French Recipe: Flan Parisien (or Flan Pâtissier)

With picnic season on the horizon, a flan parisien makes for the perfect dessert. A traditional flan parisien recipe is prepared with shortcrust pastry and flavoured with vanilla extract, but there are also chocolate, blueberry and apple variations if you wish to experiment!

Ingredients (serves Eight People)

  • 1 roll of shortcrust or puff pastry
  • 1l semi-skimmed milk
  • 3 eggs
  • 160g sugar
  • 100g corn flour
  • 2 sachets of vanilla sugar
  • 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon of vanilla powder

Method

  1. Grease the tin and line with the pastry. Prick the base and the edges with the tines of a fork. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the corn flour, vanilla extract and 125ml milk.
  3. Pour the remaining milk into a saucepan with the sugar, vanilla sugar and vanilla powder. Bring to the boil.
  4. Gradually add the boiling mixture to the eggs and whisk thoroughly.
  5. Pour the entire mixture back into the saucepan and leave on a low heat, while continually stirring with a wooden spoon. Simmer for a few seconds so that the consistency thickens slightly.
  6. Pour the mixture into the pastry tin and cook for forty minutes. Cover with tinfoil for the final five minutes. Leave the flan to cool before removing from the mould.

Bon appétit !