Spanish Flan

Flan is another dessert I really love……..wait what am I talking about? I love desserts…PERIOD! Anyway, I’ve always thought this dessert is a toughie! And it wasn’t until my friend Chris made some a few weeks back that I found out it was super easy to make this. Chris did a good job making that dessert and told me that he used eggs, condensed milk, evaporated milk and sugar. So, based on what he told me….I googled for a recipe!

I found a recipe using the ingredients Chris described on www.allrecipes.com. I modified the recipe and the method a little after reading a few reviews/suggestions. The changes turned out great. Here’s the modified recipe, the original one can be found HERE. The Spanish Flan is and will be sweet. So, if you’re not a fan of sweet things…you might need to stay away from this dessert or change the proportion of the condensed milk or sugar I guess! =)

SPANISH FLAN RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 4 Large Eggs
• 1 (14 Oz) Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 (12 Fl Oz) Can Evaporated Milk
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquidized and golden in color and runny. Carefully pour hot syrup into a 9 inch round warm glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla until smooth. Sieve egg mixture and pour it into baking dish. Place baking dish into a baking pan filled some some hot water. You want to make sure the hot water fills about half way up the sides of the baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil.

Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes or until center of flan is set. Let cool completely. To serve, carefully run a knife along the edges of the flan and invert on serving plate when completely cool.

June’s Comments: When cooking/melting the sugar, it will first turn very very clumpy before slowly turning into liquid. Don’t let this scare you to think that you’ve done something wrong and throw away the sugar.

To make your baking dish warm, either microwave it for a couple seconds or stick it in the oven when you’re pre-heating it. A warm dish will let you coat the bottom of the dish the caramel easier. Caramel does harden quickly when it cools down, you work quickly when you swivel the caramel around the baking dish. You do want the caramel to harden before you pour in the custard to bake.

Some sugar/caramel will remain the dish which is ok. To clean up, just soak the baking dish in  water and the sugar will dissolve.

I actually made the Spanish Flan in 6 (7 oz) ramekins. I did not use all the melted sugar and saved some to make sugar art. Making simple sugar art was easy (although it took me several tries). Simply drizzle some melted sugar onto the outside of a bowl and let it cool down. You have to make sure that the melted sugar strands are not to thick or thin and make plenty of strands so that they hold together better. Making it too thin or too thick will make the art harder to remove when it’s cooled. Remember to watch those fingers…..the sugar is hot when you drizzle them!!