Put the eggs and egg yolks into a bowl and whisk together with the sugar. Whisk vigorously for about 30 seconds - the eggs should lighten slightly in colour
3 Egg Yolks, 2 Eggs, 1 cup White Sugar
Add the cornflour and salt and whisk until smooth
½ cup Corn starch, ½ teaspoon Salt
Put the milk and the cream in a large saucepan and heat over a medium heat
2 ½ cups Whole Milk, 1 ¾ cups Whipping Cream
Once the milk/cream mixture starts to get hot (steam is starting to rise from it), add a small amount to the egg/sugar mixture and whisk in. Then gradually add more, bit by bit, whisking as you go. Be sure not to add the hot milk too quickly as we are trying to slowly bring the eggs up to temperature to stop them from scrambling
Once all the milk is incorporated, pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan and turn the heat down to medium-low. Whisk constantly as the custard thickens
You'll know the custard is ready when you can coat the back of a spoon, run your finger through it and it leaves a trail on the spoon (see images in above post for examples)
Remove the custard from the heat, if you have gotten any lumps in the custard while cooking, you can pass it through a sieve to remove any lumps. If it looks smooth then go ahead to the next step
Add the chocolate to the hot custard and continue whisking until all the chocolate has melted and it is smooth and silky
200 g Dark Chocolate
Transfer the chocolate custard to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap - make sure the plastic wrap is touching the surface of the custard to stop a skin from forming. Let cool for a couple hours until the custard is lukewarm.
Make the Chocolate Pastry Base
Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
Put the flour, icing sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl and mix together
1 cup All-purpose Flour, ⅓ cup Icing Sugar, ¼ cup Cocoa Powder, ¼ teaspoon Salt
Melt the butter in the microwave and pour into the dry ingredients along with the vanilla extract
1 stick Butter, ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Mix everything together until a smooth, thick paste is formed
Knead the paste into a dough with your hands - just 3 or 4 times, don't overwork it
Flatten the pastry onto the lined baking sheet, use a small rolling pin or just your hands to work it into a large flat circle, slightly larger than your pastry ring. Try to make it as flat as possible, but don't worry about the sides being neat as they will be cut off
Bake for 10 minutes or until the top of the pastry no longer looks shiny
Remove from the oven and immediately press the pastry ring into the pastry like a giant cookie cutter. Do not remove the pastry ring, let the pastry cool until your custard is at the right temperature to use
Make the flan
Once the chocolate custard is cooled to about a lukewarm temperature, preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C
Your pastry ring should still be sitting in the chocolate pastry. Leave it there and break off all the outside excess pastry
Lightly grease the inside of your pastry ring with butter
Pour the chocolate custard into the pastry ring, on top of what should now be a perfect circle of pastry. Smooth out the top of the custard as much as possible using a palette knife
Bake for 50 - 60 minutes. When it's done it will still be very jiggly as it will continue to bake after it comes out of the oven.
Allow to cool on the countertop completely and then transfer to the fridge, covering in plastic wrap. Let chill overnight. Do not attempt to cut into the flan before you have let it chill!
Once the flan has completely chilled, remove from the pastry ring. If it doesn't lift easily, try running a sharp knife around the outside of the flan, or even apply heat to the outside to soften it up a little
If you'd like the shiny finish, melt 1 tablespoon of jam in the microwave for 20 seconds and then brush a thin layer all over the flan with a pastry brush. It is traditional to use apricot jam, but I didn't have any so I used strawberry - you really don't taste the flavour of the jam so it's not important what kind you use.
1 tablespoon Jam
Notes
Testing when the flan is done - it can be tricky to tell when baked custards are done. Inserting a toothpick in the middle won't work as it should still be gooey in the middle when you finish baking so it can continue to bake once out of the oven. To test if your flan is ready, insert a toothpick about 1 inch from the edge, if that comes out clean then the flan is ready. Excess pastry base - when you break off the excess pastry outside of the pastry ring, don't throw it out! We don't need it for the recipe but it makes a great crunchy snack or a nice crumbly topping for ice cream or yoghurt!