Flan recipe

Captain's Log, Stardate 02.04.2009

I made flan again for my writer’s group last week and it was a hit! In fact, I got a few requests for the recipe, so here it is.

Flanny by Camy

1 cup sugar for caramel

2 cups skim milk
½ cup whipping cream
5 eggs
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

An ovenpoof dish for the flan
a baking pan large enough to hold both the ovenproof dish and water to about halfway up the sides of the ovenproof dish

Caramel:

Melt 1 cup sugar in a pan over low heat. Watch it closely, because if it burns you will have to start over. It only needs to melt. I use a saucier, but you can also use a nonstick pan.

Immediately pour the caramel into a ovenproof dish and swirl it around to cover the bottom and sides. Your have to be fast because it’ll cool down and harden very quickly. The caramel should have cooled down before you pour the egg mixture in it. I stick the dish in the fridge for a few minutes.

Custard:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk other ingredients together until smooth.

Note: Some people use a combination of 2 cups half & half and ½ cup skim milk, or 2 ½ cups whole milk, or whatever to raise the fat content in the custard. I used the combination above and came out with a silky texture. I’m not sure it matters too much if you don’t have whipping cream and want to use 1% or 2% or whole milk instead. Just make sure the volume is 2 ½ cups.

Pour mixture very slowly into ovenproof dish with the caramel. The caramel might crack or crackle a bit, and that’s fine.

Put dish into the baking pan and then add hot water to the baking pan (not the dish) about halfway up the sides of the dish.

Put baking pan and dish (and water) into the oven.

Bake for one hour. Check to see if the top is browning too much—if it is, cover the dish with foil.

Remove everything carefully from the oven and let it cool down. Remove dish from the baking pan and water and refrigerate at least 3 hours.