It is my third time making this traditional French pastry to kick off the new year. You can see my first version and read a bit more about the pastry here.
I changed things up a bit with the filling. Almond frangipane can be pretty strong and, in the past, I’ve balanced it out by incorporating chocolate pastry cream. Note, not all recipes call for frangipane (almond cream + pastry cream). Many call for just the former. However, I like the richness from the pastry cream. So this year, I re-worked the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook’s recipe and made a pistachio frangipane. I highly recommend buying pistachios without shells, unless you enjoy shelling and rubbing off the skins. It took me 1 episode of Dinner at Tiffani’s on the Food Network to get through them all. As much as I enjoy clearing another episode off my TiVo queue, I’d prefer not to have the extra step.