Orange Frangipane. This is a delicious tart, with a crisp pastry base and soft, moist cake filling. Perfect with a cup of tea or serve warm as a dessert with some whipped cream or ice cream!

Orange Frangipane. A delicious tart, with a crisp pastry base and soft, cake filling. Perfect with a cup of tea or serve warm as a dessert with whipped cream

Orange Frangipane. What a delicious dessert this is! We all like to eat a moist cake!

This is actually a tart, which originated in France. There are references from as bar back as 1226, and one of the earliest recipes for this can be found in a 1674 cookbook. Unbelievable!

What is a Frangipane?

Frangipane is the description used for the almond filling, which is mainly made up of, yep, you guessed it, almonds!

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There are variations to frangipane, for example, in Belgium, it is called an Almond pastry tart, usually with a striped pattern on top made up of icing.
Some recipes fill the flan case with almond and then put say a 1 cm layer of chocolate over the top.

This orange frangipane recipe uses wonderful flavors of orange and sweet almond, and when combined, the taste is deliciously amazing!

The bite of the crispy orange zesty pastry, against the soft, moist almond filling, is also a lovely texture sensation.

Orange Frangipane. This is a delicious tart, with a crisp pastry base and soft, moist cake filling. Perfect with a cup of tea or serve warm as a dessert with some whipped cream or ice cream!

What pastry is used to make a frangipane?

I have also made a recipe up to show you how to make your own shortcrust pastry. Of course, you can buy the shop stuff, but this recipe is easy, cheaper, and by far tastier!

You can make little flans, but make sure you adjust the cooking times. So go on, give it a go! We've got a wonderful mini frangipane tart recipe which is great for parties!

So try out our orange frangipane recipe, similar to what our ancient ancestors were crazy about!

We've got a few more frangipane recipes if you'd like to see those too, feel free to save them for later. There's a lovely lemon frangipane, an apple frangipane, and a cherry frangipane and a blueberry frangipane recipe, and our sister site, Newbie in the Kitchen has a lovely Plum Frangipane recipe too!

They're all so delicious and frangipanes do freeze very well, so feel free to slice it into portions if you wish and freeze in slices so you always have a slice handy when you're ready for a cup of tea and a slice in the afternoon!

TOP TIPS!

1. As with any pastry cases, if you are going to put a 'wet' filling in, then you will need to 'bake blind' first to stop the pastry from going soggy. No one likes a soggy bottom! I have some instructions in a link below to help you with this if needed.

2. You can use this recipe for Gluten Free by substituting the flour in the pastry & also the filling with gluten-free flour.

What You Will Need

a flan / quiche dish 23 cm / 9 inch diameter.

Ingredients

6 oz or 170 g Shortcrust pastry. See here to make your own Shortcrust pastry.
2 Tablespoons warmed Orange Curd or Apricot Jam
4 ½ oz or ½ cup or 125 g butter
½ cup or 125 g Sugar
2 eggs
1 ⅓ cups or 125 g ground almonds
2 ½ Tablespoons All purpose / Plain Flour. (if you don't want to use flour, swap it for extra ground almonds & 1 tsp baking powder or the same amount in Tapioca flour)
Juice of 1 Orange
Zest of 2 Oranges, divided
2 Tablespoons milk

Instructions

First things first! Get all your ingredients ready. I like to weigh out and put everything in order of adding into the recipe. If it's all ready, you will whizz through the recipe and NOT forget anything!

Make The Pastry

1.*** If you are using a shop bought pastry case, skip to the FILLING instructions.   Put the oven on to 190 C, 375 F, Gas 5

2. Make your shortcrust pastry. Click here for instructions.

Please note, when making the pastry, add the zest of ONE orange to the flour and follow the instructions as normal.

3. Grease your flan dish & make sure you grease up the sides too.

Shortcrust Pastry, how to roll

4. Place your rolled out pastry into your chosen dish.

lining dish with pastry

Make sure you gently push the sides around the dish.

push sides of pastry

Trim any excess pastry.

trim edges of pastry

5. If you see any cracks or missing bits of pastry, use the excess from your trimming to patch these areas.

Bake Blind

6. Now you will need to prepare the flan case to take the wet filling. You need to first 'Bake blind' the pastry. You need to bake blind for 20 minutes in the oven.

fill with pasta or weights to bake blind

7. Place in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes (for a 23 cm, 9 inch dish). If using smaller cases, reduce the cooking time.

