Hi everyone! You know how much I love Parisian Flan, so today I’ve decided to make a Flan with two other flavors that I also love, caramel and apple. I’ve also tried to add some streusel on top for even more texture. So, this Flan is made up of a pie crust, filled with apple compote, caramel custard cream, and topped with some cinnamon streusel. This recipe is by far one of my favorites because it’s so flavorful with many different textures, the smoothness of the cream, and the crunchiness from the crust and the streusel. It’s also super easy and quick to make!??? The recipe of the cream comes from Christophe Felder, a French pastry Chef, and the caramel from a French blogger “La Cuisine de Bernard”.
For a Flan of 20cm in diameter and 6cm high:
Pie Crust:
- 90g of butter
- 90g of icing sugar
- 180g of flour
- 1 pinch of baking powder
- 36g of eggs (= a small egg)
Caramel sauce: (you’ll have some left)
- 55g of butter
- 100g of heavy cream (or full liquid cream)
- 90g of sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
Caramel custard cream:
- 3 eggs
- 80g of sugar
- 100g of caramel sauce
- 60g of corn starch
- 2 tbsp of vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp of vanilla seeds or 1 vanilla bean (optional)
- 150g of full liquid cream
- 600mL of whole milk
Compote:
- 400g of apples
- 50g of lemon juice (=1)
- 1 tbsp of honey
- 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
Streusel:
- 50g of butter
- 75g of flour
- 30g of sugar
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp of salt
Let’s get started!
We’ll begin with the caramel sauce (you can easily make it a few days ahead):
1. In a saucepan, combine the butter, the sugar, the salt with a dash of water.
2. Cook over medium heat while stirring regularly. It will begin to foam.
3. Let it cook on medium heat and keep stirring. The caramel will begin to color, when it has a nice blond color remove from heat. Don’t wait until it begins to brown because even off the heat it continues to cook a bit.
4. Add the heavy cream (or liquid cream) little by little and mix. You can then heat it again to make sure there are no lumps.
5. Pour in a jar and refrigerate.
Now for the apple compote:
1. Peel and cut the apples into medium cubes.
2. Place them in a saucepan with the honey, the cinnamon and the lemon juice.
3. Cook over medium heat for ~20min until half of the apples turned into compote (there must still remain some pieces).
4. Let it cool down in a bowl.
For the pie crust:
1. In a bowl, whisk the softened butter with the icing sugar, the flour, the salt and the baking powder until you have a “sandy” mixture. To make this step easier, you have to take your butter out of the fridge minimum 1h30 before beginning (or slightly heat it in the microwave/oven)
2. Add the egg and mix to form a ball.
3. Wrap the dough with cling film and refrigerate minimum 30min (you can make it the day before).
4. Divide the dough in half and roll out the first half to a 3mm thickness and cut a 20cm diameter circle. Place it at the bottom of a greased mold over a baking tray covered with parchment paper or aluminum paper.
5. Roll out the other half of the dough to a 3mm thickness too, and cut stripes of 6cm wide. If the dough is hard to manipulate, place it a few minutes in the freezer. Place the stripes inside the mold and make sure they are welded to the bottom.
6. Refrigerate the mold while we make the cream.
The cream:
1. Briefly whisk the eggs with the sugar. Add the caramel and the corn starch.
2. In the meantime, bring to boil the milk with the full liquid cream, the vanilla extract and the vanilla seed. Pour 2/3 of it in 3 times over the egg mixture and mix.
3. Return everything to the pan and cook over medium heat (while stirring) until it thickens. Remove from heat.
It’s time to assemble!
1. At the bottom of the mold, add the entire amount of compote and spread it equally.
2. Pour over the caramel cream and smooth the surface. Refrigerate 1h until it is completely cold.
While waiting, let’s make the streusel:
1. Mix the softened butter with the sugar. Add the flour, cinnamon and salt and combine until you have a homogenous and sandy mixture.
2. Once the Flan is completely cold, sprinkle the surface with the streusel. You can mash the streusel in your hand to create bigger chunks.
3. Preheat your oven to 180°C (fan-assisted) and cook for 40min. It must still be slightly shivering in the centre.
4. Let it cool down at room-temperature, and then refrigerate minimum 4h (the best is overnight) before unmolding it, to make sure it won’t collapse.
Your delicious Apple and Caramel Flan is ready! Sprinkle the borders with some icing sugar!
Don’t forget to write an email to partage@justonemorecake.com to share your pictures of the recipe and your opinions! I will add them at the bottom of this article.
