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 recognized 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 beneath). Almond cream is a standard 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 usually incorporate almond extract to emphasise the almond flour’s nuttiness, and may 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 lightweight, 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 necessary ingredient  for getting ready many elegant French desserts.

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

Immediately, many bakers outdoors of France mistakenly consult with almond cream as frangipane. In French pâtisserie, nevertheless, frangipane is a mix that’s sometimes one half pastry cream (crème pâtissière) and two components 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 number of key variations: Almond paste comprises much less sugar than marzipan, and is commonly integrated into baked items like Italian rainbow cookies. Marzipan, however, is far sweeter, has the same texture to fondant, and is often rolled into skinny sheets for draping onto truffles and cookies or consuming by itself.

Methods 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 complete almonds to a rough meal. Whereas I applaud these efforts, you danger 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 usually known 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, however, 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 usually favor blanched almond flour for its finer grind and stable 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 seems, so use no matter you favor or is on the market close to you. 

Toast the almond flour. Sometimes, the almond flour is added instantly into almond cream as is, however I like to recommend flippantly 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 few times, till it’s a lightweight golden-brown colour and really aromatic. You wish to make certain the almond flour cools to room temperature fully earlier than including it to the batter—in any other case you’ll danger melting the butter and breaking the combination. 

Give it daring taste with extracts and booze. For years, I assumed I hated almond flavoring; it usually overwhelmed no matter pastry it was utilized in and I discovered it cloying. Through the years, 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 a number of large flavors collectively, however the heat and deep notes in vanilla and brandy in addition to the floral perfume of citrus zest assist stability 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 observe.
 
Mess around with the flavorings. Be at liberty to tweak the flavorings. Swap the orange zest for lemon or grapefruit zest, or omit it fully. You could possibly use rum as a substitute of brandy, and when you’re anxious the almond extract shall be overpowering, you can incorporate half a teaspoon of almond extract as a substitute of the one and a half teaspoons I like to recommend beneath. You could possibly even use a unique nut: Nearly any nut meal or flour will work. Hazelnut cream made with hazelnut flour could be scrumptious, and you can substitute a hazelnut liqueur like Frangelico for the almond extract and brandy. Pistachios additionally work effectively, and produce a pleasantly inexperienced combination.

Methods 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 comparable 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 every time I’m in want of a chic dessert or pastry: I’ll fill a selfmade 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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