Flan rings

[cjsadler]

In Jeffrey Steingarten's latest book there is a recipe for tartlets (including his 'gold standard' tart dough). It instructs to use flan rings. Why would one use these over removable-bottom tartlet pans? Is there some baking advantage? Or is it just a shape/asthetic thing? Just curious, as I am debating which of the two to purchase.

[bleachboy]

I have made that recipe, and it is indeed quite good. I just used the standard removable-bottom tartlet pans, like you said. Flan rings have a straight side instead of a fluted/scalloped side. I believe that's the proper French style for a tart, but I may be wrong. Regardless, the tart recipe will turn out just fine if you use what you already have.

[nightscotsman]

I believe in this case Steingarten calls for them because Maury Rubin, who developed the recipe, uses them. And Maury uses them probably for esthetic reasons - his stuff tends to be very clean and modern looking without scalloped edges.

There is one technical advantage I can think of: if lined with dough properly, you can blind bake a tart shell without lining with foil or parchment and filling with weights (a major savings of time and materials if you're running a commercial kitchen). The sides will stay straight and there should be minimal shrinkage.

[KarenS]

I prefer to use rings. I work in a professional kitchen- rings do give you a lovely straight side. The benefit to me is that I don't have to search everyday for lost tart pan bottoms. Rings are used on sheet trays with parchment paper. All you have to do is slide your cakeboard underneath and pull off the ring.

[GG Mora]

I believe in this case Steingarten calls for them because Maury Rubin, who developed the recipe, uses them. And Maury uses them probably for esthetic reasons - his stuff tends to be very clean and modern looking without scalloped edges.

There is one technical advantage I can think of: if lined with dough properly, you can blind bake a tart shell without lining with foil or parchment and filling with weights (a major savings of time and materials if you're running a commercial kitchen). The sides will stay straight and there should be minimal shrinkage.

Neil, can you elaborate? How does one "properly" line a flan ring so that lining and weighting are unnecessary? I have a handful of flan rings and would much prefer to use them for tart production, especially if I can save time by skipping the lining!

Muchos Gracias.

[nightscotsman]

I believe in this case Steingarten calls for them because Maury Rubin, who developed the recipe, uses them. And Maury uses them probably for esthetic reasons - his stuff tends to be very clean and modern looking without scalloped edges.

There is one technical advantage I can think of: if lined with dough properly, you can blind bake a tart shell without lining with foil or parchment and filling with weights (a major savings of time and materials if you're running a commercial kitchen). The sides will stay straight and there should be minimal shrinkage.

Neil, can you elaborate? How does one "properly" line a flan ring so that lining and weighting are unnecessary? I have a handful of flan rings and would much prefer to use them for tart production, especially if I can save time by skipping the lining!

Muchos Gracias.

The way I learned to do it is to ease the rolled out dough into the ring as much as possible without stretching the dough, then using your thumbs, push the dough against the side of the ring and down so that you're actually forcing a bit of dough into the seam between the ring and the parchment underneath. This can be a bit tricky to get right the fist few times and is much easier to show than to explain in words. It also helps if you lightly butter the inside of the ring so the dough both sticks to it and slides over it more smoothly. Once it's even all the way around, take a knife and slice the dough across the top edge of the ring. You will still need to dock the bottom of the shell, but it should stay flat without weighting. Also, this only works with short tart doughs like pate sucre - flaky pie doughs would still need to be weighted because they tend to puff up more when they bake.