Fruit Flan (Obsttorte)

Obsttorte or Obstboden is a German fruit flan filled with vanilla pudding and topped with fruits. This sweet treat will surely please a crowd, making 12-14 servings at once. 

Follow my step-by-step photographed explanations, expert tips, and tricks to help you succeed with this incredibly yummy and delicious recipe.

If you are looking for a sweet treat to complete your entertaining menu, there is no better dessert option than this simple fruit flan.

It is a delicious dessert that will be the talk of your next event. You can serve it at an upcoming birthday party or baby shower and impress everyone there with your baking skills.

Jump to:

• What's fruit flan?
• Fruit flan vs. fruit tart
• Fruit flan recipe
• Ingredients
• How to make a fruit flan
• Expert Tips
• Recipe variations
• Storing and freezing
• How to prevent the fruit base from soaking
• Recipe FAQ
• Love fruit desserts? Try these next!
• Need to adjust your baking pan size?
• Recipe card
• Comments

And what's an extra touch that sure makes the dessert a showstopper? The authentic German fruit flan is covered with a fruit cake glaze called Tortenguss to fix the fruits and make them shine.

Fruit flan closely resembles a popular German strawberry cake or Erdbeerboden, made with a Genoise cake base, vanilla pudding, and seasonal fresh strawberries.

What's fruit flan?

Fruit flan is a traditional German dessert made with a fruit base, smooth custard, and fresh fruits covered with a sweet glaze.

In German, it is called Obsttorte (fruit cake in English) or Obstboden, meaning "fruit ground, "froot floor," or "fruit base."

Fruit flan vs. fruit tart

Also known as Obsttorte, fruit flan shares similarities with a fancy fruit tart rather than a fruit pizza, as it features a biscuit-like flan base and glazed fruit toppings.

The boden (base or floor in English) of the fruit flan and the tart shell are often filled with rich pastry cream (crème pâtissière in French) to prevent the dessert from soaking through the fruit's moisture.

However, the dessert bottom of the fruit flan is made of a sponge or shortcrust pastry base. It is baked in a specially-designed flan pan or flan tin to hold fresh, steamed, canned, or frozen fruit.

A fruit tart is usually made with a sweet pastry crust (aka pâte sucrée) baked in a tart pan with fluted sides and a flat bottom.

Both the fruit base and tart shell are decorated with concentric circles of whole or sliced fresh fruit to give the desserts a delicious look.

Fruit flan recipe

• Fruit flan is an exceptional dessert choice for gathering events. It serves a large audience, yielding approximately 12-14 servings.

• This fruit flan cake recipe is so easy to make that even a beginner baker can make it.

• Summer fruit flan is a must-make, but nothing prevents you from making such a dessert with canned or frozen fruit.

• Using your favorite fruits or sweet berries allows creating your own fruit flan. The possibilities are endless.

• Finally, if you want to try one of the best German desserts, the Obsttorte recipe is here.

Ingredients

Get a quick overview of the necessary ingredients. For precise measurements and instructions, refer to the recipe card below. Also, discover the essential baking tools I rely on for daily baking.

• Butter: Use top-quality unsalted butter softened at room temperature. You will need a bit more for greasing a flan pan.

• Sugar: The recipe calls for white sugar (granulated or caster sugar).

• Vanilla sugar: You will need one sachet of vanilla sugar.

• Salt enhances the flavors of the fruit base.

• Eggs: Use large eggs at room temperature.

• Baking powder, as a leavening agent, helps raise the flan base while baking.

• Flour: The recipe calls for all-purpose flour.

• Bread crumbs: Use fine plain bread crumbs to sprinkle the buttered pan. Replace bread crumbs with flour if desired.

• Vanilla pudding powder: Use a store-bought Dr. Oetker vanilla pudding or make the vanilla pudding yourself.

• Milk: The recipe calls for whole milk. Substitute it for low-fat milk if preferred.

• Chocolate: Melted dark chocolate is used to prevent the pastry case (flan base) from soaking. Replace it with milk or white chocolate if desired.

• Fruits: Use fresh berries and seasonal fruit as the traditional filling for German flan. Also, you can use canned or even frozen fruits to make this simple fruit flan recipe. Please, check the expert tips below.

• Potato starch is used as a thickener to make a clear glaze. Replace it with corn starch if desired. Or use a store-bought clear glaze Tortenguss.

How to make a fruit flan

Step 1. To make the fruit base, using a pastry brush and softened butter, brush an 11-inch (28 cm) fruit flan pan and sprinkle with bread crumbs (photo 1). With a flour sifter, sift flour with baking powder in a mixing bowl and set aside.

Step 2. Preheat oven to 355 degrees/180 degrees C. Place butter, granulated sugar, salt, and vanilla sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl.

Step 3. Beat the butter and sugar mixture until the sugar crystals are almost dissolved using a stand or electric mixer (photo 2).

Step 4. Stir in eggs, one at a time, each for about 30 seconds (photo 3). Add the dry ingredients and mix with a hand mixer just to combine (photo 4).

Step 5. Pour batter into the prepared tin, smooth out (photo 5), and bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes until the golden color (photo 6).

Step 6. Let it cool for about 5 minutes on a wire rack and turn it down. Let it could completely (photo 7).

Step 7. Transfer the baked base in an upside-down position to a serving plate. Cut each strawberry into four, and slice the canned peaches into ½ inch (1.5 cm) wedges.

