To mark the birth of the new Prince, I’ve made a Banana Flan. This is one of the favourite desserts of both Prince William and Prince Harry. Princes Diana was putting it on the menu when they arrived home from school, according to the Royal chef Darren McGrady. We don’t know yet the name of the baby, I’m looking forward to that. I was amazed to see Kate giving birth in the morning and leaving the hospital with the baby in the afternoon. She is such an inspiration, I like her a lot. As a monarchist, I couldn’t be more proud of the Royal Family.

I’m happy that this new recipe in my Royal Recipes series marks this very special occasion. It’s likely I will make another recipe for next month, when it’s the royal wedding of Prince Harry with Megan. I am impressed with this banana flan. It’s rich, but not high in sugar and it has a lot of bananas too. I loved it and my husband loved it too, so it will appear on our menu again.

I’ve used a less-sugar version of apricot jam. Next time I’m going to make a sugar-free apricot coulis, so the dessert will have even less added sugar.

Ingredients for the Banana Flan – Pastry

– 175g white flour
– 75g soft butter
– 1 egg
– 15g sugar

Ingredients for the Banana Flan – Filling

– 300ml single cream
– 200ml milk
– 5 egg yolk
– 1 egg
– 40g cornflour
– 100g sugar
– 1 tsp vanilla paste
– 5 ripe bananas (medium or 4 large ones)
– ~150g apricot jam

Make the pastry case by mixing the flour, butter, egg, and sugar in the food processor. Tip it on a floured worktop and knead until all the ingredients are incorporated. Roll out the dough and line the baking tray with it. Put it in the fridge until the oven is ready.
Preheat the oven at 180C or 160C fan. Prick the pastry with a fork. Line the pastry with baking parchment and put baking beans on top. Put the pastry case in the oven and blind-bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and leave it to bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from tray and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

While the pastry is cooling, make the pastry cream. In a saucepan, bring the milk and cream to boil. Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat the yolks with the egg, sugar. Add the cornflour and vanilla and mix again, until all the ingredients are incorporated. Pour the milk over the egg mixture and mix with the hand mixer. Pout the mixture in the saucepan and put it on the stove over low to medium heat. Mix and leave it on the hob until is starts to thicken up. Pour it in a bowl and cover it with cling film, so it doesn’t form skim on top. Leave to cool.

Put the cream in the pastry casing and put in the fridge to continue to set. When is set, wash, peel, and cut the bananas in rounds. Arrange the banana slices on top in a pattern you like. After that heat the apricot jam in a saucepan or in the microwave until is soft and runny. Brush the top of the bananas with the apricot jam. This will stop the oxidizing process and the bananas will look great even the following day.

This is how a slice of banana flan looks like. It was delicious. The cream gives an extra richness to the filling and it makes it perfect.