Flan aux Carottes

Flan aux Carottes (carrot flan tart) teaches moisture control. The shell must stay pale yet crisp, the purée only lightly sugared and dry enough to hold a furrow, the glazed half-discs whole. Before touching a pan, know the one true thing: water is the enemy beneath pastry. Drive it from the purée before filling, and the tart stays itself.

The original entry assumed two finished preparations could arrive from separate stations: Fine, Short or Flawn Paste (For Fruit Tarts) (No. 2358) and Carottes Glacées pour Garnitures (No. 2059). It also assumed a flawn ring, sheets of paper, and a bin of rice or split peas waiting for blind baking. At home, a 23 cm removable-bottom tin, parchment, and reusable baking weights do the same work. Here the tart is scaled to six servings and only the brigade scaffolding goes; the pale blind bake, smooth purée, intact carrot roof, and five-minute oven finish stay, because they are the dish. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the shell is blond, the filling is dense and silken, and the sugar-butter liquor catches on every orange half-disc. The decisive step is drying and cooling the purée before it meets the shell. If a spoon cannot leave a clean path through it, return it to low heat and keep stirring.