Swiss Open
Fruit Flan
I
often live in Switzerland. I stay either in our
house in Lugano or in a village overlooking lake
Geneva , near the city of Nyon. In catholic
cantons (the individual Swiss states), the local
bakery makes every Friday fruit flans. Until a
hundred years ago, that was because catholics had
to eat meatless on Friday and their choices were
either fish or fruit flans for lunch and diner.
It creates a wonderful and healthy meal.
Obviously
these days you can get these fruit flans every
day. I have a Migros supermarket with a bakery
and restaurant nearby where I live in Lugano and
it is wonderful to eat one of these pieces of
flan with a coffee or tea at any time of the day.
You can either
purchase a metal nine inch pie form, preferably
one with a floor that sits lose in the frame
(William's and Sonoma, if you want an expensive
French one, The Big Lot or TJ Max, if you can
find one there and you want to spend less money)
or you can by a ready made pie crust in the
frozen section of your supermarket. I prefer to
have my on form and buy the unprepared crusts in
the frozen/cooler section.
The choice of
fruit is your own. You can use apples, peaches,
apricots, plums, nectarines, strawberries,
blueberries
What you need:
- a 9 inch
pie crust (pepperidge Farms or Walmart or
similar)
- your choice
of fruit ( for instance four apples, or
six plums are enough for a 9 inch flan)
- two heaped
tablespoons of confectionery sugar
How to prepare
it:
- Grease the
form and then put the crust into the
form. Use a fork to pierce a pattern into
the bottom of the crust. You want to do
that so that there are no air bubbles on
the floor of the crust, when it is being
baked.
- wash the
fruit and then cut them. Apples you want
to peel first, but other fruits you don't
need to peel.
- For Plums,
apples and peaches you cut them first
into quarters. For apples take the core
out or for plums/peaches/apricots remove
the stone. Then the quarters slice
thinly.
- Lay out the
slices nicely around the pie crust which
you have put into the form. Have the cut
pieces lean against each other all around
the form so that they create a thick
layer.
- You can
either use confectionery sugar or
ordinary sugar to sprinkle over the fruit
in the flan. With confectionery sugar use
about two table spoons into a sieve and
sprinkle through the sieve over the fruit
- preheat the
oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit
- Put the flan in the form
into the over and bake for about 35 to 45
minutes. since some of these forms leek,
put the form unto a large flat baking
form. Any juice will not leak to the oven
floor that way.
While
you are baking for the first time you can prepare
the glaze.
What
you need and how you have to do it:
- three to four eggs (the
amount depends on how deep your form is)
- two cups of plain yogurt
or sour cream
- one cup of sugar
- optional two heaped
teaspoons of vanilla custard powder (e.g.
by Honig) or alternatively one sachet of
vanilla sugar (e.g. Dr. Oetker or
similar)
- mix ingredients and be
with a whisk until everything is mixed
well
- Take the flan out of the
oven and let it stay and cool for a few
minutes
- Then pour the
sugar/egg/sour cream/custard mix over it
See
that the mix does not overflow the side of the
crust, because it will otherwise be difficult to
get the crust out of the baking form.
- put the flan back into the
oven and bake for 45 minutes or until the
flan rises and gets brown.
Your creation is finished!
A
cup or coffee, hot chocolate or a cup of tea will
do well with it!
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