INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

A flan can be either of two things: One, a straight-sided, open-faced
tart that stands alone in its own pastry shell with any savory or
sweet filling. This kind of flan is a feature of French cooking.
Quiche Lorraine is the best known of the savory flans.  The flan tart
is made with flan rings which can be bought in hardware  or household
stores. Flan rings are simple Metal hoops of varying  heights, that are
spaced on a cookie sheet. The pastry is placed on  the cookie sheet
inside the ring for the bottom of the tart. The ring  is also lined
with pastry. The pastry may be baked empty or with a  filling. When the
flan is done, the ring is removed and the flan slid  onto a rack or a
serving dish.  Flans can also be baked in springform pans, which have
removable  bottoms. The whole pan is lined with pastry. When ready to
be  unmolded, the pan is set on a wide-mouthed jar and the upper ring
part of the pan is loosened and allowed to slide down to the table.
Then, a long thin knife or spatula is run under the flan so that it
can be slid off the bottom of the pan onto a dish. A flan ring can be
improvised by shaping several layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil into
the desired shape.  When baking a flan which will be filled later, it
should be treated  as a pie shell is: in order to prevent the pastry
from puffing up or  collapsing, the dough should be covered with a
sheet of heavy unwaxed  brown paper and weighted with dry beans or
rice. These will hold the  pastry against the mold during the baking.
Paper and beans are then  removed.  The second culinary meaning of the
word flan is a custard or caramel  cream thickened with eggs or with
other thickening agents such as  Irish gum arabic. This kind of flan is
a standard dessert in  Spanish-speaking countries.  McRecipe -
PatHanneman - 30 Sep 97.  Recipe by: Woman's Day Encyclopedia of
Cookery  Posted to MC-Recipe Digest V1 #821 by KitPATh
<phannema@wizard.ucr.edu> on Sep 30, 1997

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