A thick vanilla custard set with cornstarch and baked in a pastry crust until the top is dark and blistered. The French bakery classic, sold by the slice in every boulangerie, made at home with Canadian milk, cream and cornstarch.
Flan pâtissier has become a bakery favourite in France, and bakers compete over who makes the best one. In Canada it's hard to find, but it's easy to make at home, and a homemade one is creamier than most you'd buy.
A tall custard tart, sold by the slice
Milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla thickened with cornstarch, poured into pastry and baked until the top browns in dark patches. Cold, it slices cleanly but stays soft and creamy. French boulangeries sell it by the slice, often as flan parisien, and it's a classic afternoon snack.
Make the crust: store-bought brisée won't do
In France you'd unroll a ready-made pâte brisée from the dairy case. Store-bought brisée here is very poor and almost never all-butter, so I make my own, and it's only five minutes of rubbing butter into flour. Frozen pie shells are the trap: they're too shallow for this custard and made with lard or shortening.
The custard needs nothing special. Cornstarch is the same product everywhere; French recipes just call it Maïzena.
Boil the custard for a full minute
Cornstarch only sets properly once it boils. Undercooked, the flan weeps and won't slice, so keep whisking for a full minute after the first bubbles.
Making it in Canada
The 3 French ingredients, and what to buy for them in Canada.
Pâte brisée prête à dérouler→Homemade pâte brisée (step 1), or butter puff pastry
The quick pastry in step 1 is all-butter and sturdy enough to hold 1.3 L of custard. If you'd rather buy pastry, use puff, not a pie shell, and read the box: some frozen puff pastry is made with margarine.
🛒 Première Moisson Pâte feuilletée pur beurre (400 g, all-butter) at Metro. President's Choice Butter Puff Pastry (450 g, pre-rolled) at Maxi and Loblaws is made with butter. Tenderflake Puff Pastry is made with margarine and contains no butter.
Cercle à flan (22 cm, 5–6 cm de haut)→20 cm (8-inch) springform at least 6 cm deep
The custard is tall, so the pan needs high sides. A 23 cm (9-inch) pie plate is far too shallow and will overflow. If your springform is shallower, line the sides with a parchment collar that stands 2 cm above the rim.
🛒 Kitchen Craft Master Class 20 cm springform, 7 cm deep, on Amazon.ca.
Gousse de vanille→Vanilla bean or 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
A bean gives the black specks bakeries show off. Extract works: stir it into the custard once it's off the heat, so it doesn't cook off.
🛒 Look for the word 'Pure' on the bottle: Club House Pure Vanilla Extract (46 mL and 125 mL) at Metro, Super C, Maxi and Walmart. The small Club House bottles labelled Imitation or French Vanilla are flavouring.
Good to know: Everything for the custard is in any supermarket: 3.25% milk, 35% whipping cream and a box of cornstarch. The one thing to plan is a springform with tall sides.
Ready to cook?
French Custard Tart
Flan pâtissier
A thick vanilla custard set with cornstarch and baked in a pastry crust until the top is dark and blistered. The French bakery classic, sold by the slice in every boulangerie, made at home with Canadian milk, cream and cornstarch.
Prep time
40 min
Cook time
1 hr
Resting time
5 hr
Total time
6 hr 40 min
Servings
8
Cool 1 hour at room temperature, then chill at least 4 hours so it slices cleanly.
Ingredients
Original recipe: 8 servings.
Instructions
Make the pastry. Rub the flour, butter, sugar and salt together with your fingertips until sandy. Add the yolk and 3 tbsp water and press into a dough, adding a little more water only if it won't hold. Flatten into a disc, wrap and chill 30 minutes.
Line the pan. Roll the pastry 3 mm thick and line a buttered 20 cm (8-inch) springform pan, bringing the pastry 5 cm up the sides. Prick the base with a fork and keep it in the fridge while you make the custard.
Heat the oven. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F) with a rack in the lower third.
Heat the milk. In a large saucepan, bring the milk, cream and vanilla bean (seeds scraped in) to a simmer.
Mix the eggs. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and cornstarch until smooth. Remove the vanilla bean and pour about a third of the hot milk into the eggs, whisking constantly.
Cook the custard. Pour everything back into the saucepan and whisk over medium heat until it thickens, then keep whisking for 1 full minute after it starts to bubble. It will be very thick. Stir in the extract now if using.
Fill and bake. Pour the hot custard into the cold pastry shell and smooth the top. Bake 50–60 minutes, until the top is deep brown with dark patches and the pastry is golden. If the base looks pale when the top is done, move the pan to the lowest rack for the last 10 minutes.
Cool and chill. Cool 1 hour on a rack, then refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight, before removing the ring and slicing.
Equipment
Etekcity digital kitchen scale: The cornstarch and sugar are what make the custard set, and weighing them is more reliable than cups.
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Notes
Keeps 3 days in the fridge, covered.
If lumps form while the custard cooks, take the pan off the heat and whisk hard; it smooths out.
French whole milk is a touch richer than Canadian 3.25%, which is why the custard includes 250 mL of 35% cream. With 2% milk it still sets, but it's less creamy.
For a crustless flan, butter the pan well and dust it with sugar, then pour in the custard and bake the same way.
Course: Baking · Cuisine: French · Adapted for Canadian kitchens
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Lait entier is 3.25% milk, labelled homo or lait 3,25 %. Demi-écrémé is closest to 2%. What changes in crêpes and custards when you only have 2%, plus lait ribot, babeurre and lait concentré on Canadian shelves.
Most frozen puff pastry in Canada is made with margarine, not butter: fine for cheese straws, flat in a galette des rois. Which blocks contain butter, why pâte brisée is worth making yourself, and quick brisée, sablée and rough puff.
