About halfway through last week’s post on almond-rich bostock, we realized that we were getting frangipane and marzipan confused. In fact, we’ve been getting them confused for years. Since they both use almond paste and have similar-sounding names, we’re guessing we’re not alone!
From what we understand, the main differences between frangipane and marzipan are what gets mixed into the almond paste and how they’re used.
Frangipane is similar to a pastry cream and is used in much the same way. The almond paste base is enriched with sugar, butter, and very often, eggs. This makes a soft, spreadable cream that’s used almost exclusively as a filling for pastries like croissants, fruit tarts, and our new favorite bostock.
Marzipan is an almond candy. Powdered sugar and corn syrup (or glucose) get worked into the almond paste to form a pliable, clay-like substance similar to fondant. This is used to sculpt the miniature fruits and detailed animals that decorate the tops of cakes or get sold as stand-alone candies. Dyes and edible paints can be applied to the candies to make them look even more life-like!
You can buy both frangipane and marzipan, but they're also easy to make at home. Martha Stewart has tutorials for both:
• Frangipane from Martha Stewart
• Marzipan from Martha Stewart
• Related: Crafty Kitchen! Online Sources for Candy and Cake Decorating Supplies
(Image: Flickr member Alaskan Dude licensed under Creative Commons)
How To Make Perfect Bacon in the Oven
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Straw Mat from The ...
Must-See Small Cool Homes: Week Two
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Marzipan in the Nordic countries is fairly soft even though it's compact, and so it's used in baking cinnamon rolls etc. (not all recipes for cinnamon rolls call for it though). It's rather expensive if you're on a budget, so thanks for the links to make it in your own kitchen!
Weird, I've never heard of it being like a pastry cream. In class, frangipane is a rich, almond cake used in french pastry. It's the most amazing cake you'd ever eat. We had a frangipane "filling" for slices but it was still baked as a cake.
Martha's recipe for Marzipan is wrong. For one, they didn't have corn syrup in the early middle ages.
Equal weights of almond flour and sugar with a little rosewater (2 tablespoons per pound). Keep kneading the mixture until the flour releases its oils and absorbs the sugar.
Btw. you can speed it up by heating the mixture
Thanks for the clarification! I've never eaten frangipane before, but I like using marzipan in a rich and tasty almond and apricot cake. I'd like to try cooking with frangipane too. Any recipes, anyone?
Frangipane is absolutely nothing like crême pâtissière. Frangipane is a mixture similar to sponge cake made by beating equal weights of softened unsalted butter, caster sugar, whole eggs and ground almonds together. When this has formed a smooth paste mix in a spoonful of flour. It's used as a filling for many things, for instance croissants aux amandes and in particular for one of the most wonderful cakes of all, gâteau Pithiviers.
Marzipan is made by kneading together ground almonds, icing sugar and a little stock syrup. It's quite difficult to make satisfactorily at home because the ground almonds you usually find tend not to be too coarse to give a sufficiently smooth result. Corn syrup is used in mass produced foods and is not something I would expect to find in real food.
There is another product very similar to marzipan made from apricot kernels that is often used as a substitute as it's less expensive. It's called persipan and is a quite acceptable product.
Crême patissière is something altogether different and is an egg custard/crême anglaise cooked with the addition of flour to make it firmer. It is used for, amongst other things, filling for éclairs (proper ones do not have fresh cream in), milles feuilles and as a base in some types of flan. A variation of crême patissière is often used as the basis for sweet soufflés.
I have never come across almond paste and I would be unlikely to use it if I did. If it's already a paste clearly it has had something added to it, and it's better to use unadulterated ground almonds. They work perfectly well and are likely to be much more easy to use than a paste.
Incidentally, I don't know where the name frangipane comes from. It sounds French, but in France (where I live) it's almost invariably known as crême d'amandes.
[Edit]
Marzipan is made by kneading together ground almonds, icing sugar and a little stock syrup. It's quite difficult to make satisfactorily at home because the ground almonds you usually find tend to be too coarse to give a sufficiently smooth result.
[Was what I meant to say, of course]
@Moules Frites. Almond paste = Marzipan but with much less sugar (50-55% vs. 75-85%). Commercially/mass produced almond paste is usually = persipan as it is less expensive to make. IMHO, before you write something off as "unlikely to use it", and in a rude manner, it might be a good idea to find out what you're really snubbing.
@HelsBells Oh dear, I'm so *terribly* sorry. I stand by what I said. Almond paste can also contain 'a small amount of cooking oil, beaten eggs, heavy cream or corn syrup' according to Wikipedia and other sources. If the purpose of making your own marzipan is to get a better product then it would be wise to start with better ingredients. That would rule out almond paste as far as I'm concerned.
Anyone selling persipan as 'almond' paste would be likely to fall foul of trading laws as apricot kernels are not almonds. I'm surprised that you found my manner rude, as I fail to see anything remotely rude in my previous message. I do find your manner somewhat condescending, but I won't hold it against you. Happy cooking! :-)