MEDIEVAL PASTRIES: Flan

The word "flan" is a little like "biscuit", in having taken on almost the opposite meaning as at its origin. Biscuit originally referred to a bread "twice baked" to be harder, but in America now often refers to something much softer. In the sixth century, when Fortunatus described Radegund being served a "flado", the term implied something flat (the word "flan" is still used in mints for a flat surface) before evolving into a filled pastry.

Probably Radegund's version was a pancake, very like one described by Galen:

The flour oil is indeed thrown into a frying pan heated with fire ... : which when it has heated up, wheat flour soaked in a lot of water is poured into it; which rapidly, while it is cooked with the oil, is hardened and thickened like cheese held in a basket ..., and then turned over, placing its upper surface below, so that it also touches the pan, but what was previously below [now is on top], they afterwards turn it over twice or thrice, until the whole cake seems to them to be evenly cooked.

Within a few centuries however, the flado (inflected form "fladone"), now flaon, developed sides high enough to hold a filling. The Cluny hand signs include one for a flado ("pro signo fladorum") combining bread and cheese, suggesting it was already a crust holding cheese. Rudolf of St Trond (c. 1070–1138) says that pastries “must contain five eggs and cheese”. Very likely this referred too to a flan, which then first was made with cheese, even early on with added eggs.

Note that this is a big step in French food history. While pastries - meaning anything served in dough - would be a key feature of late medieval food, they were unknown until about this time and these are some of the few references to anything like them. (While they may well have come from the East, post-Crusades, no direct evidence documents the fact.)

Even as flans are mentioned increasingly, the few early recipes we have for them are for fast days, and replace the filling - probably only cream and eggs by now - with... fish eggs. Luckily, the Vatican version of the Viandier includes a recipe which starts with what is clearly a recipe for a simple flan - before saying to add chunks of scalded and roasted eel.

Here is the start of this recipe for "Nicked flans [flaons cochus]" ("Darioles" here are clearly the shells for the pastry by that name; "powder" was a standard mix of spices - by some accounts, "fine" was white ginger, cinnamon, lump sugar, cloves and grains_of_paradise, "white" was cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.)

Take cream and well-beaten egg yolks, then place them in the cream, and have larger darioles than those we [generally] make, and mix in fine or white powder..

Modern cooks will likely skip the next step, except perhaps for the sugar:

then take handfuls of large eels and scald them, and roast them well, and cut them into sections, and put them on the said flans, three or four each, and sugar them a great deal once they are baked, and let them cool.

Bonnefons' 1654 recipe combines darioles and flans (which in fact appear to have been similar):

Dariole Stuffing and Flans.

Soak a litron [.813 of a liter] of flour with four eggs, then add a pint [probably .952 of a liter, but it varied] of milk and salt to taste. The tart pastry crust will be made of a suitable dough, and they must be placed in the oven while empty. The mixture will be placed in a copper pot that fits on the end of a baking sheet, which has a spout for pouring into the tart pastry crust.

The Flans are made in the same way, except that there is more flour.

Note that he specifically refers to dough made to use with tarts; this is a rare detailed description of how these could be made:

Pastry of the style to make tarts.

In a bushel of flour, add six pounds of butter and twenty eggs. Soak the mixture in cold water, then quickly work it, wrap it in a white cloth, and take it to a cool place to use it as needed when you want to make tart crusts. You will note that in all pastries, a quarter pound of salt is always required for every bushel of flour, and if the flour is kneaded, only half a quarter is required.

At this point, it seems clear that the early use of cheese quickly gave way to a kind of custard using eggs and cream, and now flour.

Massialot's eighteenth century recipes for "flancs" is not so different, if somewhat more flavored:

Cream Flancs or Crusts

Make a puff pastry crust the thickness of a crown. Lightly dust a pie dish with flour and place the puff pastry crust inside. Make a border around it the height of a finger. Then, put a handful of flour, eggs, powdered sugar, salt, grated lemon, and ground cinnamon in a saucepan. Soak it well with a pint and a half of milk. Place your puff pastry crust in the oven with a little brown butter inside. Then, place a wooden handle on the pan containing your mixture so that you can pour it into the puff pastry crust, which is in the oven, and let it bake for half an hour. Once cooked and beautifully colored, serve it with orange blossom water on top as an entremet.

In 1906, Favrier still called this a "flanc":

Flanc

The real flanc must be made cold and baked in the oven. It requires great care. It is preferable to proceed by pre-baking. A very good flanc is obtained as follows: Mix 100 to 120 grams of flour with 2 eggs and a pinch of salt; add 1 liter of milk at first, in small doses, while continuing to mix. Cook over a heat without letting it boil. When the dough hardens, remove from the heat and stir actively to avoid browning and obtain a very smooth cream. Add 60 to 70 grams of caster sugar, stirring constantly, let cool slightly, and pour into previously lined molds or rings. Bake in the oven at 100 to 120 degrees Celsius (212 to 248 degrees Fahrenheit) until the top is golden brown. Let cool before removing from the mold.

Again, the recipe has not greatly changed here from centuries before. The one big change in some cultures is that the contents of this pastry are sometimes served on their own and called "flan".

It's a long way from that flat cake...