How To Make Flan

The next time you make a Mexican dinner, accentuate your meal by learning how to make flan. Flan is light egg custard dessert covered with a golden brown caramel sauce. Flan takes about an hour to make and can be made the day before.

To make flan, you will need:

• 3 whole eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 Teaspoon water
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the individual baking cups or 1 large baking dish in the bottom of a large deep baking pan.

2. Make the caramel. Add 1 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of water to a large skillet or deep sauce pan and melt the sugar over a medium low heat. Do not stir the sugar. Once the sugar melts, increase the heat to medium high. Gently swirl the melted sugar around the bottom of the pan. Watch the caramelizing sugar carefully.  When the sugar is an amber color (in 1 to 2 minutes) or begins to smoke remove it from the heat immediately. Pour a small amount of caramelized sugar into the bottom of each baking cup and swirl each cup to spread it around the bottom. If you are using one large baking dish, pour all the caramelized sugar into the bottom of the dish and swirl the dish to spread it evenly.

3. Make the custard. Separate 3 eggs and place the yolks in a large mixing bowl. Add 3 whole eggs to the bowl and mix with a whisk or electric mixer. Add 2/3 cup of sugar, milk, and vanilla to the egg mixture and mix well. Pour the custard mix over the caramel in the individual baking cups or large baking dish. Fill the pan (the baking dishes should be sitting inside a large baking pan) ¾ full with hot water, cover the pan with foil, and use a sharp knife to cut slits in the foil to allow the steam to escape slowly. Bake 40 minutes to an hour until the custard is set (firm). Remove the baked custard from the water-filled pan to cool. Refrigerate the flan for at least 3 hours or overnight. Turn the flan onto a plate and serve. Serves 8.

Tips:

Disposable aluminum foil cups make perfect baking dishes for flan. When it is time to serve the flan, place the foil flan cup in the center of a plate face down. Puncture the foil cup with a sharp knife, but be careful not to cut into the flan, and the caramel sauce will run out onto the plate. Lift the foil cup off the flan and serve.

Warnings:

Hot sugar is extremely dangerous and will cause serious burns. Use extreme caution when handling the caramel. Never leave the cooking caramelizing sugar unattended.

References:

Flan