What You'll NeedIngredients
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp canned pumpkin
- Cinnamon
Equipment
Heavy pot- 2 burners
- Large pot
- Large mixing bowl
- Small bowl
- Whisk
- Cooking spoon
- 4 ramekins
- Baking sheet with sides
- Water
- Knife
- 4 plates
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (177ºC). In the heaviest pot you have, melt one half cup of sugar over medium-high heat for three minutes or until it has melted and turned golden.
*Tip: As the sugar is being melted, continue the next steps of the cooking process, but check on it and stir it every so often. Make sure to stir the corners in particular. Break up any chunks.
2. Cook the cream and the milk together in a large pot over medium heat. Do not boil the mixture; rather, warm it until bubbles have formed around the top. As it is being warmed, continue the next steps of the cooking process.
3. Crack two eggs into a large mixing bowl. Crack a third egg over a small bowl, catching the yolk in your hands and letting the white fall through into the bowl. Add the yolk to the large mixing bowl.
4. Add one half cup of sugar into the large mixing bowl, then whisk together the eggs and the sugar. Stir the canned pumpkin into the milk mixture.
5. Once the sugar in the heavy pot has mostly melted, remove the pot from the heat. Large pots often create a lot of heat, so it will continue to melt the sugar after the heat source has been taken away.
6. Place the ramekins onto a baking sheet. Once the sugar has become caramel, pour it into the ramekins.*Tip: Lift and tilt each ramekin to make sure its inside bottom is covered as much as possible. Each bottom does not have to be perfectly covered, because adding the custard will melt the caramel.
7. Mix a sprinkle of cinnamon into the milk mixture. To create the custard, pour the mixture into the egg mixture. Let it sit for a minute to avoid any scrambling, then stir it. Add it to each ramekin, distributing evenly. If you have enough left over, you can make an extra flan.
8. Fill your baking sheet with water. This helps the custard to cook evenly. Place the sheet into the oven and cook for 30 minutes.
9. Take the baking sheet out of the oven. When the flan jiggle slightly, they're fully cooked. Let them cool for 20 minutes.
Run a knife around the edges of each flan to loosen them from the sides of the ramekins.
10. Cover the top of a ramekin with a thick plate. While tightly holding them together, quickly flip the whole thing. Set it plate-side down onto a flat surface.11. Very slowly lift the ramekin, letting the juice leak out. The flan will slide out onto the plate. Repeat with the remaining ramekins and plates, then serve.
Tips
- For chocolate or vanilla flan, add the chocolate or vanilla flavoring to the milk while it is being warmed.
- Instead of cinnamon, you can use nutmeg or pumpkin spice.
- This recipe bypasses the difficult process of tempering the custard. Because adding uncooked eggs to hot milk can curdle the milk and scramble the eggs, tempering is usually required. However, when you add the sugar to the eggs before this step, you're creating an environment in which these reactions cannot occur.
Enjoy!
