Flan Parisien for my birthday
Recently I was in Paris and, after seeing lots of pictures of Flan Parisien online, I really wanted to find a good one. I tried 3 or 4 of them, I think, and none of them bowled me over. So, I decided to give it a try for my birthday. Coming right on the heels of Bubby's birthday, and will lots of cake still left in the fridge, I knew I didn't want to make another cake.
I also, more and more, miss my mother who always used to visit us for Bubby's and my birthday, and flan was one of her specialties. So that was another reason why I wanted to make a flan, really.
I looked at several recipes online and finally settled on this one from Cuisine Actuelle. Most of the recipes I saw online called for both milk and heavy cream. But I wanted my flan to be a bit less rich, and I didn't want to have to buy heavy cream.
Here is the recipe I used:
1 vanilla pod
4 eggs
1 liter of milk
125 grams of sugar
85 grams of cornstarch
1. Grease an 8" springform pan and preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Scrape the seeds from inside the vanilla pod into the milk. Put the pod into the milk also, Bring almost to a boil over medium heat. Remove from the stove and remove the vanilla pod.
3. Beat the eggs, add the sugar, and whisk for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Slowly add the cornstarch, then slowly add about half the milk, whisking all the while. The idea is to temper the mixture but not to scramble the eggs.
5. Put the egg mixture back into the pot and, over medium, heat, whisk continuously until a couple of bubbles form in the center and the mixture comes to a boil. Whisk for 1 minute while the mixture thickens.
6. Pass through a sieve to remove any hard bits and let cool.
7. Pour into a cooled, parbaked crust and bake for about 40 minutes until wobbly only in the center and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
The above recipe already contains some adaptations from the one on the link, and here are some further steps I took that differed.
1. I don't have an 8"inch springform pan. I improvised with a cake pan by covering the bottom and sides of the pan with overlapping strips of parchment paper that were long enough to form flaps all around the cake. I later used these long flaps to grab the parchment and lift the flan out of the cake pan. I greased the parchment very well.
2. For the crust, I used my Martha Stewart pâte sucrée crust recipe. I chose a pâte sucrée because it is more forgiving than a flaky pastry crust and I knew I would have to work it a lot with my fingers to bring it all the way up to the sides of the pan. If making again, I would use one of the many pâte sucrée crust recipes I saw online that use almond flour, because I think it would enhance the flavor.
3. I rolled out the crust to about a 14" diameter instead of the usual 12, so that it would go all the way up the sides of the pan. This is a deep flan! It was a pain in the neck to transfer it and fight gravity froze the crust for about
3. I parbaked the crust: I baked it for about 20 minutes at 375 lined with parchment paper and filled with weights, then removed the weights and the parchment, docked it all over the bottom, and finished baking it. I let it cool before pouring in the flan mixture.
4. I added two teaspoons of vanilla extract.
5. It took a bit longer to bake, probably about 50 minutes.
I was disappointed that the flan didn't get the beautiful caramelization or almost burned look that I like on Parisian flans. I was also surprised, because according to the recipe this is one of the indicators that the flan is done! My flan was in the oven a long time and it was definitely done, but it was still pale. Looking back at pictures of the flans I tried in Paris, they don't all have that look either! It's not a step in this recipe but I did subsequently read in other recipes that a way to get this is to brush the top of the flan with egg wash before it goes in the oven. So, next time I would definitely try this.
I let it cool completely to room temperature before refrigerating it in order to eat the next day. I put it in the refrigerator, still in the pan that I baked it in, covered in a cake carrier. I was worried the crust would get soggy but this wasn't the case, it held up very well.
The next day when I went to lift the flan out of the pan it was difficult to do so and I needed someone to help me. The parchment flaps weren't quite long enough, so next time I'd leave a bigger overhang all around. I finally succeeded in lifting the flan out of the pan, but had to be very careful not to break the delicate crust. Likely it would also have been helpful to heat the pan a little bit (with a hair dryer?), so as to melt the butter that was holding the parchment paper stuck to the pan. Doing it straight out of the refrigerator probably made it harder!
I wanted the flan to be thick and firm and I was pleased with how it turned out in that regard. The flan achieved the height and texture that I wanted. I was proud of the crust and of being able to bring the crust all the way up to the top of the pan. The height of the crust in relation to the height of the filling was spot on and I was very pleased with this as well.
\In terms of taste, however, I don't think this is the best recipe. It wasn't sweet enough. Even R, who doesn't like things too sweet, commented it could have had more sugar. We ended up putting blueberry jam on our slices and this improved the flan immensely. The jam is special too, Grandpa ordered it from France and gave me a jar as a gift.
I do think next time I'd go ahead and try a recipe that uses cream, just to be able to tell the difference, as well!
Overall I was very pleased with the experience of making the flan, my family enjoyed it and we finished it all by ourselves over several evenings. Everybody agreed it was fun to have a different birthday dessert this year.
I also want to remember that the beautiful Polish Pottery cake stand I used for the flan was a gift from a childhood friend of mine, we grew up together and her mother and my mom were best friends. There wasn't any Polish pottery sold where I grew up but this lady was a big fan of QVC and bought a lot of pieces there and that's where it comes from! This cake stand reminds me of afternoons, after school, visiting at my mom's friend's house, of the moms chatting about this and that, afternoons that I somehow thought would last forever, and now they're both gone.
And if my mother were here, I think she would have definitely tried the Flan Parisien, and then would certainly have said her version was better. LOLOL!
Comments
Post a Comment