Flan Pâtissier (French Custard Tart) Recipe

I’m at all times looking out for brand spanking new methods to make use of up a batch of pastry cream. Not too long ago, my buddy Sayo Yamagata opened her first bakery, Pâtisserie Ginko, in Paris’ nineteenth arrondissement. I used to be scrolling by the bakery’s Instagram when my eyes landed on a dreamy-looking slice of flan pâtissier―a vanilla bean-flecked custard baked in a crisp puff pastry shell. I’ve been to France a number of occasions (it’s the place I met my husband), however I had but to attempt it for myself. I referred to as in some assist and spoke with Ju Chamalo, the writer of Mes Flan Pâtissiers, Brian Levy, the writer of Good and Candy, and Sayo herself to study extra about this basic French pastry. 

Flan pâtissier, also referred to as flan Parisien, or flan for brief, is a conventional bakery staple. It’s sometimes offered by the slice and loved by youngsters on their method residence from college for “le goûter,” or snack time. Throughout my recipe analysis, I watched video after video of French cooks like Dominique Ansel, Thierry Marx, and Christophe Michalak making flan pâtissier, every with their very own method. Once I requested Chamalo and Sayo about this, Chamalo informed me, “there isn’t a excellent flan, everybody’s tastes are totally different.” Sayo, in the meantime, in contrast flan to pizza: It is customizable, you may change up the filling, the crust, and even the pan you bake it in. Your supreme flan is likely to be fairly thick with chocolate custard and a young pâte sucrée crust, whereas I like mine with a skinny layer of vanilla pastry cream in a buttery, flaky pie crust. Flan variations, like pizza, are limitless. 

Historically, flan pâtissier is crammed with vanilla pastry cream. Though it isn’t the one model on the market (I like to recommend scrolling by Chamalo’s Instagram for inspiration), it’s by far the commonest. At residence, I made ones with pastry lotions flavored with vanilla, lemon, and chocolate. I personally adored the one flavored with lemon, however my husband and two youngsters couldn’t get sufficient of the vanilla flan, which can be Chamalo’s favourite. My recipe beneath requires vanilla pastry cream however you may simply change it with an equal quantity of lemon pastry cream or some other taste you need. It’s essential to ensure your pastry cream is chilly or at room temperature when spreading it into the pastry shell—Chamalo warned me that if the filling is sizzling, it is extra prone to overflow throughout baking. 

Similar to the filling, there are various choices for the crust. The preferred ones are pâte sucrée and puff pastry (Chamalo makes use of the previous in his recipe whereas Sayo sticks with the latter on the bakery). You may as well use pie crust (a tip I acquired from Levy, whose model depends on an enriched pie dough), gâteau Basque dough, croissant dough, and even go with out for a crustless model. In my testing, the pâte sucrée had a more durable time standing as much as the wealthy filling, producing an total texture that was too smooth (though, you possibly can tinker with the pâte sucrée recipe to make it extra sturdy). A model with puff pastry, however, was nice however I knew I may produce the same impact with pie crust. I turned to Stella’s extra-flaky pie crust recipe, which baked up tender and crisp and contrasted effectively with the creamy filling. 

As for the dimensions and form, I attempted baking the flan in a hoop mildew and a pie pan with bigger ratios of filling to crust, however discovered that the filling overwhelmed the crust in these variations. After rounds of testing, I made a decision to form my flan in a tart pan because it yielded a roughly two-to-one ratio of filling to crust that I a lot most popular; plus it types a nicely-fluted edge. In the event you want your flan fairly thick, you may double the quantity of pastry cream and bake it in a hoop mildew or springform pan. 

As soon as assembled, I wish to brush the floor with egg yolks to create an evenly-colored burnished end on high. After baking, you may must train some willpower by ready for it to chill to room temperature after which chilling it within the fridge, ideally in a single day. When it’s prepared, slice it up and eat it out of hand as a snack, similar to a child coming residence from college.