add a beneficiant quantity of almond and vanilla extracts, together with loads of brandy and lemon zest. It might look like quite a lot of massive flavors collectively, however the heat and deep notes in vanilla and brandy in addition to the floral perfume of citrus zest assist steadiness the sharpness of the almond extract, leading to a well-rounded combination that’s deeply fragrant. In my very own model, I swap lemon zest for orange zest, which gives a extra floral and mellow citrus notice.
 
Mess around with the flavorings. Be happy to tweak the flavorings. Swap the orange zest for lemon or grapefruit zest, or omit it totally. You possibly can use rum as an alternative of brandy, and if you happen to’re fearful the almond extract might be overpowering, you can incorporate half a teaspoon of almond extract as an alternative of the one and a half teaspoons I like to recommend under. You possibly can even use a unique nut: Nearly any nut meal or flour will work. Hazelnut cream made with hazelnut flour can be scrumptious, and you can substitute a hazelnut liqueur like Frangelico for the almond extract and brandy. Pistachios additionally work nicely, and produce a pleasantly inexperienced combination.

The best way to Use Almond Cream

I like to recommend utilizing this almond cream to make a fruit and almond tart. Fill a par-baked tart shell (like pâte brisée, pâte sucrée, or pâte sablée) and high it with sliced fruit akin to apples, pears, or plums. Because the tart bakes, the fruit will sink into the combination, forming a cohesive filling that’s completely sliceable. Although I now not work at a bakery, I nonetheless flip to almond cream each time I’m in want of a sublime dessert or pastry: I’ll fill a do-it-yourself tart shell with it or slather it onto store-bought croissants for a simple tackle twice-baked almond croissants. The result’s all the time bakery-worthy, and by no means fails to impress. 

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