Flan de Pommes à la Batelière

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •23 cm (9-inch) loose-bottomed tart tin or flan ring, about 4 cm (1 1/2 inches) deep
• •Heavy metal baking sheet
• •Heavy 2-liter saucepan
• •Wide sauté pan
• •Electric hand mixer or balloon whisk
• •Digital kitchen scale
• •Kitchen blowtorch or oven broiler

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the pâte brisée

   Make the pâte brisée, the short pastry: whisk together the flour, icing sugar, and salt, then rub in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few flat butter flakes remaining. Add the egg and 1 tablespoon of ice water, mixing only until the dough holds when pressed. If dry flour remains, add the extra water a teaspoon at a time. Don't knead it smooth; overworking builds gluten and makes the baked shell tough. Flatten into a disc, wrap, and chill for 45 minutes.

2. 2

   Cook the creamy rice

   Reserve 2 tablespoons of the milk, then combine the remaining milk, rice, vanilla seeds and pod in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for 25 to 35 minutes, stirring often near the end, until the grains are tender and suspended in a thick cream. Stir in the caster sugar for the final 5 minutes, then remove the vanilla pod and beat in the butter. Weigh exactly 1 lb (454 g) of cooked rice mixture. If you have more, reserve the excess; if you have less, stir in enough warm reserved milk to reach 454 g. This preserves the source's ratio of four whites to one pound of cooked rice. Spread the rice in a shallow dish and cool completely within 2 hours.

3. 3

   Stew the apples

   Melt the butter in a wide sauté pan, add the apples and caster sugar, and toss until every piece glistens. Cover for 5 minutes to begin softening them, then uncover and cook over medium heat for 12 to 18 minutes, stirring gently, until tender but not reduced to purée. This is pommes pour charlotte, apples stewed until tender and nearly dry. If they catch before softening, add 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) water. If they are tender but surrounded by syrup, keep cooking uncovered. Ça se rattrape. The apples are ready when a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a clean path. Cool completely.

4. 4

   Line the flan tin

   Butter a 23 cm (9-inch) loose-bottomed tart tin or flan ring about 4 cm (1 1/2 inches) deep. Roll the chilled pastry to a 32 cm (12 1/2-inch) round about 3 mm thick, line the base and sides without stretching, and press it firmly into the corners. Trim the edge level with the tin and chill for 30 minutes. The shell isn't blind-baked because the source fills and bakes it in one operation; dry apples, chilled pastry, and a preheated metal sheet give the base its crispness.

5. 5

   Fold in the whites

   Set a heavy baking sheet in the oven and heat to 190°C (375°F). Beat the egg whites in a spotless bowl until they hold stiff, glossy peaks but still look supple. Stir one-third into the completely cooled rice to loosen it, then fold in the remainder with broad strokes, turning the bowl and stopping as soon as no white streaks remain. Warm rice cooks the foam and heavy stirring crushes it. If the mixture loses more volume than intended, don't discard it. Ça se rattrape: mound it promptly and bake; the dome will be closer-grained, but its structure and flavor remain sound.

6. 6

   Build the dome

   Spread the cooled apples evenly in the chilled pastry shell, pressing only enough to remove large gaps. Spoon the lightened rice over them, keeping the edges level with the pastry and building the centre into a smooth, generous dome. Shape it with the back of a spoon dipped briefly in cold water, using a light hand so you don't press out the air.

7. 7

   Bake the flan

   Place the flan on the hot baking sheet and bake at 190°C (375°F) for 15 minutes. Lower the oven to 175°C (350°F) and continue for 35 to 45 minutes, until the pastry is deep gold at the edge, the rice dome feels set rather than liquid beneath its surface, and a thin skewer enters the rice without meeting wet egg white. If the dome colors before the pastry is ready, cover the rice loosely with foil while leaving the pastry exposed.

8. 8

   Burn the sugar

   As soon as the flan leaves the oven, sift the icing sugar copiously and evenly over the dome. Protect the pastry rim with narrow strips of foil, then pass a kitchen torch steadily over the sugar until it melts into glossy amber patches with a few deeper lines. Without a torch, place the flan 15 cm (6 inches) beneath a fully heated broiler and rotate it constantly. Watch without blinking. If one patch blackens, scrape away that bitter spot while the sugar is still warm, sift over fresh sugar, and glaze it again. Ça se rattrape.

9. 9

   Rest and serve

   Let the flan settle in its tin for 30 minutes, then loosen the sides with a thin knife and unmold it onto a flat serving plate. Rest for another 15 minutes before cutting so the rice and apple layers hold their shape. Serve barely warm or at room temperature, with no cream or decorative sauce hiding the burned sugar and buttered apple. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose apples that soften without dissolving, such as Braeburn, Cox, or Pink Lady. A mixture of two varieties gives the filling a better balance of perfume, acidity, and pieces that still show when the flan is cut.
• •Weigh the cooked rice, not the raw rice, because the source's defining proportion is four stiffly beaten whites for each 1 lb (454 g) of cooked rice. C'est la même grammaire: preserve the ratio and the smaller tart behaves like the brigade preparation.
• •The apples must be dry enough to leave a clean path across the pan. Loose syrup migrates into the raw pastry and gives you a damp base; this cooking-down is the dish, not dispensable preparation.
• •The red-hot iron melted the sugar without returning the whole flan to prolonged oven heat. A small kitchen torch gives the closest control. A long, uncoated stainless-steel skewer heated over a gas flame can reproduce the dark lines, but grip it with locking tongs and place it immediately on a heatproof tray.
• •The glaze should be amber, with an occasional dark-brown mark, never black all over. Icing sugar moves from melted to bitter quickly, so keep the torch moving and stop a shade earlier than instinct suggests.

Advance Preparation

• •The pâte brisée can be mixed and chilled up to 2 days ahead, or frozen for up to 1 month. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator before rolling.
• •The apples and riz pour entremets can be prepared 1 day ahead and refrigerated separately. Bring the rice just to cool room temperature before folding in the whites, but keep the apples cold.
• •The flan can be baked up to 8 hours before serving. Leave it unglazed, cover once cool, and keep refrigerated; return it to room temperature, then apply and burn the icing sugar shortly before it reaches the table.
• •Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and keep for up to 3 days. The flavor holds, though the pastry and sugar glaze gradually soften.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 220g)