Learn through this article, to prepare a delicious egg flan and share with your loved ones this exquisite homemade dessert.
An easy dessert to make at home
Egg flan
Flan is a famous dessert made from eggs, sugar and milk, which was prepared by the Greeks and Romans since times that date back to before the appearance of Christ.
Depending on where you are, you will be able to appreciate different varieties of this sweet, for example, in Peru a dessert called “crema volteada” is made, which includes the basic ingredients of flan with condensed milk.
In Chile, there is a variant known as "leche asada", which, unlike flan, is cooked in the oven to obtain a toasted top layer.
Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the traditional quesillo is made, which also contains condensed milk, and in Panama, coconut and evaporated milk are used to prepare a dessert similar to this one.
Before desserts such as brownies or tiramisu took center stage in the list of desserts offered by restaurants, the egg flan It was one of the most consumed and appreciated by diners.
Currently, this dessert has begun to recover lost ground, thanks to the innovations that pastry chefs and pastry chefs are making throughout the world, either because they incorporate condensed milk or because they replace milk with cream to increase the flavor of the product.
traditional recipe
Ingredients
For about 8 servings of flan you will need:
- 500 milliliters of whole milk.
- 3 large eggs.
- 125 grams of sugar.
- 1 piece of lemon or orange peel.
- 1 cinnamon stick
To make the caramel you will need:
- 150 grams of sugar approximately.
- 1 tablespoon of water.
Preparation
The total time it will take you to complete the entire preparation and cooking process is around 40 minutes, for the preparation you will invest about 15 minutes and the flan will cook in about 25 minutes.
The first thing you should do is heat the whole milk with the lemon or orange peel and the cinnamon stick (you can also use vanilla). When it boils, it is removed from the heat and allowed to infuse for about 30 minutes, during which time we also take advantage of it to cool down.
On one side, carefully mix the eggs and sugar together, then add the milk and continue stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Once mixed correctly, we filter the preparation with the help of a strainer. Before placing the mixture in the molds or flans, we must cover the base of these with a thin layer of caramel.
When the caramel is at the bottom of the molds, pour the mixture and place the containers on a tray or oven source, which we will fill with one or two fingers of water and then be introduced in the oven preheated to about 180 ° C .
Before putting the molds in the oven, you can place a silver or aluminum foil on them so that the flans do not come into contact with the water.
The flans will cook for about 25 minutes, although this is just a reference and may vary. To know if your dessert is ready, insert a needle or small toothpick into the flan, if it comes out dry, cooking is complete.
Remove from the oven and let cool before taking them to refrigerate in the fridge or refrigerator for 24 hours ideally, although if you want to consume them for a few hours, you can do so.
The candy
The caramel must be previously prepared and is achieved by combining water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, until the latter dissolves completely and acquires its particular golden color. You must be very careful when preparing the caramel, because if it burns it will have a bitter taste.
Recommendations
It is considered that a flan has been poorly executed, when a few holes can be seen in its appearance. To prevent this from happening, the mixture should not be beaten, this makes it easier for air to enter it and create these annoying holes.
To obtain the right texture and flavor, the flans must be baked in a bain-marie oven. It is not strictly necessary that the flans be covered, you just have to make sure that the boiling water does not enter the molds.
The caramel should complement the flavor of the flan, as well as its color, but due to its high sugar content it is important that it is used moderately, depending on your tastes.
As for the oven, not all are the same, that's why the temperature of 180°C may work correctly for some people and not for others. It is important that you test your oven before preparing the flans.
You can accompany your flan, decorating it with cream or with the remaining caramel, you can also accompany it with various fruits such as strawberries or blackberries.
Egg custard variants
Egg and condensed milk flan
To prepare this dessert, you will need 200 grams of condensed milk, 225 milliliters of whole milk, 2 eggs, 60 grams of sugar and a tablespoon of water. Its preparation is quite similar to that of the traditional egg flan.
The only difference between this recipe and the previous one is that when incorporating the fresh milk we will also add the condensed milk, otherwise the steps are exactly the same.
Cream flipped
If you want to make this tasty variety of Peruvian pastries, you must have 8 eggs, 800 milliliters of condensed milk, 800 milliliters of evaporated milk, 280 grams of white sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla, this to obtain about 10 or 12 servings.
Before starting the cream, prepare the caramel that you will place in a mold about 25cm in diameter and which should preferably have a hole in the middle, to give the characteristic shape of this dessert.
Mix the eggs with a spatula, with the evaporated milk and the condensed milk, in addition to the teaspoon of vanilla. Filter the mixture with the help of a strainer and then pour it into the mold.
Bake in a preheated oven at 150°C for one or two hours, or until set. Remove the cream from the oven, when unmolding be careful not to cut the cream and wait for it to cool and then refrigerate for about 6 or 8 hours.
Pumpkin or pumpkin flan
To prepare this flan you will need a teaspoon of butter, a kilogram of auyama or pumpkin, a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, half a teaspoon of salt, three cups of evaporated or whole milk, a cup of sugar and five tablespoons of cornstarch.
For the caramel, we will use sugar and a little water, just like in the other recipes. To start, we will grease our mold with butter and reserve.
We place the pumpkin in a pot with hot water and salt, it will remain in the kitchen until it boils and softens. When ready, remove the water and let it cool.
The next thing we will do is blend the pumpkin with cinnamon, milk, sugar and cornstarch. Cook again until a thick mixture is obtained, stirring constantly to prevent sticking.
We remove from the heat and pour the mixture into our mold, in which we should have previously incorporated the caramel, let it cool and then take it to the fridge or refrigerator for about two hours, and then unmold it and consume it.
Cheese flan
Cheese flan is characterized by its smooth texture and for being one of the varieties of flan that substitutes milk for cream, in addition to adding soft cheese to its preparation.
For the ingredients you must have 4 eggs, 150g of soft cheese or cream cheese, 4 tablespoons of sugar and 500g of liquid cream, in addition to the characteristic ingredients used to make the caramel.
In a large bowl or container, gently stir the eggs with the sugar and add the liquid cream. We grate the cheese to be able to incorporate it into the mixture, making it homogeneous (this is not necessary with the cream cheese) and reserve aside.
To prepare the caramel, as you already know, we cook sugar and water over medium heat until it acquires a golden color, without letting it burn or harden. Let's pour the caramel into the mold intended for our flan, impregnating the base and the walls.
Place the flan mixture in the mold and take it to the oven at 180°C, for about 30 minutes. Once ready, let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for a few more hours.
It is important to highlight that the flans must be unmolded after they are refrigerated, since if this procedure is carried out before, there is a risk that it will break.
Finally, if you liked this article and want to continue learning more flan recipes, we invite you to visit the following article so you can continue preparing incredible recipes: Caramel Corn Flan Make this delicious dessert!.