Flan

Drawing of Flan

Flan is one of my favorite desserts.  There are different ways to prepare it.  Here, I will offer you one of the ways I prepare it. Sometimes it is cooked on the stove, and sometimes it is baked in a water bath, known as “Bain Marie/double boiler”. I like to use this technique, which I will explain in our glossary page of  our cookbook. This dessert is well known not only in Latin America, but also in Spain.

 

Skill Level: Medium 

Serving: 4-6 people

Time to Prepare: 1:35 (for the flan), 00:35 (for the Caramel) 

icon for Vegetarian icon for Gluten Free

 

 

 

Ingredients

To prepare the flan

  • 6 Eggs
  • 4 cups of Sugar
  • 32 oz of Silk Milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

To prepare the caramel

  • 1 cup of Sugar
  • 2 or 3 tablespoons of Water

Tools

  • 1 cup
  • 1 pot
  • 1 plastic bowl
  • 1 9″ X 13″ Aluminum foil pan
  • 1 7″ X 5″ Aluminum foil pan
  • 1 manual blender or hand whisk
  • 1 wooden spoon
  • 1 small strainer

Steps to prepare the flan

  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
  2. Warm up the milk over a medium heat, do not let it to boil.
  3. You will know if it is warm when you see that around the edge of the pot there are little milk bubbles.
  4. Remove from the heat, and let it  cool off
  5. Before you put the open eggs in the pot (with the milk), open each and put it inside of plastic bowl, check each one for freshness, and pour them in then plastic bowl
  6. Using the manual blender or the hand whisk, and whish  all the eggs together.
  7. Add the eggs to the milk, slowly and stir it with the wooden spoon.
  8. Then add the sugar and stir.
  9. Rinse the plastic bowl and then pour the mix (milk, eggs and sugar using the strainer).
  10. Let it cool.
  11. Wash the pot.
  12. Now, we will do the caramel.
  13. Take the pot and add the sugar and the water.
  14. Cook it over medium heat.
  15. Stir it constantly until you see that the sugar is dissolved and turns to amber color.
  16. Pour the caramel into the 7″ X 5″ aluminum foil pan
  17. Be sure that the caramel is spread all over the aluminum pan
  18. Pour the mix (milk, egg and sugar) on top.
  19. Fill 1/2 of  the 9″ X 13″ aluminum pan with water.
  20. Put the 7″ X 5″ filled pan and put these two pans (one inside of the other).
  21. Bake for 1 hour.
  22. Enjoy!

 

Notes

  • You can substitute the Silk Milk with one can of condensed milk with one can of water.  You can also use regular milk.
  • You can add coconut flakes to the mix.
  • The first time I saw  a friend preparing “flan” she used 12 eggs, I thought it was A LOT!!!