Sweet - Fruit Flan

This is a great summer dessert, especially for the artsy bakers out there! Dense buttery shell, creamy vanilla topping and fresh fruit galore, decorated to your heart's content! Really - go crazy. 

I like me some strawberries...hehehehe

Ingredients:

Dough - Pate Sucree:

300 g sugar

454 g butter (room temp)

8 g salt

5 g vanilla extract

100 g (2) eggs

875 g pastry flour

5 g baking powder

120 ml milk

Vanilla Pastry Cream:

1 L milk, split into 125 ml and 875 ml portions

100 g sugar

1 vanilla bean

150 g (3) eggs

100 g cornstarch

pinch salt

5 g triple sec extract (optional)

Tart:

apricot glaze

chocolate

fruits of choice - strawberries, kiwis, peaches, mandarines, blueberries...the possibilities are pretty much endless

To Make:

about 30 mins + cooling time

For the sweet dough, please refer to my previous post

Vanilla Pastry Cream - 5-10 mins, then 30+ mins cool-down:

-Set a tray aside (that will fit in your fridge) and cover it with thick plastic (like a bag; something that won't melt). Let plastic hang off edges and have enough to be able to wrap contents of tray fully. Alternatively, have a bowl ready to pour cream into, and enough plastic to cover the top.

-Whisk eggs, then add salt and cornstarch and continue whisking until smooth and liquidy. Add 125 ml milk and whisk to incorporate.

-Rinse a saucepan in cold water, and then boil the remaining 875 ml milk along with sugar, vanilla seeds, and optional triple sec syrup. Rinsing the saucepan helps keep the milk from burning. Watch carefully because milk expands rapidly when boiling.

-Give the egg mixture another whisk to make sure the cornstarch hasn't settled. As soon as the milk begins boiling add the egg mixture and whisk. The mix will get thick rapidly; take off heat after a few seconds, and as soon as you see the first bubble stop whisking and dump the mixture on the prepared tray/bowl else the cream will start burning at the bottom of the pot.

-Cover with the plastic immediately and make sure there aren't many air bubbles (they will cause a film to form over any uncovered area of the cream). Store tray in fridge until cream is cool.

To Bake:

20 minutes + decoration time

-Take out dough and separate into 4 equal pieces. Roll each out to fit whichever size flan pans you're using; mine were 8-inch, and there was enough dough for a 5th afterwards. You want to gently ease the dough into the pan, and ease a bit of extra dough in at the top, then (if you have the traditional flan pans with sharp edges) simply roll over the top with your rolling pan to separate any excess dough. Even out the thickness on the sides, and then use a fork to poke holes into the dough so air can escape during the baking.

-Bake at 400F for 5 minutes, then reduce to 350F and bake for an additional 15 minutes, until golden brown. When done take out of oven and let chill (can place in freezer to expedite process)

-Get your fruit ready, and melt chocolate and warm apricot glaze (made from apricot jam - heat and strain to remove lumps. Apple jam also works)

-Take the prepared cream out of the fridge, and place it in a bowl to mix on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until creamy and lump-free. You can add room-temp butter or whipped cream to make the mixture lighter/fluffier, but it's quite delicious as is :)

-Once everything is ready, take the shells out of the tins, glaze the bottom with the melted chocolate (to prevent the bottom from getting soggy)

and distribute the cream evenly between the flans. Smooth out the tops with a pallet knife

and then decorate however you wish! (Hint: work from the outside in!)

-When you're done brush the tops with the warm apricot glaze - this will help preserve the fruit and also make the tart nice and shiny. You can drizzle nuts on top if you wish, otherwise all that's left to do is cut a slice and enjoy!

Cheers!