FLAN

flan

(noun) open pastry filled with fruit or custard

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology 1

Noun

flan (plural flans)

(chiefly, UK, Australia) Baked tart with sweet or savoury filling in an open-topped pastry case. (Compare quiche.)

(chiefly, US, Belize) A dessert of congealed custard, often topped with caramel, especially popular in Spanish-speaking countries.

Synonym: crème caramel

(numismatics) A coin die. (Compare planchet.)

Usage notes

• In the UK and Australia, flan usually refers to a baked tart (sense 1), and would only refer to a custard dessert (sense 2) rarely and in the context of the cuisine of Latin American or Mediterranean countries which use the word in that way. In the US, flan usually refers to the (Latin American-derived) custard dessert (sense 2), though uses of sense 1 can also be found.