Sweet Pastry Flan Case (Fresh Fruit Flan)

How to make outstanding Sweet Pastry Cases, No blind baking involved, as always, easy step by step instructions, from start to finish.

Ingredients

Add the flour, butter, icing sugar, orange zest and salt to your food processor, pulse the machine until you have a fine breadcrumb or sandy consistency, this should take about 40 seconds.
While the processor is running, drizzle in the beaten egg until it all comes together, once again this should only take about 40 seconds.
Flatten your pastry, wrap it in parchment or cling film, refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
For this recipe you’ll need a greased 23cmcm / 9in flan tin
See the link below for this flan tin on our website.

Preheat your oven to 170°C / 340°F / Gas mark 3.
Roll out your pastry to a 3mm thick circle (see video for example)
Once rolled out, roll it onto you rolling pin.
Unroll the pastry onto the greased flan tin leaving plenty hanging over the edge of the tin.
Carefully tuck the pastry down into the corners of the tin with your fingers, then trim off the excess pastry.
Using a spare piece of pastry, gently press it down into the corners of the tin where the side meets the base.
Using a fork, prick lots of holes in the pastry base, (see the video) this is called docking the pastry.
Place the flan tin in the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes, there is no need to blind bake these flan cases with parchment and baking beads, the docking is enough to keep the pastry flat in the oven.
Beat one small egg in a container (egg wash)
Once the time is up, remove it from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack.
While it is still hot in the tin, give the inside of the flan case a good coat of the egg-wash, the residual heat of the pastry and the tin will cook and set the egg, this egg barrier forms a good waterproof layer.
Once cooled, you can fill your case with whatever cold dessert filling you like, in this recipe, I’ll be using fresh fruit.
Enjoy.