Vanilla flan (Cédric Grolet)

Another recipe from Cédric Grolet's book, « Opera », this time I chose his vanilla flan. I already have a vanilla flan recipe from the same pastry chef on the blog, but this one is different. The cream is not the same, but especially the dough used here is a puff pastry brioche. Of course, it requires more preparation time, and also more patience, but for me, the result is worth it, the taste of the flaky brioche fits extremely well with the vanilla cream, and the texture crispy and fondant is great ! On the other hand, this flan cannot be kept for a long time because the puff pastry brioche loses its crispness, so it is better to prepare and bake it on the day you want to eat it.
You will of course have too much puff pastry brioche dough, but it is difficult to prepare less, so this is an opportunity to bake it in a cake pan or individual molds for your breakfast ;-) Finally , I used a brioche pan, but you can of course use a large circle or individual circles for baking.

Prep time : 45 minutes + 1h30 rest + 30 minutes cooking
For an 18cm flan :

Puff pastry brioche :

412g T45 flour
6g salt
25g caster sugar
75g whole eggs
150g milk
38g yeast
38g softened butter
225g dry butter

In the food processor with the kneading tool, place the flour, salt, sugar, eggs, milk and yeast (the yeast sould not touch the salt and sugar).



Mix at first speed until you get a homogeneous dough, then at speed 2 until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl.



Add the softened butter at this time, then knead again until the dough comes off the sides of the bown again.



Cover the bowl with a damp cloth, then let the dough rest for 1 hour at 24°C (if it's colder, no problem, extend the rest time a little).



Then, roll the dough in the shape of a rectangle.



Place it in the freezer for 5 minutes and then in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. When putting the dough in the refrigerator, mold the dry butter to give it the right texture: tap the butter with a rolling pin so as to make it elastic without heating it (it should not be softened). To get that, tap on it, fold the butter, tap again and so on until you can fold it without it tearing.




Then place it in the center of a parchment paper and spread it out in a rectangle half the width and the same length as the dough. Place the butter in the refrigerator with the dough for a few minutes.



Then, place the butter in the center of the dough and close it so as to trap the butter (pressing the dough on the butter so that there are no air bubbles).



Roll out the dough so that you get a rectangle about 50cm long.





Fold a small portion of the dough up, then fold the top of the dough down so that the two meet.



Fold the dough in half again.



You have done a double turn. Film the dough and put it in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Place the dough so that it has the fold on the right, like a book.
Roll it again in a rectangle a little shorter than the first time, then fold the dough in three to make a simple turn.





Roll the puff pastry brioche dough on 3,5mm thickness.

Vanilla cream :

500g milk
2.5 vanilla pods from Madagascar
90g sugar
100g whole eggs (about 2 medium eggs)
50g cornstarch
50g butter
6g vanilla seeds (2)

I used 1.5 vanilla pods in my recipe. I use vanilla from Koro, the pods are great and keep well! You have 5% discount on the whole site with the code ILETAITUNGATEAU.

Bring the milk to the boil with the vanilla seeds and pods, then mix everything with a hand blender (I just put the vanilla beans in the milk, and I did not mix the mixture. If you do, make sure you have a mixer powerful enough not to have pieces of pods in the custard).



Whisk the eggs with the sugar and the cornstarch, then pour the hot milk over it, stirring well.




Put the liquid back to the pan and thicken over medium heat, whisking constantly.



Remove from the heat and add the butter and, if you add it, the vanilla seeds (2).

Cooking :

Put some butter and sugar on your circle. Garnish it with puff pastry dough, making it slightly protrude from the circle.



Pour the cream into the dough (I waited for the cream to cool down before pouring it, but it is not specified in the recipe), then put in the preheated oven at 180°C for about 30 minutes (depending on the size of your mold).



Let cool before unmolding the flan, and of course enjoy !