Friday, December 18, 2015

A retro flan for Christmas lunch

Growing up in New Zealand in the 1950s, a flan wasn't the fluted tart thing that we know now, it had a sort of sponge case, and my Mum regularly made one for Sunday lunch.
I've recently pulled out the Tala brand flan tin she gave me when she was downsizing her kitchen gear some years ago, and decided to have a try at making one from her recipe.
 This is the tin - upside down,
and below is the tin with the sponge
mixture in it, before going into the oven
for cooking.





The recipe follows:  (I changed Mum's 1950s instruction to "grease the tin well with animal fat" and instead suggest you use a good coating of baking spray!)
4 oz (100g) butter
4 oz (100g) sugar
4 oz (100g) self-raising flour
2 eggs
2 tablespoons warm water
Cream butter and sugar, gradually add eggs previously beaten together, add the warm water, then gently fold in the flour.  Bake 25 minutes at 170 degrees.


Allow to sit for 2 minutes when removed from the oven, then turn out.


Out of the oven, and turned out, this is the cooked flan shell.  In the background is the "Tala" flan tin showing what it looks like on the side that you put the the mixture in.

The Filling:

¾ cup milk                              2 egg yolks                              2 tlblspns sugar
2 tblspns flour                          2 teaspn grated lemon rind     juice of a lemon
¼ teasp salt
Heat milk until almost boiling.  Beat yolks and sugar in bowl over boiling water.  Stir in flour.  Pour hot milk over eggs, stirring all the time. Cook until flour is cooked, add rind and salt, and as much lemon juice as is necessary for taste and texture.  Pour into flan case.




I then put the drained contents of a 400g tin of pitted cherries on top, and then made a meringue with the egg whites as follows:


Meringue – Beat the 2 egg whites till thick.  Add 90g sugar in the last stages, gradually, continue whisking until stiff.  Pile meringue on top of flan, making sure it comes right to the edges.  Dust with sugar.  Bake 170ยบ ten minutes, keeping a close watch on the colouring.

 
Happy Christmas to one and all!