Every year we traditionally share the favorite cake of one of our colleagues. This year it is Dorien's turn, the power lady behind Self who ensures that everything runs smoothly. Her favorite cake? The classic flan cake. Hmm!
The recipe below is for 8 people:
- For the dough: 840 g flour, 420 g soft butter, 160 ml milk, 60 g granulated sugar, 36 g fresh yeast and 12 g salt.
- For the pudding: 200 ml milk, 50 g granulated sugar, 20 g pudding powder and 2 egg yolks
- For the flan: 950 ml milk, 150 g granulated sugar, 130 g flour, 8 eggs, 2 vanilla pods
Preparation method
Step 1: preparing the dough
- Let the butter come to room temperature.
- Place the soft butter, flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and mix gently (a kitchen appliance is useful for this).
- Heat the milk over a gentle heat and dissolve crumbled fresh yeast in it.
- Pour the milk with the yeast into the dough in the machine. Finally, add the egg and let the kitchen appliance run until you have an even ball of yeast dough.
- Wrap the yeast dough in cling film and let it stiffen in the refrigerator.
Step 2: prepare the cake base
- Take a cake tin, spread a layer of butter in it and dust the surface with flour.
- Roll out the dough into a piece about 3 mm thick. Carefully transfer it over and into the cake pan. Press the dough into all the nooks and crannies of the pan.
- Roll the rolling pin over the edges of the pie tin and cut off any overhanging dough.
- Place the tin with dough in the freezer and prepare the flan batter to fill the cake.
- You can freeze any leftover dough packaged for future preparation.
Step 3: the pudding
- Start with a small amount of classic vanilla pudding. Use a small saucepan and collect the milk, yolk, sugar and pudding powder.
- Mix all ingredients with the whisk and place the pan on a medium heat. Keep stirring continuously with the whisk until you are left with a small amount of thickened pudding.
- Spoon the pudding into a bowl and cover it with a sheet of cling film. Press the foil against the surface of the pudding and place the bowl in the refrigerator.
Step 3: the pudding
- Start with a small amount of classic vanilla pudding. Use a small saucepan and collect the milk, yolk, sugar and pudding powder.
- Mix all ingredients with the whisk and place the pan on a medium heat. Keep stirring continuously with the whisk until you are left with a small amount of thickened pudding.
- Spoon the pudding into a bowl and cover it with a sheet of cling film. Press the foil against the surface of the pudding and place the bowl in the refrigerator.
Step 4: the flan batter
- Pour the milk into a large mixing bowl. Separate half the eggs. Place the yolks in the mixing bowl with milk and keep the whites aside.
- Add the remaining whole eggs to the milk with loose yolks. Also add the flour and sugar. Mix everything with the hand blender.
- Cut the vanilla pod in half lengthwise and scrape out all the seeds with a knife. Add them to the milk and egg mixture.
- Spoon the cooled pudding into the mixture and mix everything a second time with the hand blender.
- Beat the egg whites that you kept aside into a firm foam. Fold the egg white foam into the flan mix.
Step 5: let’s bake
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Take the pie crust out of the freezer and place it in the hot oven, on a rack near the bottom. Now you can pour the liquid flan filling into the dough base without spilling.
- Close the oven door and bake the flan cake for 15 minutes at a temperature of 200°C.
- Then reduce the baking temperature to 180°C. Bake the cake for another 35 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the oven and place a cake rack on top.
- Turn the flan cake and the rack over, remove the baking tin and let the flan cake cool upside down. Afterwards you will discover the typical 'flantaart' print with circles from the cake grid in the filling.
Et voila, a delicious flan cake is on the table! The classic flan is not the easiest of cakes, but it is one to die for. Hmm! Will you let us know how the cake turned out?
