Flan Recipe
Flan is a traditional Latin American dessert that no event or family gathering would be complete without. It is one of my absolute favorite foods, right next to cookies and ice cream. There are many different ways to make flan and all sorts of flavor combinations you can include, but here's a yummy, very basic, flan recipe a friend of mine taught me in college. If I can do it, you can do it!
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 10 Eggs
- 1 14oz. Can Condensed Milk
- 1 12oz. Can Evaporated Milk
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla, (optional)
- Sugar Syrup*
For Visual Learners
Here's a step-by-step guide to cooking flan from El Boricua. Their recipe and method is a bit different, but it's the same general idea.
Below is a very helpful video you can watch, too. Again, the recipe is a bit different--but honestly, you'll find everyone makes this dessert differently!
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
- * To make Sugar Syrup boil 2 cups of water to every 1 cup sugar. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn. Syrup is ready when it is a medium brown colour; at this point it will have the right amount of sweetness and bitterness. For a sweeter syrup, only boil until it is a light brown.
- Pour hot syrup in a glass pan VERY CAREFULLY and set aside.
- Separate yolks from egg whites. You'll only be using the yolks for this recipe, so store and use the egg whites for something else.
- Combine yolks, evaporated milk, and condensed milk in a medium sized mixing bowl. Whisk them together.
- Once syrup has settled a bit in the glass pan, pour the egg and milk mixture over it evenly.
- Place glass pan in a metal dish filled with water, then put pans in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. Check if done with a toothpick, if the toothpick comes out clean it's done.
- Chill overnight and when it's time to eat, flip glass pan upside down on a serving plate so the syrup is on top.
Other Flan Flavors
This is a basic flan recipe, but as I mentioned before, there are many different ways to make flan and many flavors you can incorporate. My favorite will always be basic flan, but if you're interested in experimenting with flavors a bit you can try some of these.
Flan de Queso (Cheesecake Flan)
In addition to the basic recipe ingredients add 1 8oz. package of softened cream cheese.
Flan de Coco (Coconut Flan)
In addition to the basic recipe ingredients add 1 15oz. can of coconut milk and 1 1/2 cups of whole milk.
Flan de Café (Coffee Flan)
In addition to the basic recipe ingredients add 2 heaping teaspoons of instant coffee that has been dissolved in 1 cup of warm water.
Flan de Calabaza (Pumpkin Flan)
In addition to the basic recipe ingredients add 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 1/2 pounds of pumpkin. To prep pumpkin for recipe, cut it up in chunks and boil it until tender. Then puree or mash it up and mix it with other ingredients.
For more flan recipes check out El Boricua or try out your own flavor combinations!
