No. 3170

Apricot, Peach, Plum or Nectarine Flawn

Flan d'Abricots, de Peches, de Prunes ou de Brugnons

With some flawn paste (No. 135) line a flawn ring in the following manner; Butter the ring, roll out the paste to an eighth of an inch in thickness, and lay it in the ring so that it has the same thickness throughout, pressing it against the sides to equalize it well. Cut off the paste a little above the height of the ring, and with this surface form a ridge, pinching it all around on top and outside. Divide some apricots in two, peel and dress them in a circle, one overlapping the other, inside the flawn; place the cracked and peeled kernels here and there among the fruit, bestrew with fine sugar and cook in a moderate oven; remove, unmold and brush over with a consistent syrup flavored with kirsch, then serve.

The apricots may be replaced by peaches, plums or nectarines, proceeding exactly the same.

← No. 3169 Apple Flawn—Latticed Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3171 Cherry Flawn →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A plain open fruit tart of the classic French kind, but one instruction in it is not something to reproduce: the cracked apricot kernels scattered among the fruit. The notes below explain the period terms and why the kernels are the problem.

The kernels are the hinge, and they are the reason to stopThe kernels are the reason for caution. Apricot, peach and plum kernels contain amygdalin, which can release hydrogen cyanide when the kernel is crushed or chewed; content varies widely between bitter and sweet varieties, and how much survives baking is not well established. Food safety authorities advise strict limits on eating them at all. Ranhofer does not say how many kernels to use, so the dose here is unknown: leave them out and use an almond flavouring instead.
Why a nineteenth-century kitchen used themThe kernel was valued as a free source of bitter-almond flavour to reinforce the fruit — the same logic behind noyau and ratafia. Almond extract or a little marzipan gives a similar effect.
"Flawn""Flawn" is the old English word for a flat open tart, cognate with French flan; here it means an open pastry case of fruit, not the baked custard the word signals in Spanish and Latin American cooking. The section heading shown places it among the entremets; the recipe itself only says to unmould, glaze and serve, and does not specify hot or cold.
The flawn ringA plain bottomless metal hoop set on a baking sheet, the ancestor of today's tart ring. A loose-bottomed tart tin does the same job; a springform is too deep. Ranhofer gives no diameter.
"Flawn paste (No. 135)"A cross-reference to Ranhofer's own pastry recipe; this page does not say what it contained. An eighth of an inch is thin for a shell that must hold juicy fruit, which may be why he insists on pressing it evenly against the sides.
"A moderate oven""A moderate oven" is usually taken to mean somewhere in the region of 350–375F, though the book gives no temperature. Ranhofer gives no time either; the tart is done when the pastry ridge is coloured and the fruit has slumped and caught at the edges.
The finishing syrup"consistent" here means thickened by boiling, not merely uniform — a heavy sugar syrup brushed on as a glaze and flavoured with kirsch.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its dessert chapters are essentially a French repertory transplanted whole: the flan aux abricots he describes is the standard open fruit tart of the Parisian pastry trade, with its disciplined ring of overlapping halves and the mirror of boiled syrup over the top. The use of the fruit's own kernel to season the fruit is older than the book, as are ratafia, and the almond-scented creams that fill the pages around this one. In later professional practice the flavour it supplied was reassigned to almond extract.