8. When ready, the flan case should look like the photo on the below. Say about 70% cooked, and ready for the filling.

Bake Blind pastry case
Part Cooked Pastry Case

9. Once you have baked blind your pastry, you need to get all your filling ingredients ready if you haven't done so already.

What is baking blind?

The Bake Blind technique is used when you have a 'wet' filling or the filling cooks faster than the pastry. If you were to simply place the filling onto the raw pastry, the base would never cook properly resulting in a very soggy bottom!

This method is also used if you are putting a readily cooked filling in the flan case, such as a mousse or chocolate torte which doesn't require any baking.

Make The Filling

10. Cream the butter and sugar until light in color and fluffy. Slowly add the beaten eggs. If the mixture looks like it is starting to split, add a tablespoon of your ground almonds.

11. Add almonds, flour and orange zest. Add the milk and orange juice, and gently (low setting on your mixture) combine.

12. Spread the warmed jam/curd onto the base of your pastry. Add the cake mixture to the flan case.

Lemon Frangipane showing pastry case with lemon curd

13. Bake in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes. Test with a metal skewer. Stick it in the centre, if it comes out clean your frangipane is ready!

Lemon Frangipane showing straight from the oven

14. Leave to cool then turn out onto a dish.

15 Make yourself a lovely cup of tea and enjoy a slice of your tart.

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our orange frangipane recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Orange Frangipane. This is a delicious tart, with a crisp pastry base and soft, moist cake filling. Perfect with a cup of tea or serve warm as a dessert with some whipped cream or ice cream!

Recipe Card

Orange Frangipane

Orange Frangipane

Yield: 8
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes

Orange Frangipane. This is a delicious tart, with a crisp pastry base and soft, moist cake filling. Perfect with a cup of tea or serve warm as a dessert with some whipped cream or ice cream!

Ingredients

  • 6 oz or 170 g Shortcrust pastry
  • 2 Tablespoons warmed Orange Curd or Apricot Jam
  • 4 ½ oz or ½ cup or 125 g butter
  • ½ cup or 125 g Sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 ⅓ cups or 125 g ground almonds
  • 2 ½ Tablespoons All purpose / Plain Flour. (if you don't want to use flour, swap it for extra ground almonds & 1 tsp baking powder or same amount in Tapioca flour)
  • Juice of 1 Orange
  • Zest of 2 Oranges, divided
  • 2 Tablespoons milk

Instructions

*** If you are using a shop bought pastry case, skip to the FILLING instructions.

  1. Put the oven on to 190 C, 375 F,Gas 5.
  2. Make your shortcrust pastry. ***Please note, when making the pastry, add the zest of ONE orange to the flour and follow the instructions as normal. Grease your flan dish & make sure you grease up the sides too.
  3. Place your rolled out pastry in to your chosen dish. Make sure you gently push the sides around the dish and trim any excess pastry.
  4. If you see any cracks or missing bits of pastry, use the excess from your trimming to patch these areas.
  5. Now you will need to prepare the flan case to take the wet filling. You need to first 'Bake blind' the pastry for 20 minutes in the oven.
  6. Place in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes (for a 23 cm, 9 inch dish). If using smaller cases, reduce the cooking time.
  7. When ready, the flan case should be about 70% cooked, and ready for the filling.
  8. Once you have baked blind your pastry, you need to get all your filling ingredients ready if you haven't done so already.

Make The Filling

    1. Cream the butter and sugar until light in colour and fluffy. Slowly add the beaten eggs. If the mixture looks like it is starting to split, add a tablespoon of your ground almonds.

    2. Add almonds, flour and orange zest. Add the milk and orange juice, and gently (low setting on your mixture) combine.

    3. Spread the warmed jam onto the base of your pastry. Add the cake mixture to the flan case.

    4. Bake in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes. Test with a metal skewer. Stick it in the centre, if it comes out clean your frangipane is ready!

Leave to cool then turn out onto a dish . Make yourself a lovely cup of tea and enjoy a slice of your tart.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 437Total Fat: 27gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 95mgSodium: 312mgCarbohydrates: 43gFiber: 4gSugar: 30gProtein: 8g

Delicious Cake Recipes using Almonds

If you like almonds as much as we do, try out these other cake recipes using ground almonds in the cake batter. Delicious!

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