Strawberry Flan
I spent the first 8 years of my life in Germany. Even after moving to rural Manitoba, my family continued many of our German traditions. One of my favourite traditions occurred on birthdays. Unlike my poor Canadian friends who only got one birthday cake, we would get five or six birthday cakes! The variety would often include a whipped cream torte, a butter cream torte, a chocolate cake, a nut cake and a fruit flan. Of course, you had to have a little of each.
As we became more Canadian, the number of birthday cakes became fewer. Now, we’re down to about two cakes – a whipped cream torte like Black Forest Cake and a fruit flan of some sort. While often over shadowed by the Black Forest Cake, I just can’t imagine a birthday or spring celebration without a classic strawberry fruit flan.
Here’s my recipe for Strawberry Fruit Flan from the Prairie Fruit Cookbook.
Strawberry Flan Recipe
Strawberry Flan
Ingredients
- Crust
- ¾ cup Butter softened
- ¼ cup Icing Sugar
- 1½ cups Flour
- Pastry Cream
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 2 tbsp All-purpose Flour
- ¾ cup Milk
- 2 tsp Butter
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Topping
- 1 cup Strawberries
- ½ cup Apple or Apricot jelly
- 2 tbsp Water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).
- Beat butter and icing sugar until well combined.
- Add flour and beat on low speed until crumbly.
- Press crumbs into the bottom and ¼ inch (6 mm) up the sides of a 10-12 inch (25-30 cm) springform or flan pan.
- Prick bottom with fork and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool.
- For pastry cream, whisk together egg yolks, sugar and flour.
- In saucepan, heat milk until bubbles begin to form.
- Whisking constantly, slowly pour hot milk into the yolk mixture.
- Return mix to saucepan and bring to boil. Whisk constantly and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.
- Pour into bowl. Cover surface of cream with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours.
- To assemble flan, spread pastry cream on top of crust, follow with sliced or whole strawberries placed tightly on top of the cream.
- For a glossy finish, brush strawberries with a jelly glaze.
- For glaze, heat jelly and water in small saucepan until no lumps remain. Use a pastry brush to paint the glaze on the strawberries.
- Refrigerate and serve within 6 hours.