frangipani (Italian) is actually the original pastry cream (or, crem pat, as Brits like to call it, hehe), and is thickened with a fine almond meal instead of the later, cheaper-to-use, flour. Or the common pastry cream today you'll encounter in donut shops thickened with corn starch. The pani means cream, as in panna cotta (cooked cream).

Catherine de' Medici is credited with bringing frangipani (FRANG-gee-pahn-nee) to France in the 16th century (although, naturally, it would have been her chefs who achieved this honor), and the French promptly spelled it wrong as frangipane (frAn-JEE-pan). But it remains to this day as one of the glories of le grand cuisine classic, wonderfully paired with fruit in tarts, such as poires Bourdaloue    

Here's one I baked last year, right around this time

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2 hours ago, AC Benus said:

frangipani (Italian) is actually the original pastry cream (or, crem pat, as Brits like to call it, hehe), and is thickened with a fine almond meal instead of the later, cheaper-to-use, flour. Or the common pastry cream today you'll encounter in donut shops thickened with corn starch. The pani means cream, as in panna cotta (cooked cream).

Catherine de' Medici is credited with bringing frangipani (FRANG-gee-pahn-nee) to France in the 16th century (although, naturally, it would have been her chefs who achieved this honor), and the French promptly spelled it wrong as frangipane (frAn-JEE-pan). But it remains to this day as one of the glories of le grand cuisine classic, wonderfully paired with fruit in tarts, such as poires Bourdaloue    

 

Here's one I baked last year, right around this time

 

 

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Your description is both interesting and informative, which means I learned a lot.   Oh, and by the way, AC, the next time you make something like this, please send a little my way.