Flan

Ingredients:

Sweet and Condensed Milk 14 oz
Evaporated Milk 12 oz vol
8 eggs: .75 (approx)
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar

You can make this recipe for around $3 USD and it serves 4 people.

The unlabeled can is sweet and condensed milk. Also, only the yolks of the eggs will be used for this recipe. I use 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla, and I caramelize 1/2 cup of sugar.

Step 1:

You can use any bake ware capable of taking 350 degree heat, if its a smooth bottom the caramelized sugar spreads easier. I use a bunt pan cause it is pretty snazzy looking. Also worth noting: I am using silicone based dishes, which have low specific heat, and disperse heat very quickly - this is sort of nice, for cooling off flan, and also cooling off caramelized sugar.

Notice the baking dish that you use must fit inside of the other container, with room to fit water up to the level the flan will be.

Step 2:

You have to seperate the egg yolks. I use my hands, I find its the best way to do it.

Add the egg yolks to the bowl:

Step 3:

All the yolks in the bowl:

Step 4:

Add Sweet and condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla.

Set the oven for 350F around this point.

Set the bowl of flan mixture aside.

Step 5:

After you have mixed the main stuff together, it is time to the caramelize the sugar. Once again, I use 1/2 cup of sugar, but sometimes if I use a smoother dish, I'll use 1/3ish. No big deal really either way. Start with a sauce pan.

Put sugar in sauce pan over low heat. LOW HEAT, especially for beginners, cause its really easy to burn sugar if you are not careful.

At first, just swirl the pan around to keep sugar moving. If you use a spoon, the sugar will start to clump up right away and its a bit more difficult.

Step 6:

After it starts to melt, use a spoon and keep sugar moving.

Step 7:

Eventually you'll see the sugar starting to really melt, turning to a liquid - be careful, it is very hot.

Step 8:

Keep stirring, breaking up chunks of sugar, and keeping everything moving.

Step 9:

Once the sugar starts to get light brownish, BUT NOT BURNT (be careful, it happens quick), take the sugar off and QUICKLY pour it into your bakeware along the bottom.

Step 10:

Quickly move around the dish (DON'T TOUCH IT WITH A SPOON OR YOUR HANDS/etc) until you have coated as much of the pan as possible.

Step 11:

Careful! Different temperature variations can break glass. You might be best to let the sugar cool down a bit before you put it into a fridge.

With the silicone, I do it right away. You want the sugar to cool down a bit, if it's hot when you poor the flan mixture into the pan it might curdle the eggs/cook too fast/etc.

Step 12:

Now, after you have beaten the ingredients for the flan together, you might very well end up with foam on top. This wont hurt anything, however, as you might imagine, the foam offers up more surface area, and so if you have foam on the top of your flan, you tend to end up with a burn layer/crust on the bottum of your flan (you flip the container over to serve). If you want to skip the next step, feel free! But, I don't like to have that crust in my flan, so...

Step 13:

I don't know what this thing is, but it will work. It will act as a strainer, and all (or close to all) of the bubbles/foam will get stuck in the strainer. This makes a big difference in my opinion, but really might not be worth the effort, it is up to you.

Step 14:

I got a bit impatient, and some bubbles got through. Using my fingers as a sponge, I cleaned most of these up actually, so it has a smooth/glassy top.

Step 15:

Now, put the flan pan into the other container, which will contain water. I pour the water in AFTER I put the flan pan in, as it leaves out the guesswork as to how much water I will need. Fill it up as much as possible.

Step 16:

Then put the flan in the oven you had pre-heated to 350F.

Now, I normally cook the flan for 50 minutes before I check it (insert knife 1/3 of the way from the edge, if it comes out clean, you are good to go (or at least almost 95% clean). BUT, it normally takes around an hour an 10 minutes, this of course dependent on your oven, the bakeware you use, and MAINLY the volume of water you have around your flan dish - the more water, the longer it takes to heat up!


Once the flan is baked, just take it out, let it sit for maybe 10, 20 minutes, and put it in the fridge FOR A GOOD 2 HOURS! It has to be cool, set, etc. Its better tasting that way, and the texture is better.

Step 17:

Run a knife along the edge of the pan, as best you can - at least pierce the top layer, as it is the only part that will be really crusted to the pan.

Step 18:

Put a plate on top of flan pan, and then invert quickly.

Step 19:

Allow the caramel to run onto flan, so wait a couple of seconds before lifting it off. ta da! Notice the sugar piled up on top, this wouldn't be there if you were using a glass pan, as it would have stuck to the pan. I personally like it, I use it to garnish the flan.

Step 20:

I quickly rearranged the sugar:

And there is the finished flan.