Step 1

Step 1 Preheat the oven to 180C (356F). Line a loose-bottom 8-inch cake/tart tin with a circle of parchment.

Step 2

Step 2 Place all the crust ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it starts to form a ball of dough. If you don’t have a food processor then chop up the vegan butter, add it to a large bowl and mix it into the dry ingredients with your fingers. Add the water last to pull the dough together.

Step 3

Step 3 Cover the dough in clingfilm and place in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes to relax the gluten.

Step 4

Step 4 Take the dough out of the fridge, lightly dust a surface with flour and roll out the dough to 4mm thick.

Step 5

Step 5 Drape the pastry over the tart tin and gently push the dough into the base. Trim away any excess. My loose-bottom tin is fairly deep so I keep the crust “walls” about 2 inches tall. Place the crust in the freezer while you work on the filling (they will be baked together).

Step 6

Step 6 In a small bowl, thoroughly mix together all the dry ingredients (sugar, agar agar powder, custard powder, cornstarch and salt).

Step 7

Step 7 Pour half a cup of the 1L of soy milk into a sauce pan and whisk in all the dry ingredients. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and all the dry ingredients have dissolved.

Step 8

Step 8 Pour in the rest of the soy milk and turn on the heat to a medium-low setting. Add the vegan butter. Stir continuously for 5 – 10 minutes while the mixture slowly heats up and thickens. The mixture will become very thick but keep mixing until it reaches a simmer (i.e. a few bubbles pushing through the custard filling). Cornstarch starts to thicken around 70C whereas agar activates at boiling point so we must make sure we hit at least that.

Step 9

Step 9 Once you reach the simmer, turn the heat off and quickly mix in the vanilla. Once it is completely smooth, take the crust out of the freezer and pour the filling straight into the crust.

Step 10

Step 10 Place the whole flan into the oven for 50 minutes to bake. Keep an eye on the flan towards the end to make sure the top isn’t burning. If it does brown too quickly, cover it in foil for the last 10-15 minutes.

Step 11

Step 11 The flan is ready when it only jiggles a small amount. Don’t get too crazy with shaking it though because you may ruin the lovely browned surface on top!

Step 12

Step 12 Carefully take the flan out of the oven and leave to cool for at least 1 hour before covering it and placing it in the fridge to chill overnight. Brush the flan with apricot jam or maple syrup to get a decorative shine and then serve!