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Apricots, Flanc Of
Make a good short crust with one pound of flour, six ounces of butter, a table-spoonful of sugar, the yolk of an egg, and enough milk to make the pastry of a proper consistence. Well butter a plain oval mould, and line it with the crust about half an inch in thickness, pressing it well in to take the shape. Let it rise above the mould about half an inch, and pinch it at regular distances to ornament it. Fill it with flour, and bake it in a good oven for about half an hour. Then empty out the flour, take the case from the mould, being very careful not to break it, and put it back in the oven for another quarter of an hour. It is now ready for the apricots, which should be pared, stoned, and halved, then simmered gently in a syrup made of half a pound of sugar boiled in half a pint of water, until they are quite tender but not broken. Lift them out, arrange them neatly in the crust; boil the syrup until it is reduced to a jelly, and pour it over the fruit. Serve either hot or cold. Probable cost, 3s. Sufficient for three or four persons.
This is a free-standing blind-baked pastry case filled with poached apricots and a reduced syrup glaze. The whole dish hinges on the case surviving unmoulding, so build it thick and bake it dry.
- The pastry, in modern terms1 lb flour is about 3½ cups and 6 oz butter is 1½ sticks. The milk is not specified: add it a spoonful at a time until the dough just comes together. With only 6 oz butter to the pound of flour this is a firm crust meant to hold its own shape, not a tender melting one.
- "Flanc" means the case, not a custardThe recipe gives no size for the plain oval mould, only that it serves three or four. A springform or a loose-bottomed tin is the closest modern substitute; a rigid ceramic dish makes unmoulding almost impossible.
- Half an inch of crust is deliberateThat thickness looks excessive by modern standards but it is what lets the case stand unsupported once the mould is removed. Do not roll it thinner.
- Oven temperatureCassell's gives no figures; a "good oven" of this period is generally read as somewhere around 400F. The second bake, out of the mould, can be gentler so the sides colour and dry without scorching.
- Filling with flourThe flour is acting as blind-baking weights. The original mentions no paper, though a lining of parchment or greased paper makes it easier to tip out. The flour can be sifted and kept for future baking rather than thrown away, though it will be slightly toasted.
- The syrupHalf a pound of sugar to half an Imperial pint of water is about 1 cup sugar to 1¼ cups water. Poach the apricot halves at a bare tremble, 5-10 minutes for ripe fruit, and lift them out before they slump.
- "Reduced to a jelly"Boil the poaching syrup down until it sheets from the spoon and sets tackily on a cold plate, around 220F. Pull it off the heat before it takes any colour, or it will taste of caramel rather than apricot.
- Paring the fruitApricot skins are thin and edible; the original pares them for elegance. If you skip it, the halves hold their shape rather better.
- Yield and servingThree or four as written, which is a small oval. Fill and glaze the case as close to serving as possible, since the syrup will soften the pastry within a few hours.
Flanc here is a variant spelling of flan, from Old French flaon and ultimately Latin flado, a flat cake. Free-standing baked cases of this kind were a staple of nineteenth-century English confectionery borrowed from French practice: the mould gave the shape, the flour gave the support, and the finished shell could be filled with whatever fruit the season offered and glazed with its own reduced syrup. Apricots were a luxury in Britain when Cassell's was compiled in the 1870s and 80s, ripened against south walls or under glass on large estates, or shipped in from France; the high price noted here, 3s. for a dish serving three or four, reflects that. The entry appears under the alphabetical dictionary heading "Apricots, Flanc Of".</td>