1,447 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

French custard tart

Custard pie is made with a shortcrust pastry base, and filled with an egg vanilla "custard" mix (prepared beforehand). Filling and pastry cook together in the oven.

It's a great classic of the French bakery, found in all good shops.

436K 23× 4.0/5 based on 120 reviews

Last modified on: July 13^th 2022

Keywords for this recipe:

For 2 Frenchs custard tart, you will need:

1 600 g Shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée)
2 1 kg 600 g Paris flan filling
3 40 g apricot glaze (optional)
Total weight: 2,200 grams

Change these quantities to make:

1 French custard tart 2 Frenchs custard tart 3 Frenchs custard tart

Change measures:

Metric

Metric weight Metric volumes

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 20 min.

Cooking: 50 min.

All in all: 1 hour 10 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - 10 min.

Spread out 600 g Shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée) in a 8 inches (20 cm) mould, following these tips.

Put on standby in the fridge.

Stage 2 - 2 min.

Prepare 1 kg 600 g Paris flan filling.

Preheat your oven to 200°C (390°F).

Stage 3 - 3 min.

Remove pastry case from fridge, trim and neaten edges with a knife and prick all over bottom with a fork or a pique-vite.

Stage 4 - 3 min.

Pour mixture into the pastry case.

Note that we put hot cream on dough, a bit unusual but necessary to reduce cooking time.

Stage 5 - 50 min.

And immediately put in the oven for about 50 minutes.

Stage 6 - 2 min.

You can glaze (with apricot jelly) top for a shiny dessert.

Stage 7

Taste imperatively cold, your flan can also very well wait for a full night in the fridge.

Remarks

You can use different kinds of dough: sweetcrust pastry (pâte sablée) or puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée).

Keeping: Several days in the fridge, covered by a plastic film.

Source: Home made.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	1,160 450 %	5,760 540 %	4,870 740 %	7,610 380 %	31,860 380 %
Per 100 g	50 20 %	260 30 %	220 30 %	350 20 %	1,450 20 %

The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman Change to a man

Possible allergens in this recipe: Gluten, Milk, Egg, Nuts

How much will it cost?

For 2 Frenchs custard tart : 10.84 €
Per French custard tart : 5.42 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

This recipe uses (among others)

Paris flan filling

You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Parisian-style chocolate custard tart, Verbena flan, Caramelized pear custard tart, Alsatian apple tart, Pear and chocolate Paris puddings, ... See them all 9

Shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée)

You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Angevin plum pâté, Potato and cheese pie, Deep leek and potato quiche, Mexican tart, Quiche Lorraine, ... See them all 15

Other recipes you may also like

Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)

Quite similar to crème anglaise but much thicker. It is used in many pastries like choux pastry (pâte à choux) or millefeuille.
January 27^th 2017743K 313.7 36 min.

How to bake blind

This method allows you to cook a tart case, and then fill with a preparation which may or may not need further cooking (fruit, chocolate, crème patissière , etc...).
May 6^th 2017911K5 1 hour 40 min.

French baguettes

This classic of French baking is rather different from the recipe for leavened bread, it's a question of making a good crust and light crumb along the whole length. To succeed, you should know that there are two secrets: water first of all (much more than for normal bread), and the working of the...
October 24^th 20171.1M 364.7 5 hours 6 min.

Pears and caramelised walnut samosas

Samosas are small parcels of filling wrapped in brik (or filo) sheets and either shallow or deep fried. Here is a sweet version, with pears and caramelised walnuts.
October 13^th 2010323K4 1 hour 21 min.

Little vegetable omelettes

As an appetiser or starter, little thick soft omelettes, with diced tomato, courgette and smoked ham.
June 11^th 2011297K4 1 hour 10 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

The 23 comments already posted on this recipe

Hi,

No, instead you can use vanilla powder or extract.
Posted by jh december 17^th 2015 at 16:29 n° 23
Hi, Sorry instead of the 1/2 vanilla pod can I use custard powder?
Posted by Anonymous december 17^th 2015 at 15:42 n° 22
Hi,

No, it's not necessary, but you should absolutely use a cold custard to put in the pastry, otherwise it will melt the pastry and make a sad result.

