Chef Juliette
Carottes Glacées pour Garnitures
Carottes Glacées prove that a garnish can teach a whole sauce lesson: carrots cook in butter, sugar, salt, and water until their own liquor reduces to a brilliant, clinging coat.
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Flan aux Carottes
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2063, Flan aux Carottes, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
A pale short-paste shell holds silken, lightly sweet carrot purée beneath neat glazed half-discs, their butter syrup catching the light: a classical tart poised between vegetable course and sweet.
Pastries & Cookies
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
35 min
Active Time
55 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
YieldOne 23 cm tart (6 servings)
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.
Flan aux Carottes belongs to the classical Parisian table, where flan can mean a pastry-lined ring as readily as a custard. Its lightly sweetened filling and butter-glazed roof allow the same preparation to sit with vegetables or move to the sweet course, showing how classical service defines a dish by placement as well as seasoning. English cookbooks preserve the pastry-shell meaning in the word flawn; by construction, this is a tart, not the trembling custard many cooks expect from flan.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Fine, Short or Flawn Paste (For Fruit Tarts)
Quantity
1½ cups (355 ml / 370 g) Fine, Short or Flawn Paste (For Fruit Tarts) (No. 2358)
chilled
carrots
Quantity
4½ cups (1.06 L / 680 g)
peeled and evenly sliced for the purée
water
Quantity
3 cups (720 ml / 720 g)
granulated sugar
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 25 g)
fine salt
Quantity
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 3 g)
Carottes Glacées pour Garnitures
Quantity
2 cups (475 ml / 400 g) Carottes Glacées pour Garnitures (No. 2059)
prepared as unbroken half-discs with their cooking liquor reserved
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Fine, Short or Flawn Paste (For Fruit Tarts)chilled | 1½ cups (355 ml / 370 g) Fine, Short or Flawn Paste (For Fruit Tarts) (No. 2358) |
| carrotspeeled and evenly sliced for the purée | 4½ cups (1.06 L / 680 g) |
| water | 3 cups (720 ml / 720 g) |
| granulated sugar | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 25 g) |
| fine salt | ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 3 g) |
| Carottes Glacées pour Garnituresprepared as unbroken half-discs with their cooking liquor reserved | 2 cups (475 ml / 400 g) Carottes Glacées pour Garnitures (No. 2059) |
Equipment Needed
- •23 cm (9-inch) removable-bottom tart tin or tart ring on a sheet pan
- •Parchment and dried rice, split peas, or ceramic baking weights
- •Medium heavy-bottomed saucepan
- •Food mill or blender and fine-mesh sieve
- •Small offset spatula and pastry brush
Instructions
- 1
Line and chill shell
Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Roll the Fine, Short or Flawn Paste (For Fruit Tarts) (No. 2358) to an even 3 mm (⅛ inch) thickness and line a 23 cm (9-inch) removable-bottom tart tin. Press the paste gently into the corner without stretching it, trim the rim, and prick the base sparingly. If the paste tears, patch it with a thin cold offcut and press the edges together without water. Chill the lined shell for 20 minutes so the butter firms and the sides hold their shape.
Stretching pastry makes it shrink back in the oven. Lower it into the tin with slack, then ease it into the corner with your knuckle. - 2
Blind-bake it pale
Line the cold shell with parchment, letting the paper rise above the rim, and fill it completely with dried rice, split peas, or ceramic weights. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the rim is set but still blond. Lift out the paper and weights, then bake for another 5 to 7 minutes, just until the base feels dry and loses its raw shine. Do not let it brown. If the base puffs after the weights come out, press it down at once with a folded clean cloth while it is still pliable.
Fill the shell to its upper edge with weights. A polite handful holds down the center and leaves the sides free to slump. - 3
Make the carrot purée
While the shell bakes, put the sliced carrots, water, and salt in a medium saucepan. Cover partially and hold at a gentle simmer for 18 to 22 minutes, until a slice crushes without resistance. Reserve ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) of the cooking water, drain the carrots thoroughly, then return them to the dry saucepan over low heat for 2 minutes, shaking often, to drive off surface moisture. Purée until smooth, pass through a fine sieve, and beat in the sugar. The purée must hold the track of the spoon. If it spreads like soup, return it to low heat and stir until dense; if it is too stiff to spread, add the reserved water one teaspoon (5 ml / 5 g) at a time. Ça se rattrape. Cool it uncovered to room temperature.
Do not fill the shell with hot purée. Heat softens the pastry's butter before the final bake and gives moisture time to enter the base. - 4
Ready the glazed carrots
Warm the Carottes Glacées pour Garnitures (No. 2059) over the lowest heat only until their cooking liquor flows again. Lift the unbroken half-discs onto a plate in a single layer and keep the liquor in the pan. If the liquor runs thinly, reduce it alone until it coats a spoon in a translucent buttery sheet. If it has set too firmly, loosen it with one teaspoon (5 ml / 5 g) of the reserved carrot water. Do not boil the carrots again; their shape is part of the dish.
- 5
Fill and roof tart
Spread the cooled purée evenly in the pale shell, smoothing it just below the rim. Beginning at the outside edge, arrange the half-discs from the Carottes Glacées pour Garnitures (No. 2059) in close overlapping rows, like roof tiles, and work toward the center. Spoon or brush the reduced cooking liquor over them. Coat every piece, but do not leave a puddle around the pastry.
- 6
Warm and settle
Return the assembled flan to the 180°C (350°F) oven for exactly 5 minutes, just long enough to unite the filling, shell, and glaze. Let it settle in the tin for 10 minutes before releasing the rim. Serve warm as a vegetable course beside roasted poultry or veal, or let it reach room temperature and serve it as a sweet. Cut with a fine serrated knife so the carrot roof remains neat. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose firm, full-flavored carrots for the purée. Very young carrots look charming but can be watery; water belongs in the saucepan, not beneath the pastry.
- •The shell should be baked through but scarcely colored. Pale does not mean raw: the base must feel dry and firm before the purée goes in.
- •Do not blot the butter sheen from the glazed carrots. That gloss is part of the preparation, not excess to be hidden. We don't apologize for butter.
- •Keep the sugar restrained whether the tart travels with the vegetables or the sweets. Changing its course does not require turning the carrots into confectionery.
Advance Preparation
- •Prepare the Fine, Short or Flawn Paste (For Fruit Tarts) (No. 2358) up to two days ahead and keep it tightly wrapped in the cold. Let it soften only until it rolls without cracking.
- •Prepare the Carottes Glacées pour Garnitures (No. 2059) one day ahead, keeping the half-discs submerged in their cooking liquor so their surfaces do not dry. Rewarm them very gently.
- •The shell may be blind-baked and the purée prepared several hours before dinner. Keep them separate at room temperature, then assemble and give the tart its five-minute finish shortly before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 220g)
Calories
380 calories
Total Fat
18 g
Saturated Fat
11 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
6 g
Cholesterol
70 mg
Sodium
650 mg
Total Carbohydrates
49 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
16 g
Protein
5 g
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