Frangipane vegan style

There is a fabulous, award winning vegetarian restaurant in Brighton, UK - Terre a Terre - that serves the most gorgeous food; a perfect treat for my daughter and me. Not used to having a wide choice when we go out to restuarants, the first time we went it took a while to order as we were both flummoxed by the range of food on offer. The drinks are pretty special too - rhubarb gin and tonic is heavenly!!
So often desserts are a no no for me, even in a vegetarian restaurant, as dairy products are usually one of the key ingrediants. I was seriously excited at Terre a Terre to find there was a proper vegan pudding on the menu, and not a dull fruit salad in sight. "Frangipane sizzle dates with mint tea granita and lemon and mint pomegranite gazpacho." It made my mouth water just reading it; the taste was incredible with a mixture of sweet and sour flavours popping on my tongue and the ice cold granita refreshing after the intensely sweet warm dates and frangipane.
The memory of that dessert has been haunting me over the last few months - I just had to try and recreate it. Normally, frangipane is made of butter, eggs, sugar, ground almonds and flour, not good for people with food allergies of all types. Whilst this is a no go for anyone with a nut allergy, the recipe I found is pretty much free from most other problem ingrediants. Cornflour in theory should be gluten free, but always check the labels as sometimes wheat or wheat products are added. Bleaching agents are sometimes added in Indian cornflour too, so chose a reputable brand.
Vegan frangipane

60g dairy free spread
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 1/4 cups ground almonds
3 tbspoons cornflour
pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
few drops almond essence
2 tbspoons non-dairy milk
Mix the caster sugar, ground almonds, cornflour and salt together in a bowl and rub in the dairy free spread. Add vanilla extract and almond essence. The mixture should be quite dry and crumbly.
Add the non-dairy milk and combine to make a stiff paste.
That's it!
I attempted to reproduce the gorgeous date and frangipane dessert but without all the necessary accompaniments it didn't have the same taste sensation. It was good, but not that good nor yet ready to share! There was frangipane mixture left over, and not wanting to waste it and always looking for a pudding treat, I decided to try and make pear and frangipane tarts. I made a sweet pastry using the recipe already posted on this blog, adding in a little caster sugar and baked it blind at 180oC for 10 minutes or so until the pastry became a little firmer. I then filled the case half full with the frangipane mix and topped it with slices of tinned pears - cheating I know but fresh pears are hard to come by, and hard to eat! Popping the tarts back in to the oven to bake for another 15 minutes, they were ready.  Finished off with a little sprinkle of icing sugar, I have to say they were really good. Not bad for a vegan, free from treat!