Best Flan Recipe Ever-Guaranteed!

My friend from Puerto Rico gave me this recipe. This flan is fabulous and easy to make! This is a family recipe she learned from her Mother. There are only 4 ingredients, it is super easy!

I am on a raw food diet now and will probably never stop. I eat about 90% raw, but sugar is not included in that 10%. I doubt if I will stop this diet anytime soon, the results have been tremendous and I am only just over 3 months! I thought since I could not enjoy this wonderful dessert, maybe someone else would.

I must admit I had a little problem with making the caramel the first time. Her recipe called for sugar and water. I would put these in the pan, get to a nice boil, only to find that the water evaporated and left me with sugar! That first time, I kept adding more water, having it dry out and leaving me with sugar. How frustrated I was!

I finally called her after about an hour to find out what I was doing wrong. (You would think I would have been smart enough to call her after the first few times.) She laughed and laughed when I got her on the phone. "Jou need to let the sugar melt", she told me. (Her "y" always sounded like a "j"--my friends and I loved when she said someone had been "jelling" [yelling] at her.)

She teased me about the sugar for the longest time! "How can jou melt a heart, when jou can't even melt sugar", she would say. (We were much younger then.) "How do jou expect to get a boyfriend if jou can't even melt sugar." She is a wonderful lady with a finely tuned sense of humor.

Oh yea...the flan, I almost forgot.

Let the sugar melt in the pan.  Cook it over med-high heat and watch it every minute.  It will brown into that wonderful caramel color. 

For the Flan:

6 large eggs

2--12oz cans of Evaporated Skim Milk

1 1/2 cups of Sugar

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

For the Caramel:

2 cups of Sugar

1/4 cup of water (although I never use this any more, I just melt the sugar) 

Put the 2 cups of sugar into a pan (frying pan or pot). You can add the water if you like, but I no longer do. Cook over med-high heat until the sugar melts and becomes a nice golden brown. You need to watch this carefully and adjust the heat as needed. The sugar will boil as it melts, this is normal.

Put the caramel in a 8X3 cake pan.  Allow it to cool slightly while you make the flan. 

The flan is much easier than the caramel and after your first time the caramel is easy also.

Crack 6 eggs into a large bowl.  Mix the eggs together using a fork or a whisk.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth.  You (Jou) can use a mixer, but all you really need is a fork or whisk.

Pour this over the caramel in the cake pan. 

This flan must be cooked in a water bath. Find a pan that will fit your flan pan. Make sure there is space around all sides of the flan pan. I usually use a roaster pan or lasagna pan for this.

Put the flan pan with the flan ingredients into the outer pan. Put water into the outer pan high enough to come about 3/4 of the way up on the flan pan.

Place the pans in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven and cook for 1 hour. Check the flan with a toothpick in the middle to ensure it is done. The flan may not look exactly firm, but if the toothpick is clean it is done.

Let the flan sit until mostly cool. Put a plate over the top of the flan pan. Make sure the plate is big enough for the flan and the caramel.

Turn the flan pan and plate over quickly, holding the plate over the top of the flan pan. Let the flan cool, the caramel will not harden. Jou now have a wonderful, delicious treat to serve!