Une simple histoire de pommes – Flan vanillé aux pommes

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Not sure what I like best, vegetable flans or fruit flans…

The French love flans, for the simple reason that they’re just too good. I bought too many apples and needed to do something with them. The thought of more apple cakes, apple tarts, baked apples, and last night apple papillotes, did not inspire me at all. When I am in that particular mood, I cannot put my mind to rest until I start coming up with something, just like an obsession. I am sometimes possessed by the cooking devil, that’s what I like to call it.

Nothing complicated in these flans, simple ingredients for irresistible little bites. Their particularity is that apples are reduced in a “compote” then mashed in a purée type of texture. I did not use sliced apples, so the apple flavors are well blended in the flan and adds great texture to it. As any fruit based dessert, they’re very light and are guilt-free desserts, so no need to worry about calories. Maybe some of you guys don’t worry about it but I do, so winner desserts for me are the ones that are light, un-greasy that satisfy sweet cravings. I hate to feel stuffed at the end of a meal, such an unpleasant and unsexy feeling. After eating the five of them, I felt as light as a feather.  So for those who are somehow health conscious, I would recommend those apple flans.

Ingredients for 5 flans

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 medium size apples or 4 small ones, peeled and sliced
  • 100 ml milk
  • 2 tbs sugar
  • 2 tbs flour
  • 2 tbs crème fraîche or heavy cream
  • vanilla extract
  • vanilla powder

Preparation

Place apple in a pot, add one tbs water and cook at low heat until the apples are cooked and reduced into a compote. Then mash with a potato masher to make it into a puree. Let them cool down.

In a mixing bowl, add apple compote, sugar, eggs, milk, cream, vanilla extract and powder and flour. Mix well to obtain an homogenous batter.

In individual silicon molds, pour batter in each mold and cook in a pre-heated oven for about 20-30 minutes until the flan are cooked. Let them cool and refrigerate for a couple of hours.