Frangipane ( , ) is a sweet almond-flavored

custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fr ...

used in a variety of ways including cakes and such

pastries Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggest ...

as the

Bakewell tart A Bakewell tart is an English confection consisting of a shortcrust pastry shell beneath layers of jam, frangipane, and a topping of flaked almonds. It is a variant of the Bakewell pudding, closely associated with the town of Bakewell in Der ...

, conversation tart, Jésuite and pithivier. A French spelling from a 1674 cookbook is ''franchipane'' with the earliest modern spelling coming from a 1732 confectioners' dictionary. Originally designated as a

tart A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes wit ...

flavored by almonds or

pistachio The pistachio (, ''Pistacia vera''), a member of the cashew family, is a small tree originating from Central Asia and the Middle East. The tree produces seeds that are widely consumed as food. ''Pistacia vera'' is often confused with other spe ...

s it came later to designate a filling that could be used in a variety of confections and baked goods. It is traditionally made by combining two parts of almond cream (crème d’amande) with one part pastry cream (crème pâtissière). Almond cream is made from butter, sugar, eggs, almond meal, bread flour, and rum; and pastry cream is made from whole milk, vanilla bean, cornstarch, sugar, egg yolks or whole eggs, and butter. There are many variations on both of these creams as well as on the proportion of almond cream to pastry cream in frangipane. In some anecdotes it was the kind of sweet that the noblewoman Jacopa da Settesoli brought to St.

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

in 1226, when he was dying. The “almond sweet” might also be a Roman version of

mustacciuoli Mustacciuoli (also known as mustaccioli or mostaccioli) is a traditional pastry from Naples, usually served at Christmas time. Description Mustaccioli takes the form of a parallelogram, and consist of a soft, spiced, cake-like interior, cover ...

.. P. 20 mentions she may have brought “''mostacciolo'', an almond confection)” On Epiphany, the French cut the king cake, a round cake made of frangipane layers into slices to be distributed by a child known as ''le petit roi'' (the little king) who is usually hiding under the dining table. The cake is decorated with stars, a crown, flowers and a special bean hidden inside the cake. Whoever gets the piece of the frangipane cake with the bean is crowned "king" or "queen" for the following year.

Etymology

The word comes ultimately from Italian, named after Marquis Muzio

Frangipani ''Plumeria'' (), known as frangipani, is a genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Rauvolfioideae, of the family Apocynaceae. Most species are deciduous shrubs or small trees. The species variously are endemic to Mexico, Central America, and ...

or Cesare Frangipani. The word first denoted the

frangipani ''Plumeria'' (), known as frangipani, is a genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Rauvolfioideae, of the family Apocynaceae. Most species are deciduous shrubs or small trees. The species variously are endemic to Mexico, Central America, and ...

plant, from which was produced the perfume originally said to flavor frangipane. Other sources say that the name as applied to the almond custard was an homage by 16th-century Parisian chefs in name only to Frangipani, who created a

jasmine Jasmine ( taxonomic name: ''Jasminum''; , ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely culti ...

-based perfume with a smell like the flowers to perfume leather gloves. A few popular sources claim that an Italian nobleman invented the dish himself while at the court of

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crow ...

References

Bibliography

* "Frangipane." ''Oxford Companion to Food'' (1999), 316. {{Nut confections Almond dishes Food ingredients Custard desserts

Etymology

See also

References

Bibliography