Make your shortcrust pastry. Click here for instructions.

Grease your flan dish & make sure you grease up the sides too.

Place your rolled out pastry in to your chosen dish. Make sure you gently push the sides around the dish and trim any excess pastry.

If you see any cracks or missing bits of pastry, use the excess from your trimming to patch these areas.

Now you will need to prepare the flan case to take the wet filling. You need to first 'Bake blind' the pastry. See here for more information. You need to bake blind for 20 minutes, then remove the weights and continue to cook for a further 10 - 15 minutes until the pastry is completely cooked.

When ready, the flan case should look like the photo below and ready for the filling.

In the bowl , beat the egg yolks and sugar until very thick. Reduce to low speed, and add the cornstarch.

Heat the milk in a pan over a gentle heat until it just starts to bubble. Remove from heat and transfer to a pouring jug for ease.

With the mixer still on low, slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture. *** Put a cloth under the jug to catch any drips!

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens. This will take around 6 minutes. Don't worry if your custard starts to curdle or go lumpy. Just keep stirring until it is as thick as in the photo below then take a whisk and whisk real hard to get the custard smooth. The custard will come together and become very thick, like pudding. Stir in the vanilla, and heavy cream.

Put the custard in a bowl and place plastic wrap directly on the custard and refrigerate until cold. (This will avoid a skin forming)