Vanilla flan is a bit of a big trend right now on social media. It’s almost surprising to see that such a simple pastry in itself can get so much attention. As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of my favourite desserts, only for the moment, I haven’t managed to find the perfect flan in my eyes. In my eyes, yes, because tastes and colours, you know… Making it myself isn’t necessarily a guarantee of success either. Personally, I like it creamy. Like ultra creamy. Elastic, rubbery flan puts me off completely. A few months ago, I’d found a recipe that had really won me over, Christophe Felder’s. We weren’t far from the Holy Grail.
This time, I wanted to test the vanilla Parisian flan recipe by chef Quentin Lechat, head pastry chef at the Novotel Paris Les Halles hotel, which has had a lot of people talking (particularly for its creaminess).
The recipe was in fact published in Fou de Pâtisserie. But it’s thanks to the advice of my fellow bakers Dominique and Maxime that I wanted to give it a go myself.
It is indeed very creamy, not as much as I would have liked, but there I plead guilty because I struggled to manage the baking. At the end of the 45 minutes of baking, it was wobbling all over, which really made me doubt. I left it in the oven a little longer and I shouldn’t have. In the end, after cooling completely and chilling in the fridge until the next day, I realised that you really shouldn’t be afraid of the wobbliness, quite the opposite. The pastry is crisp, the flan is very fragrant. It’s really a very good flan, that goes without saying. I would, however, be quite unable to compare it with Christophe Felder’s, made a few months earlier. I’d have needed both flans in front of me to compare. It may not yet be the flan of my dreams, but… does it really exist.
Ingredients & method
2 components · Full recipe
Sweet Pastry for the Vanilla Parisian Flan
Ingredients
- 125 g (4.4 oz) salted butter
- 90 g (3.2 oz) icing sugar
- 1 egg
- 30 g (1.1 oz) ground almonds
- 250 g (8.8 oz) type 55 flour
Method
1
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, mix the softened butter, icing sugar, ground almonds and egg. Run the mixer at medium speed until the mixture is smooth.
2
Add the flour and continue mixing at medium speed (be careful not to overwork the dough).
3
Wrap the dough and refrigerate for one hour.
4
Roll the dough out to 3 mm thick and line your tin. For a neat finish, I first cut a circle of dough the size of the base, then cut 2 strips to line the sides. Refrigerate the lined tin while you make the flan filling.
Quentin Lechat's Flan Filling
Ingredients
- 500 g (17.6 oz) whole milk
- 2 vanilla pods
- 107 g (3.8 oz) sugar
- 114 g (4 oz) egg yolks (about 6 yolks)
- 42 g (1.5 oz) cornflour
- 142 g (5 oz) heavy cream (30–35% fat)
- 71 g (2.5 oz) salted butter
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 165°C fan.
2
Place the milk, half the sugar and the split and scraped vanilla pods in a large saucepan, stir and bring to a boil.
3
Place the egg yolks in a bowl, add the remaining sugar and the cornflour, and whisk vigorously without allowing it to turn pale.
4
Gradually incorporate the hot milk into the egg mixture, stirring continuously.
5
Return everything to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the cream thickens.
6
Remove from the heat and add the cream and the butter cut into pieces. Stir until the butter is fully melted.
7
Pour the cooled cream into the pastry-lined tin and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake for about 45 minutes. Note: the flan will be completely wobbly and not look done — this is normal.
8
Leave the flan to cool at room temperature for at least 3 hours without removing the ring.
9
Finally remove the ring and refrigerate for several more hours. Don't hesitate to take the flan out a little before serving — it will be creamier when less cold.
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