Carry on Els! you will succeed, I'm sure...
Posted by jh august 20^th 2014 at 21:44 n° 21
Hi,
I'm hoping you might read this before I attempt the tart tomorrow... Have made the pastry and will line the tin with it. Do you need to blind bake the pastry before adding the custard? I am nervous of having a soggy bottom pastry!
Thank you!
Posted by Els august 20^th 2014 at 18:59 n° 20
1) yes it is a fan oven, but it's not really necessary for this recipe
2) bottom preferably
Posted by jh june 3^rd 2014 at 08:16 n° 19
Thanks fir recipe, had continental market today in Kilmarnock and bout custard tart, tasted amazing, goi to try this at the weekend.
2 questions, is your over a fan oven? Just working out if it needs to be 180 if fan.
Lastly, top shelf or bottom?

Cheers for easy instructions.
Posted by Craig june 2^nd 2014 at 00:16 n° 18
I don't buy, I made them.
Posted by jh may 21^th 2014 at 08:41 n° 17
Where do you buy French Custard Tarts?
Posted by Abby may 21^th 2014 at 01:36 n° 16
It's indicated in the recipe.
Posted by jh november 28^th 2012 at 17:28 n° 15
How many degrees when in the oven? ;)
Posted by Anonymous november 28^th 2012 at 15:41 n° 14
About 23 cm.
Posted by jh september 17^th 2012 at 18:00 n° 13
What size tart mould? diameter.
Posted by Mrs Fierce september 15^th 2012 at 18:51 n° 12
Yes sir!
Posted by Anonymous august 29^th 2012 at 18:04 n° 11
I wanted to create my favourite French tart that I always buy on holiday.
This recipe comes close but the French just seem to be on another level with their patisseries.
Posted by Sir Alan Johnson august 27^th 2012 at 19:34 n° 10
I too have been to a French Market today and bought a delicious custard tart which looked just like your recipe the only addition was a sprinkling of coconut on the top.
I think cornflour in the US is called cornstarch and caster sugar is midway between granulated and the very fine sugar that you'd use for icing cakes. If I haven't got caster sugar in the cupboard, I give it a quick whizz in a blender or liquidizer - just to break down the grains a little.
I look forward to trying out your recipe - thank you !
Posted by ad november 27^th 2011 at 20:40 n° 9
Thank you so much for your advice! I hope this turns out just as my Grandfather and I remembered.
Posted by Brittany november 24^th 2011 at 06:32 n° 8
With recipe originally in French, then translated by an English lady, it sound, of course, so British...
To try to help you I can say that caster sugar, is powdered white sugar, the same you can put in your coffee in restaurants, and corn flour is a very very fine and white powder, frequently buy on trademark "Maizena" in Europe.
Posted by jh november 18^th 2011 at 14:33 n° 7
I am in the US and have been searching for this recipe for YEARS! My Grandfather and I ate this pastry every day we were in Paris when I was a teenager, and I would love to surprise and make it for him. We still talk about how tasty it was to this day! I would like to know if someone could translate to me what cornflour is because the only corn flour I know of over here is gritty and used for cornbread. Also, please explain caster sugar. Is that the same thing as granulated sugar or would it be considered confectioner's sugar. Thank you for your help!
Posted by Brittany november 18^th 2011 at 06:59 n° 6
This is an excellent recipe, easy to follow with great results. Instead of doing one large tart, I made 12 small ones, so had lots of pastry and custard left over! They were very popular with my nephew and nieces, who are demanding that I make some more! This is a particularly good custard recipe, which I will use always from now on. Many thanks.
Posted by James june 26^th 2011 at 18:39 n° 5
Came out perfect and tastes delicious thanks !!
Posted by jj june 25^th 2011 at 16:35 n° 4
No, full eggs, as indicated in the ingredients list.
Posted by jh november 10^th 2010 at 19:22 n° 3
Came out too eggy and corn tasting. Is only the egg yolk supposed to be used?
Posted by Anonymous november 10^th 2010 at 13:57 n° 2
I remember the pie my mom made when i was young.a custard pie with gram cracker crust.dose any one know the recipe?i would love to no it.
Posted by Anonymous august 5^th 2010 at 22:37 n° 1

Follow this recipe (as 3 people already do)

If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.