Bordier Salted Butter Caramel Flan

Five ingredients, one bowl and a bain marie, and you have the most Breton dessert there is. Maison Bordier creams eggs and sugar with salted butter caramel, pours over milk scalded with a split vanilla bean, and bakes the custard gently in ramekins for half an hour. It comes out of the oven pale and sets properly only once it is cold, so this is a dessert you make the day before. Fifteen minutes of work, then patience.

Why this works

Caramel au beurre salé is a Breton invention, and it exists because Brittany has both the salt and the butter. Bordier's semi-salted butter sits at 2.8% fine salt and carries caramel and hazelnut notes of its own in summer, which is exactly why it makes a caramel that tastes of more than burnt sugar. The salt is not a garnish here. It cuts the sweetness and stops a caramel custard from being cloying, which is the failure mode of most flans.

The rest is straightforward custard technique. Only 50 g of sugar goes into the eggs, because the caramel is already carrying sweetness, and scalding the milk with a split vanilla bean pulls the seeds and the pod's aroma into the liquid before it ever meets the eggs. Pouring hot milk over creamed eggs while stirring hard tempers them, so they thicken rather than scramble. The bain marie then holds the ramekins in a gentle, even heat, which is what gives a flan its clean set instead of a grainy, bubbled texture.

Ingredients

Four servings. These are exactly the quantities Bordier lists, with US equivalents added.

Ingredient	Metric	US
Eggs, large	3	3
Granulated sugar	50 g	1 3/4 oz, about 1/4 cup
Soft Bordier salted butter caramel	2 tablespoons (the method specifies 2 heaping tablespoons), plus more for serving	2 heaping tbsp, plus more for serving
Milk	50 cl	2 cups
Vanilla bean	1, split lengthwise	1, split lengthwise

Method

Step 1: Cream, scald and fill the ramekins

Cream three large eggs with 50 g / 1 3/4 oz granulated sugar and two heaping tablespoons of soft salted Bordier butter caramel, made by Hervé and Benoit. Scald 50 cl / 2 cups of milk with the vanilla bean split lengthwise, then pour it over the creamed eggs, stirring energetically as you go. Divide the mixture between ramekins.

Step 2: Bake in a bain marie, chill, then coat

Bake at 180°C / 350°F in a bain marie for 30 minutes. Let the flans cool, then refrigerate them. When you are ready to serve, take the lid off a small jar of soft caramel and microwave it for 20 seconds. Serve the flans in their ramekins, or turn them out and coat them in the warmed caramel.

Tips from our kitchen

• Pour the hot milk in a thin stream, stirring the whole time. Bordier says to stir energetically and that is the step where this dessert is won or lost. Adding the milk all at once cooks the eggs on contact and you get sweet scrambled egg suspended in custard, which no amount of baking will fix.
• Use boiling water in the bain marie, coming halfway up. Set the ramekins in a deep dish, slide it into the oven, then pour the water in so nothing slops. Halfway up the sides is the level you want. Too shallow and the custard heats from the bottom too fast.
• Judge by the wobble, not the clock. At 30 minutes the flans should be set at the edges with a coin-sized area at the center that still trembles when you nudge the dish. That center firms up as they cool. Baking until the middle is solid gives you a rubbery flan.
• Chill for at least four hours, ideally overnight. The recipe says cool then refrigerate without saying for how long. Ours is a full night. A flan turned out warm will collapse, and the caramel flavor is noticeably deeper cold.
• Scrape the vanilla seeds into the milk as well as the pod. Split the bean, run a knife down the inside, and put both seeds and pod into the milk. Then leave the pod in while the milk cools slightly for a stronger infusion, and fish it out before pouring.
• If you cannot find Bordier's jarred caramel. It belongs to their delicatessen range and we do not carry it. Any good salted butter caramel spread will work, the thick, spoonable kind rather than a pouring sauce. Look for one that lists butter and cream high on the label.

How to serve it

Serve these cold, straight from the refrigerator, with the warmed caramel spooned over just before they reach the table so it stays glossy. Turned out onto a plate they look like a proper dessert, and left in their ramekins they look like something you would be given at a Breton kitchen table, which is closer to the spirit of it. Either way, keep the portions small. If you want more from the same flavor, our guide to Bordier butter covers what the semi-salted block does in baking.

Where to buy Bordier butter in the US

The French Pantry ships Bordier butter across the United States in insulated overnight packaging, straight from the workshop in Brittany.

This recipe traditionally uses Maison Bordier's own jarred salted butter caramel, which is part of their delicatessen range and is not something we carry. What we do stock is the butter that gives that caramel its character, and it is the right block to reach for if you would rather make a salted butter caramel yourself:

• Churned Salted Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): semi-salted at 2.8% fine salt, hand-churned in Brittany, with caramel and hazelnut notes of its own in summer.

For the rest of the range, browse the Maison Bordier collection.

Frequently asked questions

How much Bordier butter do I need for this recipe?

None directly. Bordier's version uses their jarred caramel rather than a block of butter, so the butter reaches the flan already made into caramel. If you are making the caramel yourself instead, one 4.4 oz / 125 g block of Bordier salted butter is more than enough for a batch, with plenty left for the bread.

Can I substitute a different caramel?

Yes. Use a thick, spoonable salted butter caramel spread. Avoid thin ice cream sauces, which are mostly sugar syrup and will make the custard loose as well as oversweet.

Can I use vanilla extract instead of a bean?

You can, though you lose the seeds and the aroma is flatter. If you go that route, add it to the milk after scalding rather than before, since prolonged heat drives off the volatile compounds that make extract worth using.

How should I store Bordier butter?

Wrapped and refrigerated, with the paper pressed back against any cut face so the surface does not dry out. Use an opened block within about a week, or freeze one you are not ready to open.

Does Bordier butter need to be refrigerated?

Yes. Bordier butter is a fresh, hand-churned product and ships cold. Move it into the refrigerator as soon as it arrives.

How long do the flans keep?

Covered in the refrigerator, three days is comfortable. Add the warmed caramel only at the moment of serving, since it will thin and slide off if it sits on a cold flan.

Related reading

• Bordier Butter: What It Is, Why Chefs Love It, and How to Use It
• Paysan Breton: The Breton Butter Guide
• Isigny Sainte-Mère: Normandy's AOP Butter & Crème Guide

Recipe and photograph adapted from Maison Bordier, with thanks. The French Pantry is an authorized US retailer of Bordier butter.