No. 3034

Flawn a la Manhattan

Flan a la Manhattan

Line a flawn ring (No. 3170) with sweet paste (No. 136), leaving the edges rather thick, and let it rest for half an hour in the ice-box. Then cover the paste with buttered paper and fill it up with dry rice; cook it in a hot oven and as soon as done empty it out and cover the outside border and the inside surfaces with hot and well-reduced peach marmalade (No. 3675); slide the pie on a dish; dress against the edges a circle of halved peaches; arrange in a pyramid in the center of this crown some quartered apples cooked in butter and cover the whole with strained peach marmalade; sprinkle over the entire surface some finely chopped pistachios and decorate between the peaches on the border, also on the summit of the pie, with lozenges of angelica and candied cherries. Set it for one instant in the oven to warm, then serve with a bowlful of cream vanilla sauce (No. 3004).

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For the Modern Kitchen

A blind-baked sweet pastry shell glazed with reduced peach jam and built up with fruit — closer to a French tarte than to anything called flan today. The hinge is the shell: it is baked empty and must come out crisp and dry, because everything that goes into it is wet.

Flawn ringA flan ring — a bottomless metal hoop, usually shallow, set on a baking sheet. A fluted tart tin with a removable base does the same job, and Ranhofer's instruction to leave the edges thick is what keeps the rim from slumping.
Sweet pasteRanhofer's No. 136 is a sugared short paste of the pâte sucrée type; any modern sweet shortcrust works. The half hour in the "ice-box" is a rest to relax the gluten and firm the butter; do not skip it or the sides shrink.
"A hot oven"Period "hot oven" is generally taken as somewhere around 400–425F. For a sugared paste that is aggressive: 400F for 15–20 minutes with the paper and rice in place, then lift them out and give it 5–10 minutes more to dry the base, watching the rim for colour.
Dry riceThe nineteenth-century version of baking beans. Ceramic weights work better, but rice is fine and can be cooled, jarred and reused many times for the same purpose.
Peach marmaladeNot citrus marmalade — a thick peach jam or purée cooked down until it mounds on the spoon. "Well-reduced" is the operative word: it acts as a waterproof seal on the baked pastry, and a loose jam will soften the shell within minutes.
Apples cooked in butterQuartered, peeled, sautéed in butter until tender but still holding shape. A firm variety — Braeburn, Golden Delicious, Boskoop — will pile into a pyramid; softer apples collapse into sauce.
AngelicaCandied angelica stem, cut into diamonds, was standard green decoration. It has largely vanished from shops; candied citron, thin strips of candied lime peel or nothing at all will serve. The recipe's colour scheme is green and red against gold.
Vanilla cream sauceNo. 3004 is a vanilla custard sauce of the crème anglaise type, served in a bowl alongside rather than poured over.
Yield and timingA tart of this kind will serve eight or so. The shell can be baked and glazed hours ahead, but the fruit should be assembled and the tart warmed "one instant" — no more than a couple of minutes — just before it goes to the table.

A Little History

Flawn is the older English form of French flan, from Old French flaon, from late Latin flado (itself of Germanic origin), a flat cake; in medieval and early modern English cookery a flawn was a pastry case with a filling, sweet or savoury. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, printed a series of them in The Epicurean (1894), and this one carries a New York name — Manhattan — as the neighbouring Flawn au Lion d'Or carries another. French technique, exactly codified and cross-referenced by number, was presented under such titles for American diners. The construction here is late-century restaurant pastry: a shell baked blind, sealed with reduced jam, then dressed with fruit, chopped pistachio and candied angelica in a symmetrical scheme meant to be looked at before it was eaten.