Milk chocolate flan (Frédéric Bau)

I already have quite a few recipes for flans around here, but only one with chocolate. So when I saw a recipe for milk chocolate flan in Frédéric Bau's latest book, Simplement chocolat, I had to try it ! It's a very simple recipe, an almond shortbread and a super creamy milk chocolate custard. In the original recipe, the chef uses Valrhona Equatorial Milk Chocolate 35%, I didn't have any so I used Jivara chocolate, surely one of the best known of Valrhona, which can be found in almost all the stores specialized in pastry. It is a 40% cocoa milk chocolate, so if you don't have Valrhona chocolate on hand, I advise you to use a quality milk chocolate with at least 35% cocoa. Enough talk, it's time to move on to the recipe J

Prep time : 30 minutes + 30 minutes cooking
For an 18cm flan :

Shortbread :

110g softened butter

50g egg (1 medium egg)

90g powdered sugar

235g flour

30g almond powder

2 pinches of salt

Mix the softened butter with powdered sugar, salt, almond powder, egg and 60g of flour.

When the mix is homogeneous, add 175g of flour and mix quickly to have an homogeneous dough.

Put it in the fridge for a few minutes, then spread it in your butterred circle or mold, and put it back in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.

Bake in the preheated oven at 170°C for approx. 20 minutes (the shortbread should be golden brown when removed from the oven), using ceramic balls or dried beans if necessary.

Milk chocolate custard :

200g Jivara chocolate (or a milk chocolate with 35 or 40% cocoa)

500g whole milk

150g whole eggs

20g egg yolk

60g sugar

30g cornstarch

Heat the milk. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar, then add the cornflour and whisk again.

Pour half of the hot milk over the eggs while stirring, then pour back into the pan.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the cream thickens.

Remove from the heat, add the chocolate and stir until completely melted and incorporated.

Pour the cream over the pre-cooked shortbread.

Frédéric Bau recommends baking the flan for 5 to 10 minutes on the grill function of the oven, to have a nicely colored crust on top, but after only 2 minutes I already had a very dark color on top of my flan and the edges of the dough were starting to blacken, so I removed the grill function and let it bake for 10 minutes longer at 180°C. Adapt to your oven and if you use the grill function, be careful, it can burn quickly !

Then let your flan cool down, and enjoy!