Recipe - Flan Maraichin (Custard Tart)

450 g Sweet short pastry ( 1 lb)
1 pn Flour
30 g Butter, for greasing (1 oz)
1 Egg yolk, mixed with 1 ts
milk

FILLING
6 Eggs
300 g Sugar (11 oz)
1 l Milk ( 1 Three fourths pint)
1 Vanilla pod,split lengthways
1 Cinnamon stick

EQUIPMENT
1 22 cm/9 in flan ring, about
4 cm/1 One half in deep
Baking or dried beans

The pastry case

Roll out the pasry to a thickness of about 23 mm / 1/8 in. Grease the flan
ring and line it with the pastry, pulling the edges up gently with your
fingertips to make a frill. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220 oC / 425 oF.

Prick the bottom of the pastry case with a fork, line it with greaseproof
paper, fill with baking beans and bake blind for 1520 minutes. Leave to
cool slightly, then lift out the beans and remove the paper.

With a pastry brush, brush all over the inside with the egg yolk milk
mixture, then return the case to the oven for about 5 minutes, until the
glaze is lightly coloured. Leave in the flan ring and keep at room
temperature.

Reduce the oven temperature to 150 oC / 300 oF.

The filling

Put the eggs in a mixing bowl with about half the sugar and beat until pale
and of a ribbon consistency.

In a saucepan, bring the milk to the boil with the split vanilla pod,
cinnamon stick and the rest of the sugar. As soon as it boils, pour it on
to the egg mixture in the bowl, WHISKING CONTINUOUSLY. Scrape the seeds of
the vanilla pod into the mixture, then discard the pod and cinnamon stick.
Pass the custard through a sieve, pour into the pastry case and cook
immediately for about 45 minutes, until the filling is just set. The top
should be an attractive nutty brown.

Serving

When the flan is almost cold, lift off the ring, carefully slide the flan
on to a serving plate and serve immediately at room temperature.

(Albert and Michel Roux, The Roux Brothers, French country cooking, M
Papermac, 1992, ISBN 0333576705)