A few days ago I bought 36 eggs at Safeway because they were cheap and they had a buy-one, get one-free offer. We are not big egg eaters so I had to figure out what to do with them. My answer was to make flan. Flan may be my favorite dessert in the world – though it being so sinful, it’s not something I often partake of, and I wanted to try making it from scratch. It really cannot be more simple – though I had a problem with the cooking time. I doubled the recipe I found to fit my somewhat large fluted pan – but I wasn’t sure how long it’d take to cook and at what temperature. I started with 275F, but after two hours it hadn’t set. Then I cooked it at 325F or so for 45 more minutes and that seems to have done the trick. I think the next time around I’ll start it at 325, and see how long it takes. The problem may also have been that I used 1% fat milk – what I had available.
I’m giving the measurements in metric because this time, instead of converting them, I actually weighed the sugar and I used a metric measuring jar. Sorry about that.
In any case, the results were amazing, too amazing – I can’t stop myself from eating it now!
Ingredients
-600 grams + 2/3 cup sugar
-1 lt. milk
-2 Tbsp. vanilla
-12 eggs.
Melt 2/3 cup sugar over medium heat in a small sauce pan. When it’s just light brown, remove it from the heat and immediately pour it on the bottom and sides of the mold you’ll be using. Be careful not to burn yourself and do it quickly before the sugar hardens.
Put the milk and the vanilla in a medium to large saucepan, mix and heat over medium heat until warm. Add 300 grams of sugar, stir until blended, and cook, stirring occasionally until it boils. Remove from the heat and transfer to a very large bowl to cool down.
Meanwhile, put the eggs in another large bowl and beat. Add the remaining 300 grams of sugar and mix well.
When the milk mixture is almost at room temperature, pre-heat the oven to 325F.
Wait until the milk is at room temperature, then pour in the egg mixture and whisk until well combined. Strain into another bowl and pour into the prepared pan.
Fill a large deep baking pan (I use my lasagna pan or my roasting pan) with 1″ water, and place the pan with the flan in the middle. Put in the oven and cook until it solidifies.
Although I am not a big fan of flan but because this week I am having a Mexican cuisine week I might give this a try.