Flan

Flan is one of those desserts that always seems difficult to make—caramel and custards, eek!—but it’s really quite easy. The silky custard is sweet, slightly jiggly and full of caramel flavor thanks to the rich sauce that forms when it bakes. Serve it alone or topped with a dollop of fresh whipped cream for an absolutely perfect dessert. Flan recipes are perfect for impressing a date with your cooking prowess, or for serving at a dinner party with a Spanish or Latin American theme.

What is flan?

Flan is a custard often served in Spain and Latin American countries, but the dish actually originated in ancient Rome. Recipes for flan spread throughout Europe and then to the Americas along with the Spanish. A typical flan requires a few ingredients—sugar, eggs, evaporated milk, condensed milk and vanilla—to make the custard and caramel sauce.

You start by putting caramel sauce in a baking dish or ramekin and topping it with the custard. As the dish bakes, the caramel transforms into a sauce. When the baking pan is inverted, the sauce flows over the flan and across the plate, making for a dramatic presentation.

Flan Ingredients

• Sugar: You’ll use regular granulated sugar to make the caramel for the flan, and it will seem like magic as it melts and transforms.
• Sweetened condensed milk: Thanks to this pantry staple, you won’t need additional sugar in the flan recipe.
• Evaporated milk: Evaporated milk has less than half the water content of whole milk, so it’s packed with flavor and great for making rich, creamy baked goods. For this recipe, use the whole milk version rather than the skim milk one.
• Eggs: For egg-heavy recipes such as this one, look for a dozen that come from pastured chickens. The golden yolks will give the custard a lovely, rich hue.
• Vanilla extract: Use real vanilla extract rather than imitation vanilla in all of your baking.
• Salt: A little bit of salt makes desserts taste magical. If you’re into the flavor of salted caramel sauce, you could sprinkle your flan with just a touch of flaky finishing salt.

Directions

Step 1: Make caramel

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Preheat your oven to 350°F. Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat and add the sugar. Once the sugar begins to melt, reduce the heat to medium.

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Cook until the sugar becomes clear and amber in color, five to six minutes, stirring frequently.

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Pour the caramel into a deep, ungreased 9-inch cake pan and rotate it until the bottom and sides are coated. Set the pan aside.

Step 2: Make the custard

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In a high-speed blender, combine the condensed milk, evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla extract and salt. Puree them until they’re smooth, about one minute.

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Pour the blended mixture into the caramel-lined cake pan.

Step 3: Bake the custard

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Place the cake pan in a roasting pan and pour hot water into the roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the outside of the cake pan. Bake the custard until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

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Remove the cake pan from the water bath and let the custard cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate it for at least four hours or overnight.

Editor’s Tip: The purpose of a water bath is to prevent a delicate baked good from getting too hot and burning or curdling, as the maximum temperature that water can reach is its boiling point, 212°, which is lower than the temperature of the oven.

Step 4: Flip and serve

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To serve the flan, run a thin knife around the edge of the pan to loosen it. Place a serving dish atop the pan, and flip the dishes together so that the flan falls onto the serving dish. To serve, cut the flan into wedges.

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Flan Variations

• Jazz up the custard: Flavor the milk and egg mixture to make your flan desserts even more exciting. You could add espresso, use coconut condensed milk instead of the dairy version, or add orange zest to the mixture.
• Make single servings: To make individual-sized flans, divide the caramel among eight ramekins and then do the same with the custard mix. After 15 minutes in the oven, start checking the smaller flans, as they will cook faster than a single-pan flan.
• Flavor the caramel: Just after the caramel has finished cooking, stir in a flavoring of your choice before you add it to the baking pan. Vanilla, rum or whiskey would be particularly lovely.

How to Store Flan

Leftover flan should be stored in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container. Remember to scrape the delicious caramel from the serving dish!

How long does flan last?

Like most egg dishes, you should eat flan within three to four days of being cooked.

Flan Tips

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What is the best pan for flan?

There are special flan pans that you can buy, but many other kinds of pans will work beautifully for this easy flan recipe. Because you’ll be turning the baking dish upside down to get the flan to slide out, it can be good to use a pan slightly wider at the top than at the base, such as a glass or enamel pie dish. Nonstick cake pans can also work well. A fairly tall pan is helpful, as it helps protect the custard from the water bath as you move the two in and out of the oven.

How do you avoid cracks in flan?

Baking the flan in a water bath helps to avoid cracking. Make sure that your flan pan is deep enough so that the level of the water bath is at least as high as the top of the custard. Also, do not cook the flan for longer than necessary.

How do you know when flan is finished cooking?

In addition to the handy toothpick test, there are a variety of things you can look for when determining if a flan is done cooking. First, the outside of the flan will be set, but the center will be slightly jiggly. If you touch your finger very gently to the custard at the center, it shouldn’t sink in—you should be able to feel that there is structure and not liquid beneath it. If you have a digital thermometer, you’re looking for an internal temperature of 175°.

What can you serve with flan?

I like to offer a mixture of tangy tropical fruits to cut the flan’s sweetness a bit. You could also serve flan as part of a spread of Mexican dessert recipes. It’s a great follow-up to tacos, Puerto Rican pernil or some easy Cuban picadillo.