Flan

Flan is a custard dessert with a layer of soft carmel on top, as opposed to creme brulee, which is custard with a hard caramel top.  It is a popular dish in Spanish countries and Philippines but has become more popular in the United States. This is also gluten free!

Thus, this was a perfect dish to make for one of my co-worker’s birthday for two reasons. 1. He is from a spanish descent and has grown up eating flan. 2. Another co-worker is allergic to gluten – so this a friendly cake for her 🙂

This dish, as with most custard dishes, is best when chilled overnight. So be prepared to make a day ahead.

Ingredients:
– 1 cup white sugar
– 3 eggs
– 1 -14oz can sweetened condensed milk
– 1 -12oz can evaporated milk
– 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
– squirt of lemon juice

Directions
1. Heat sugar with a touch of lemon juice on medium heat. Melt sugar until liquified and golden in color.

2. Pour syrup into a 9in round glass baking pan, turning the dish to coat bottom and sides. Set aside I have used a glass pie dish and a bunt cake pan. The pie dish was not large enough to hold all the cake filling and the bunt cake pan took forever to bake… Sooo good luck finding a pan!

3. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in condensed milk, evaporated milk, and vanilla until smooth. Pour mixture into baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Some recipes tell you to pour the milk mixture through a sieve into the prepared pan. I never have and it’s always turned out fine.

4. Bake in a water bath for approx 60 mins or until a knife comes out clean. To create a water bath, you find a larger dish, fill it with warm water and place the dish in the bath but don’t get it wet! I forgot to snap a pic so I’m borrowing e-how’s picture. A water bath allows the cake to cook more evenly and keeps it creamier.

5. Once finished cooking, allow cake to cool completely in dish. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge overnight.

6. The next day, warm up the bottom of the pan by placing it in a hot water bath (be careful not to get to cake wet!). I filled a medium saucepan with some water, placed the dish in it, and let the water boil until the cake was loose. 

7. Once the cake has loosened, invert it and the carmel will run over the cake. Don’t worry if there are hard carmel pieces left in the dish. Eat and enjoy!

And as always, I forgot to snap a finished picture as I was running out the door from work. But the cake didn’t really turn out that pretty anyway… but it sorta looked like this!