Classic French Flan (Pastry Cream + Vanilla Sablé) - by Chef Dominique Ansel

One of my favorite things to eat growing up in France is a classic flan - it's simple to make with just two elements made from everyday pantry staples: vanilla sablé (base) + pastry cream (filling), recipes in by new book #EveryoneCanBake (out now at DominiqueAnselBook.com). I've already showed you the sablé recipe and how to fonçage the dough into a tart ring a few posts back (here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHG86xIB6FM), but this time we're using a 3" tall X 8” wide tart ring and filling the raw tart shell with finished pastry cream, then baking it altogether to create our flan. Here's what you'll need:

PASTRY CREAM INGREDIENTS
535 g (2 1/4) cups whole milk
130 g (2/3 cup) sugar
50 g (1/3 cup) cornstarch
185 g (9 large) egg yolks
110 g (8 tbsp, or 1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temp

1. Combine milk & 65 g (1/3 cup) of the sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking continuously. Remove from heat.

2. Whisk together remaining 65 g (1/3 cup) sugar & cornstarch in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in 1/2 cup of the warm milk mixture.

3. While whisking, add egg yolks to the cornstarch mixture one at a time, whisking until each yolk is incorporated before adding the next.* Pour the tempered egg yolk mixture into the pan with the remaining milk mixture.
* This is called tempering, and is used to gradually raise the temperature of a cold/room-temp ingredient (in this case, yolks) by adding small amounts of warm liquid, to prevent the cold ingredient from cooking too quickly. If you added all the warm liquid to the eggs without tempering them first, you’ll end up with scrambled eggs.

4. Cook the pastry cream over medium-low heat, whisking continuously, until it thickens to a pudding-like consistency, about 5 min. Remove from heat. Add butter & whisk until evenly combined and the pastry cream is pale yellow with a smooth, glossy texture without any lumps. Let cool & then chill before using.

TO ASSEMBLE THE FLAN
Butter the inside of your tart ring. While your pastry cream is still warm (not piping hot) or chilled from the fridge, pour into the raw tart shell, stopping 1/4” from the top. Bake at 350F (175C) until the top is dark brown, 25-30 min. Let cool completely (you can also chill it in the fridge) before unmolding, slicing, and serving.

Happy baking, everyone! #EveryoneCanBake
(Excerpt from EVERYONE CAN BAKE by Dominique Ansel.
Copyright © 2020 by Dominique Ansel. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc, NY.)