Flan Parisién or flan pâtissier

Today’s recipe is one you usually like. Without many complications, simple, rich and very eeffective. Perfect to prepare when we have guests or when we want to give ourselves a whim because we deserve it. We will only need to make two preparations to make an incredible dessert of French pastries, Flan Pâtissier or also known as Flan Parisién.

I am sure that many of you already have the pleasure of knowing this dessert and you will have enjoyed it. For those of you who don’t, I’ll tell you a little more about this incredible treat and how to make it at home. In addition, it is of this type of elaboration that we can leave prepared in advance improving, even more so, its flavor.

What is flan pâtissier?

At first glance, it may look like a soft, creamy cheesecake. Knowing its name, we can think that it is a baked flan on a basis of pastry dough, brisée, puff pastry…. But in reality, it is a cake made with a base that can vary (depending on the pastry chef who makes it, it can be puff pastry, brisée, sucrée dough…) and a pastry cream filling that, after being made, will be baked together with the dough to give rise to an incredible and absolutely delicious dessert.

In spite of having used the pastry cream for countless recipes, even many of them baked, I would never have thought of making a cake whose filling would be this ingredient. But also, bake it afterwards so that it finishes curdling and acquires that wonderful creaminess and consistency.

The filling has a peculiarity and is that it has a part of cream to whip, unlike how a traditional pastry cream is made. We only use milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and cornstarch to thicken. I imagine that the addition of this ingredient will guarantee that the result will be much more creamy and smooth, as well as favouring the curdling process. Not all bakers use it, but a small amount will make the cake much tastier.

If it’s not a flan, why do they call it a flan?

The word flan is a very broad term that derives from the French word “flado” and means “cake, galette, crepe”, first documented in the 12th century, evolving as we know it today during the 14th century according to Claudine Brécourt-Villars. They are also called various salty and sweet preparations such as “a poured or moulded cream perfumed in different ways” or “a cake composed of salty or sweet ingredients baked on a crust” according to Larousse.

Different ways to carry out a pâtisissier flan.

When it comes to preparing this cake, we can find different recipes from a more “simple/comfortable” to a more “complex” degree. This grade will also influence the final result, since the difference between one and the other is to use good quality physical ingredients or to use custard or flan powders.

According to Rémi Héluin, a bakery connoisseur and author of Painriesien, many bakers use powdered flan to prepare this cake. The use of this ingredient can be appreciated by an excessive yellow coloring of the filling, an extremely pronounced vanilla flavor and an extremely gelatinous texture. When carried out in this way, its melting texture is completely lost when tasted.

Another ingredient that is often used to make this cake is frozen custard. As simple as defrosting, whipping, pouring and baking. If at any time you buy pastry custard in a bakery and you find yourself with a very yellow color, an excessive vanilla flavor or a rubbery/gelatinous texture, you know why.

Many confectioners prefer the top gold to be lighter, turning blond, rather than a very intense coloring. At this point I must admit that I am a crazy person with toasted colors (I’m sure you’ve already noticed) and it’s very hard for me to bake something without giving it that shade. Of course, this can be “stopped” or avoided by covering the cake with aluminium foil before it starts to brown.

The crust.

To make the base of this cake is usually used broken pastry in general lines, but many bakers use cuttings of other doughs or even puff pastry. They do recommend that the base is not extremely thin so that it retains its crunchy texture and a crispy, creamy contrast can be appreciated.

When it comes to baking the base, there are bakers who usually pre-bake it and others who do not. In my case I baked the whole set at once and the result was very good and with perfect cooking by both elements.

Educating the palate.

Today, many of us have a “rude” palate, by which I mean that the industry has accustomed us to extremely sugaryt sweets with excessively pronounced flavors. For this reason, as soon as we consume other less sweet, less powerful products, they seem to us that they are not good.

Actually, what happens to us is that we don’t know how to appreciate the real flavors. A sweet doesn’t have to be cloying or have all the flavor of the world concentrated in one bite. The sweetness must be testimonial, subtle and delicate. And the taste must conquer our sense of taste with every bite. This is to achieve a good preparation using good ingredients and in a natural way.

The recipe that I leave you is based on several elaborations. Mainly the one we found on the Slate´s blog , Michalak and my own cream pastry recipe.