A flan pâtissier is essentially a giant vanilla custard tart but with a French accent!

I have many culinary memories of my childhood in France and I’d like to tell you that this was something I used to make with my mum but the truth is that it wasn’t. My mum was a full time mum in charge of all the household tasks and even though all our meals were home cooked, they were quick and easy. She was also a terrible baker, who tended to burn most things – she used to say it was “well cooked” but really it was burnt… In her defence, why would she have bothered making something could easily have bought in any boulangerie?

I’m the mum now and my boys really love it, especially my youngest, hence why I often make it on his birthday. He went to school with the last piece in his packed lunch today!

Ingredients:

• Shortcrust pastry, you can buy a block, or you could make my basic shortcrust pastry recipe. I think traditionally it is supposed to be with puff pastry but I prefer it with shortcrust pastry; I like the contrast between the snap of the outside and the creaminess of the inside.
• 700 ml milk
• 300 ml double cream
• 1 vanilla pod
• 100 g corn flour
• 160 g caster sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 eggs

Method:

Roll out the pastry the thickness of a one pound coin and place in a Springform tin (mine is 24cm). Trim the excess, prick the bottom and refrigerate – this helps the pastry not shrink while in the oven.

Split the vanilla pod in half, scrape out the seeds inside and place both seeds and pod in a large saucepan. Add the milk and cream and heat up slowly until it starts to simmer. At that point, take off the heat and go off to do something (ideally fun) for a couple of hours. This step isn’t strictly speaking needed but I think it’s worth it. What will happen during those two hours is that the vanilla will infuse into the liquid so you’ll get a deep vanilla scent as opposed to a hint of vanilla – we’re aiming for Madagascar, not just the travel brochure. Given the price of vanilla pods, I think it makes sense.

When your two hours are up, remove the vanilla pod halves but don’t throw them away! Rinse and pat them dry and then place them in your sugar jar; in time, you’ll get vanilla sugar!

When you are ready, preheat the oven at 160 degrees then bake the pastry blind for 15min. Remove the baking beans after that and bake for a further 5 min.

While the pastry is baking, gently warm up your liquid again. In a large bowl, crack the eggs, add the sugar, and whisk. Then add the corn flour and whisk again until you end up with a smooth mixture without any lump.

Slowly add a bit of your warm vanilla infused liquid to the bowl and whisk quickly at the start – you don’t want to end up with cooked bits of eggs in your cake. Repeat the operation until you have added all the liquid to the bowl.

Pour the content of the bowl back in the saucepan and gently heat that up, stirring constantly. When it starts to thicken, remove from the heat and pour into your tin.

Bake in the oven for 45min at 180 degrees – the top of the custard should be brown.

Leave to cool and tuck in.

Shortcrust pastry is a basic to master in my opinion. Yes, you can buy a block in the shop (and I do now and again) but it’s quicker to maker, cheaper and tastier.

I live 10min walk away from a supermarket and (aside from the chilling) this can be done in 5min.

I may sometimes buy a block of pastry if I don’t have that chilling time, or if I have run out of butter and need to make something NOW, but the taste just isn’t the same. There is something a bit acidic about bought dough and it’s not as buttery even if they claim to be using butter, it’s just not the same. Don’t get make started on puff pastry…

I don’t put any sugar in the dough on purpose so that it can be used for sweet or savoury pastry regardless. This really is my go to recipe.

Ingredients:

• 220g plain flour
• 100g lightly salted butter (don’t go posh with crystals, that’ll tear your dough)
• 1 egg yolk
• 40ml cold water

Method:

In a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour until sandlike.

Add the egg yolk and quickly incorporate that. Then slowly add the water (it’s easiest when using a KitchenAid or the likes) until the dough is just combined – you may not need all the water. Don’t work the dough too much or it’ll become tough.

The next step really depends on your recipe but, in all likelihood, you will need to refrigerate your dough before baking it. 

Tarte au sucre means sugar tart

You asked me for French baking and this is what I shall deliver today. Don’t let the name send you into a panic, there isn’t that much sugar in it all things considered.

This is a French classic at its best, I love it because it’s yummy, very easy and because it makes me chuckle that the name is totally misleading! To me it’s a good example that the French language, and perhaps French people, are more complex than it would appear.

A tarte au sucre is basically an enriched brioche with sugar on top (but not even that much given its name).

It’s more of a snack than a dessert to me. My kids enjoy it after school, I like it with a cup of coffee and I think would work really well as a recovery snack because it’s not very filling actually. 

Ingredients:

• 420g strong flour
• 50g caster
• 160ml milk
• 100g salted butter – cubed
• 1 sachet of dried yeast
• 3 eggs
• 80g caster sugar
• 60g double cream

Method:

Warm up the milk a little, add the sugar and yeast and stir well.

Place the flour in a large bowl and when the yeast has bloomed (swollen up in the milk), place the liquid in the bowl with the flour and mix well.

Add the eggs one at the time and when all the eggs have been added, tumble the butter cubes in the mix. Knead gently for 2 min until everything has been incorporated and then knead more vigorously for 10min. I’m not going to lie, it’s easier in a Kitchen Aid or the likes than by hand.

Leave the dough to rise for 90min, then place it in a greased tin – ideally round and ideally flat (not a loaf tin), just because it’s more traditional that way. Make some holes with your fingers and put your tarte in the fridge covered by a cloth. I like to leave mine in there for a couple of hours but it’s sometimes more convenient to leave it overnight and it’s totally fine.

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees. When the oven is ready, pour the cream in the holes and sprinkle with the remaining sugar and bake for 20min.

Leave your tarte au sucre to cool before eating.