Flan Pâtissier (French Custard Tart)

Introducing the world’s greatest custard tart: Flan Pâtissier! Also known as Parisian Flan, this incredible French tart is like a gigantic Portuguese Tart. It’s a flaky pastry crust filled with a wicked amount of creamy and rich vanilla custard that glows with a gorgeous bronze sheen after baking.

To say this thing is magnificent would be the understatement of the year. Words fail me. It’s that good!

Overhead photo of Flan Patissier
Flan Patissier
Flan Pâtissier – French Custard Tart
Flan Pâtissier is a French custard tart that is made with a pastry crust filled with vanilla custard and baked.

Also known as Parisian Flan, you’ll find it in every suburban bakery all across France. It blows my mind to know that this pastry is so commonplace for the French that to them it’s considered no big deal as far as pastries go. To this Aussie lass, it is a big deal. It is phenomenally good. Indescribably great. My dessert discovery of the year.

Given especially that it’s a rare find in Australia, I was determined to crack the recipe. With the valuable help of a professional French pastry chef Jennifer Pogmore, I’m happy to report success!

Everyone who has tried the 20+ versions we churned out developing the recipe has loved it. They can’t get enough of it.

This is one of those recipes I’m so personally proud of because I worked hard to perfect it and do the original justice. And I’m thrilled to be sharing it with you!

Showing the creamy custard inside of a slice of Flan PatissierCreamy custard inside
Crispy base of Flan PatissierCrispy golden puff pastry base
About Flan Pâtissier
The custard used for Flan Pâtissier is Creme Patissiere, a rich and creamy vanilla custard used in many desserts in France. It gets its richness from egg yolks which, combined with cornflour/cornstarch, is what makes it set to a perfect consistency such that it can be sliced neatly but melts in your mouth when you eat it.

Chef Jennifer Pogmore tells me there are no hard rules in France about the type of pastry used for the Flan Pâtissier crust, it just comes down to the pastry chef making it. In both boulangeries (French bakeries) and patisseries, Pâte Sucrée (French sweet tart crust) is quite common, as is shortcrust and puff pastry.

I tried them all. But for me, I can’t look past puff pastry. The contrast of the fine, flaky, buttery pastry with the rich creamy custard just knocks this tart out of the park. And it LOOKS so good too!

Close up showing flaky crust of Flan Patissier
Photo showing side of Flan Patissier pastry crust
Crispy base!!
You’ll love how the base comes out perfectly crispy in this recipe. Here’s a couple of photos so you can inspect them closely and see for yourself!! Not a patch of sogginess in sight:

Close up showing the side of a slice of Flan Patissier
It’s even crisp enough so you can hold the slice cantilevered in your hand. This is by design, because that’s exactly how Flan Pâtissier is supposed to be eaten!

Hand holding Flan Patissier
Heads up: This is a long post!
While the idea of making Flan Pâtissier sounds deceptively easy – blind bake a puff pastry crust, fill it with custard and bake it! – the devil is in the detail. This especially applies to those who are not so confident at baking, or are custard first-timers.

To this end I’m sharing quite a lot of information in this post, to ensure success for you whether you are an old hand or new to baking.

If you are a capable baker, feel free to skip all the detail below and jump right to the recipe or recipe video!

How to make Flan PatissierCreme Patissiere custard filling

For Complete Cooking STEPS Please Head On Over To Next PageHow to make Flan PatissierPuff pastry crust for Flan Pâtissier
How to make Flan PatissierThe gorgeous finished product!
Custard for Flan Pâtissier: Creme Patissiere
The custard for Flan Pâtissier is Creme Patissiere, a creamy vanilla custard that is used in many French desserts.

While exact recipes for Creme Patissiere vary depending on the intended use (ie. baked vs not baked; required viscosity for pouring vs piping vs filling vs spreading etc), the base ingredients are almost always the same:

Flan Patissier ingredients
Eggs – Mostly yolks, for richness and also to help set the custard.

Leftover egg whites – Here’s my list of what I do with them and all my egg white recipes can be found in this recipe collection.

Cornflour/cornstarch – For setting the custard and making it shiny (regular flour makes it dull). Attention FRENCH READERS: Do not use yellow cornflour, use white cornstarch!

Vanilla beans – For a beautiful vanilla flavour. I used vanilla beans from Vanilla Bean House (Australian online store) – plump and filled with a generous amount of vanilla seeds! Vanilla bean paste is a good substitute here.

Sugar – For sweetness. But not excessive sweetness! One of the things I adore about French desserts is that they are far less sweet than other typical Western desserts.

Milk – The liquid for custard. Some recipes also use cream, for added richness. I prefer the mouthfeel of milk enriched with butter.

Butter – As above, to enrich the custard.