Sunday, March 1, 2009

Flan


Last night Jeff discovered that we had a can of evaporated milk that had passed its expiration date by several months. This of course meant that we needed to use it right away (what, you think we would throw away an entire can of milk just because it was a little old? Tee hee)! Jeff immediately thought of our recipe for flan - the delicious caramel-coated custard of Mexican cooking. We don't make it often, because it's kind of high in calories and fairly rich, but it's so good! We were glad for the excuse.


Flan
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 13-oz can evaporated milk (1 2/3 cups)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash salt

In small skillet heat and stir the 1/3 cup sugar over medium heat till sugar melts and becomes golden brown. Quickly pour caramelized sugar into a 3-cup ring mold (we usually just use a loaf pan), tilting mold to coat bottom and sides.

In bowl beat eggs; stir in milk, the 1/4 cup sugar, vanilla, and salt. Pour into caramel-coated mold. Set mold in baking pan on oven rack. Pour hot water around mold in pan to a depth of 1 inch. Bake, uncovered, in 325-degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes (our oven bakes slow, it took an additional 25 minutes) or till a knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean. Chill.

Carefully loosen chilled custard from sides and center; invert on platter. Makes 4 to 6 servings (though Jeff could probably eat about two of these entire flans all by himself).


Mmmm, delicious caramel-covered goodness. Does life get any better than this?

7 comments:

Snooky doodle said...

how nice and yummy. I ve never made this but it looks delicious :)

Bridget said...

Oh my gosh...I haven't made it since, but when I was in high school I won a prize for flan at a Spanish competition. :) I may have to try it again!

American Homemaker said...

Mmmmmm.... I love flan!!! I've never made my own though. Now I want to!

You should bring it to our April Girls Night Out. It's gonna be a recipe exchange night :) If you do flan I'll do fried ice cream!

Meg said...

Yeah for caramel goodness!

Tina Butler said...

how pretty I have never made Flan. It looks so creamy and good. I will have to give this a try.

Christie said...

I've never made flan but then I didn't know that it was so simple!

I haven't tried using the evaporated milk that "expired" but once I tried to make dulce de leche with expired sweetened condensed milk and it was yucky. Of course I didn't realize how far it was expired until I was in the middle of cooking...

Michelle said...

Now, how come your flan turned out so much better than mine? :-) My sugar was a nightmare, and no way will I ever put oranges on a flan again.... that was just plain wierd. This actually looks good, maybe one day I'll have the patience to carmelize the sugar the right way!