No. 3169

Apple Flawn—Latticed

Flan de Pommes Grille

Prepare a flawn ring the same as for an apricot flawn (No. 3170); fill it with well-reduced apple marmalade (No. 3674) flavored with lemon peel. Roll out some parings of puff paste (No. 146) to a sixteenth of an inch in thickness; cut it into narrow strips or bands three-sixteenths of an inch wide. Dampen the edges of the flawn and lay over the strips, leaving a three-eighths of an inch space between each one; fasten well and cut away any surplus without stretching the paste. Moisten the first row of strips with a brush, arrange another row over slightly on the bias to form lozenges; fasten them also to the edge, having the whole form an uniform lattice work; egg twice and cook in a hot oven for one hour. After removing dust over with fine powdered sugar, and again put in the oven for a few minutes to glaze.

← No. 3168 Flamri of Semolina Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3170 Apricot, Peach, Plum or Nectarine Flawn →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional kitchen and leans on cross-references, so most of the work here is reconstructing what the numbered recipes contained. The lattice itself is straightforward once the filling is dry enough to support it.

The hinge: reduce the apple until it holds a shapeRanhofer's "apple marmalade" is not jam but apples cooked down to a stiff, almost paste-like purée that mounds on a spoon and leaves the pan clean. A wet filling steams the lattice from below and the strips sag into it.
Flawn ringA flawn (flan) is an open tart, and the ring is a plain bottomless metal band set on a baking sheet, lined with pastry. A straight-sided tart tin with a removable base is the modern equivalent; a springform ring works for the same reason.
Puff paste paringsHe calls for trimmings rather than a fresh sheet; re-rolled scraps rise less, which suits a neat lattice, though economy of leftovers is the likelier reason. Frozen all-butter puff pastry, rolled to about 1.5 mm, is a fair substitute.
Strip dimensionsThree-sixteenths of an inch is roughly 5 mm wide, set three-eighths of an inch (about 1 cm) apart. The second row goes on the diagonal, which is what makes the diamonds ("lozenges") rather than squares.
Oven and timeThe recipe says only "a hot oven" and one hour, with no temperature given. An hour at a genuinely hot setting will scorch a thin lattice; bake at around 400F and expect 35 to 45 minutes, judging by the pastry, which should be dry, deep gold and lifting cleanly from the ring.
Egg twiceTwo thin coats of beaten egg, the second after the first has set, give a dark lacquered finish. Keep it off the cut edges of the puff paste or they seal and will not rise.
The sugar glazeThe final dusting and brief return to the oven melts the powdered sugar into a thin caramelised shine. A broiler does this in one to two minutes and will burn it in three.
YieldNo size is given for the ring; a flawn of this kind serves roughly eight to ten as one item in a dessert course. It is best the day it is baked; the lattice softens overnight.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894, drawing on some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry is typical of the book's method: a short paragraph that assumes you have already read three other numbered recipes. "Flawn" is the older English form of the French flan, which came via Old French flaon from a Late Latin form borrowed from a Germanic word for a flat cake, and in nineteenth-century usage it meant an open tart baked in a ring rather than the set custard the word suggests today. The latticed top belongs to the same repertoire of pastry ornament as the woven-strip tarte of French patisserie, where a diagonal second row turns a grid into diamonds. Apple marmalade cooked down with lemon peel fills the tart, and its appearance here among the cold entremets reflects where these dishes fell in the order of service: late in a long menu, valued as much for how they looked on the platter as for how they tasted.