Apricot and Cardamom Flan

This is an unusual dish, the cardamom pods and bay leaves lending it a curiously subtle flavour. If you don’t want to make the pâte sucré, then just use shortcrust pastry. You will bake your pastry blind in its tin, which means lining the tin with the pastry and then covering it either with baking beans or aluminium foil to stop the pastry rising and becoming uneven while it is cooking.