The Best Ever Latin Flan Creme Caramel

The Best Latin Flan Creme Caramel Recipe you will ever try!

Cynthia's winner: Latin Flan/Creme Caramel with Fresh Berries

My gorgeous friend Cynthia Colli shared this recipe with me recently which has been refined to perfection by three generations of beautiful women in her Uruguayan family. It’s a guaranteed party crowd pleaser which can be made in advance and guarantees an impressive moment when you turn it upside down and witness the oozing rich caramel fall over the flan. Serve with fresh berries which perfectly offset the richness and sweetness of the flan. Even better- make it a new family tradition!

Ingredients:

1 x cup sugar – raw or white. 

2 x 395g tins of sweetened condensed milk.
1 x 375ml tin of evaporated milk. 

5 x whole eggs 
4 x egg yolks 

1 tsp of vanilla EXTRACT (essence is different, it has alcohol and is very much inferior) 

1 pinch of salt

Equipment you need:

1 x 20-25cm round dish, either ceramic or glass, with walls more than 7cm high. 

1 x deep sided baking dish

1 x mixing bowl

A wooden spoon 

A small pot (to caramelise the sugar) 

A whisk 

A small bowl to hold the leftover egg whites 

Aluminium foil 

Measuring spoon

Method:

Heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
Caramelise the sugar: Pour sugar into the pot, and have the stove top on medium. Allow the sugar to sit and melt from the bottom up. As the sugar melts it forms a lovely (and VERY HOT) syrup – be careful handling it!!! Very occasionally stir it so it allows the sugar on top to contact the heat below. DON’T STIR IT!

When the sugar has melted, and be careful as it turns from melted/cooked to burnt very quickly, pour it into the 20cm round, and swirl the toffee around so it covers the sides and base of the round dish.

Fill the baking dish with iced water and sit the now-hot dish in the baking tray to allow the toffee to cool. It is ready when the surface is cool enough to touch and is hard. It will also crack slightly with the contraction that happens with the temperature change.

Next pour the evaporated milk, the condensed milk into the mixing bowl. Add the 5 whole eggs.

Separate the 4 extra egg yolks from the whites, by carefully breaking the egg shell in half and slipping the yolk from shell to shell, allowing the eggwhite to fall into a spare small bowl.
Add the vanilla and the salt.

Whisk it all up until its well mixed. It becomes smooth and light, with small bubbles forming on top. Make sure the thick condensed milk is all scooped up from the bottom of the bowl.

Pour the egg custard mix through a sieve into the 20cm round dish, over the toffee. The sieve is important as it captures the little bits of egg yolk that don’t blend, which would make the custard lumpy.

Place the flan dish into the emptied baking tray and refill the tray with boiling or hot water, up to halfway up the flan dish sides.

Cover the flan tightly with foil and place it in the baking dish and then into the oven, try to sit it around the middle of the oven.

Cook the flan in the oven for roughly 40 mins/1 hour. My old gas oven does it in just over an hour so most new stoves would be less. Check it after 40 mins. The flan is ready when it is set, but still quite jiggly, like a plastic sheet over a pool. A knife, stuck halfway into the centre of the flan, should come out clean.

Put the flan into the fridge to cool completely. 
When ready to serve, tip the flan dish upside down onto another larger dish with a small lip to hold the now-runny caramel that will ooze all over it.

Serve it with some fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or anything else you like!