Step 8. Melt dark chocolate in a double boiler (or water bath) and brush the cooled flan base with chocolate using a silicone or pastry brush (photo 8). Let the chocolate set for about 30 minutes.

Step 9. To make the vanilla pudding, follow the instructions on the pack of the instant vanilla pudding, but use the amount of ingredients provided in the recipe card below (photo 9).

Step 10. Pour it onto a shallow dish, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it cool. Cover the base with a layer of vanilla pudding.

Step 11. Arrange the prepared fruit in a circular pattern, slightly overlapping fruit slices. Start your design from the outside edge of the flan and work inward towards the center.

Step 12. To make the clear cake glaze, stir potato starch into ¼ cup (60 ml) water until dissolved. Bring ¾ cup (175 ml) water with sugar to a simmer.

Step 13. Stir in the starch mixture and bring it to a boil while stirring. Let the glaze cool a bit, and brush the fruit thinly using a silicone brush (photo 10). Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Expert Tips

1. While baking the fruit base, add 3 to 5 minutes if you like the fruit crust crisp.
2. Omit the chocolate layer or pudding layer if desired. Just make one of them to protect the base from soaking (you can use both layers if preferred).
3. Use the juice from the canned peaches to make your own glaze (omit water and sugar in the glaze recipe) or purchase store-bought clear glaze Tortenguss.
4. Brush the top of the fruit with the glaze while it is hot enough, or use a spoon to spread it over the fruit on the fruit base from the center (you will use a few spoons of the glaze).
5. The shiny fruit glaze takes about 1 hour to set.  While chilling, it goes a little faster. So, plan your baking accordingly.
6. If you decorate your fruit flan with exotic fruits such as pineapple, kiwi, or mango, don't use the glaze. These fruits contain an enzyme that prevents them from setting.
7. If you use frozen strawberries, arrange them on the base while they are frozen and immediately cover them with the hot glaze. In this way, the juice will stay in the strawberries.
8. Make-ahead option: Bake the cake base the day before. Then wrap it in plastic film to prevent it from drying out and refrigerate. Assemble the dessert the next day. If you are short on time but need to make a quick dessert, keep the Obsttortenboden sponge cake on your hands. It is a pre-made fruit cake base made by the Schlünder company.

Recipe variations

There are plenty of Obsttorte recipes - from different cake bases to all kinds of fruits and their combinations.

• The classic Boden or flan base is biscuit. However, the base can be baked from shortcrust pastry or represent a delicious vanilla sponge flan base depending on your taste.  

• To bring some crunchiness, you can sprinkle the buttered fruit flan tin with bread crumbs, flour, or even flaked almonds.

• In summer, a simple fruit base with a variety of fruit (fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, raspberries, pineapple, apricots, or peaches) tastes fantastic.

• Play with a themed-like flan choosing red fruit or tropical fruits, for example, pineapple, kiwi, or mango.

• Use the whole red berries or their slices: mound sliced strawberries like in this classic French strawberry tart, go with a flower pattern like in this peach tart, or make a pattern you desire.

• If the fresh fruits are out of season, use canned or even frozen fruit. Serve a slice of your fruit flan with a dollop of homemade whipped cream, and enjoy.

• In the end, use your favorite type of fruit to create your own fruit flan dessert. For example, go for only strawberries (the top choice) and make a strawberry flan or combine different fruits in a mixed fruit flan.

Storing and freezing

The assembled fruit flan is best served on the day of making. You can store it covered in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days.

Can you freeze fruit flan? It is not recommended to freeze the assembled fruit flan. On freezing, the chemical structure of both fruit glaze and berries changes, which will result in a soggy mess when thawed.

But you can freeze the fruit base. Let it cool, cover it with plastic wrap and freeze it for 4 to 6 months. Then, to thaw, bring it to the fridge overnight.

How to prevent the fruit base from soaking

How to keep fruit flan from getting soggy? Here are a few tricks.

• Chocolate works perfectly to protect the base from soaking. Use melted chocolate to brush the cooled base. Then let the chocolate set for 30 minutes.

• Alternatively, you can cover the cooled base with 2 to 3 tablespoons of jam (for example, strawberry jam).

• Also, you can sprinkle it with breadcrumbs, ground almonds, or other nuts. This layer will bind any leaking from the juicy fruit.

• Finally, make vanilla pudding (use store-bought vanilla pudding powder or make the pudding yourself) and spread a layer onto the cake bottom. It will also protect the fruit case from soaking.

To fix the fruit on top of the cake, use store-bought clear glaze (Tortenguss klar) or red sweet glaze (Tortenguss rot) or make it yourself (follow the clear glaze recipe in the recipe card).

You can always replace water and sugar in the glaze recipe with canned (drained from canned fruit) or fresh juice (white grape or apple juice). Or use red berries or grape juice to make a red glaze.

Another alternative is to use warmed apricot jam, apricot preserves, or other fruit jam/preserves. Just heat seedless jam or preserves in the microwave.

You can add a bit of water if it is too thick. Cool slightly and brush a thin layer of apricot glaze on the fruit. 

Recipe FAQ

Love fruit desserts? Try these next!

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Recipe card

Follow my step-by-step photographed explanations, expert tips, and tricks to help you succeed with this incredibly yummy and delicious recipe.

The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.