Family Flan Recipe

Hello & Happy Tuesday!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and is looking forward to a great week, as well!

This recipe is one that a debated long and hard about posting (hence my delay in posting) since it is truly an old family recipe. It has been updated over the years and when I was first initiated into this delicious de la Osa Flan Club, I made a few slight adjustments too.

Get ready kids, this is a long one.

Our Flan in its finished glory

Now, this is a fairly simple recipe. In essence, we place all of our ingredients into a blender, blend away, place it in the oven, and check it 45 minutes later... in essence. Of course a lot of things are a lot easier said than done. But no worries here, we can get through this, together!

Ingredients

6 eggs (or 5 large eggs)

1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

1 12 oz. can of evaporated milk

3 TBSP white sugar + 1 1/2 cup - 2 cups sugar

4 oz. cream cheese (half an 8 oz. rectangular package of cream cheese)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

Place the eggs, condensed milk, evaporated milk, 3 TBSP sugar, cream cheese, vanilla extract and salt in the blended and mix until well incorporated.

I like to play a little game where I start off blending my ingredients at the lightest speed and slowly build it up. So by the time I get to the fastest/strongest speed, everything is well-incorporated and then I just decrease the speed back down... don't judge me, it works every time!

Once all of your ingredients are blended together, set aside the blender to come back to it later.

At this point, you can preheat your oven to 365 degrees F*.

* Oven temperatures may vary. At my moms house in Miami, I sometimes need to increase the oven temperature to 375 F since the oven is a bit older; however, at my apartment here in Orlando, the 365 degree F temperature works best. I would suggest starting at 360 F and working up (or down) from there if this is your first time attempting this recipe.

In a separate pan - I prefer a 9 inch cake pan that can be used on the stove top - placed directly on your stove top burner, place the remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar over a medium heat.

I added the extra half cup in the recipe in case you feel like the original cup and a half isn't covering the bottom of your pan sufficiently. I usually have an even 1/2 inch coating of sugar on the bottom of the pan before I start to melt the sugar.

When it comes to melting sugar, I am no expert. As a matter of fact, this is the way I was taught and this is the way I melt sugar at work now, when needed.

When melting sugar without a "buffer" (like adding water or corn syrup), I would recommend stirring it around as little as possible - this is why I like having my heat at medium instead of high - so I can control the sugar as much as possible without the fussing.

Grabbing a dish towel or an oven mitt to take hold of the pot, shake it when you start to see the sugar bubbling up along the sides of the pan. Remember not to stir this until you see that the caramelized sugar has become the majority within the pan.

Below is a picture of what happens once you stir it (this one was stirred a bit prematurely)...

I think a good tip would be to turn the heat completely off right before all of the sugar has completely melted. While the sugar takes a bit to melt at first, it can start to burn real quick towards its finishing mark. You can also try to have the heat really low and that can help you control your finished product the best.

With just a little patience and some light stirring, this sugar and caramel mess above, will turn into the golden masterpiece below:

Once the sugar is completely melted, you are going to need to grab two oven mitts (or dish towels ; whichever works best) and take a hold of your pan that you used for the melted sugar.

Roll the melted sugar in the pan until the caramel coats the lining of the entire pan, going as close to the rim as possible.

This is what you are looking for, for the caramel coating lining on the pan.

Once the lining on the pan in complete, set it aside look for a larger pan about 13x15 in that can easily fit your 9 in pan inside.

Placing it on a rack that is roughly 2/3 of the way down on your preheated oven rack, place your caramel-lined 9in cake pan inside.

Remember the batter we worked on earlier? Blend it on medium for about 10 seconds. Once off, place the batter inside the caramel-lined pan.

Stay with me here, almost done!

Running some hot tap water, use a pot to fill the 13x15 in pot that is holding the flan mixture about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way full.

Then, very slowly, push the pot into the oven and close.

I had some leftover batter so I used it to make 2 personal pots of flan for my honey and I (feel free to do the same).

Place your timer on for approximately 45 minutes and you should have something that looks along the lines of this:

Once you have achieved a beautiful golden brown color, your flan is done! I like to pat it in the middle with my finger (gently) to make sure it has set.

Remember that since all ovens and temperatures may vary, your flan may not be ready at this point. I would recommend increasing the time in 10-15 minute intervals until done.

At this point, I leave the finished product on a cooling rack until it reaches room temperature (roughly 2-3 hours).

I then run a knife along the edges of the pan and try to swirl the flan around with my fingers to make sure it is loose.

Grabbing the pan I would like to display it in, I hold it over my pan and with both hands, and flip it over.

And voila! This should be your finished product: