Flan de leche (creme caramel) a very popular dessert inherited from the Spaniards and common in all Latin America has pride of place in our recipe collection. Its lovely creamy consistency and rich flavor with a hint of bittersweet makes it everyone's favorite dessert.
By - Reviewed: . Original: Jan 3, 2011
Why we ❤️ it
There is something about the delicate creaminess of flan that few people can resist. Flan will be a dessert option in most Dominican restaurants, and the one everyone wants to learn to make first.
What is flan?
Flan is a sweet dairy and egg-based custard usually flavored with vanilla. In the English-speaking world, this dessert is better known by its French name Crème Caramel (flan is also a word of French origin adopted into Spanish).
It has a characteristic caramel-colored topping and sauce, as it is cooked in a pan with the bottom covered in hard caramel that dissolves during the cooking process. The caramel prevents the flan from sticking to the bottom of the mold, gives its characteristic color, and gives it a faint taste of bitterness from the caramel.
After cooking, the flan is inverted onto a plate, and the caramel-colored base becomes the top.
Flan (dominican creme caramel).
Dominican flan vs. quesillo
There is another very similar recipe in the Dominican repertoire (there are other quesillos in other countries, but I refer here to the Dominican one specifically). And, as we should have come to expect, this is not without confusion.
What's the difference between flan and quesillo?
Depends on who you ask. And trust me, asked I have. The consensus, so far as there is one (there isn't) is that Flan is flavored with vanilla, whereas quesillo can be a more creative endeavor, and can be flavored with fruit extracts, fruit juices, coconut, etc.
When I have asked our followers on social media (my favorite way to crowdsource knowledge) most people agreed with the description above, but just by a slim margin.
Checking my collection of classic and antique Dominican cookbooks the answer is even less clear. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to the difference, and flavored flans turned up (I even have one), and pineapple-flavored quesillo appears in several of them.
So there, the answer is: who knows...
Top tips
- Safety: Be very careful with hot caramel, it can cause serious injuries.
- Caramel color: The color of your caramel is a matter of taste, I fall on the darker side, which will impart the flan the faintest hint of bitterness which I love, but it should not burn. You have to remove it from the heat just before it reaches the color you want because it will take just a second or two to get darker or burn.
- Coating the mold: My favorite, lazy way to coat a caramel pan is to just heat the sugar directly on the pan, so nothing else to clean. This, however, may not be possible with every pan (bundt pans, for example), in that case, use the first suggested method.
- Single servings: You can also bake the flan in 6 separate 1 ½ cup ramekins, but you'll need to cut down the baking time to 35-40 minutes.
About this recipe
The inspiration for this recipe came from one shared by one of our regulars back when we had a membership forum (pre-social media). She went by "La Profesora", and her recipe, though I've re-written it many times over the years, was the basis for this one.
The reason why I like it so much is, first and foremost, because it uses egg yolks, which results in a spectacularly creamy, rich, and decadent flan. I would never do it any other way.
And if you're afraid about wasting the egg whites, you can use them for something else (like suspiritos, or add extra egg white to a revoltillo).
Video
Recipe
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Flan de Leche [Video+Recipe] Caramel cream
Ingredients
For caramel
- ½ cup sugar , (white, granulated)
- 1 tablespoon water, (may not be used, see notes)
For the flan
- 4 egg yolk, (or 5 medium)
- 1 ⅓ cup evaporated milk
- 1 ⅓ cup condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
1. Making caramel for flan
Mix sugar and water and cook in a heavy saucepan over low heat until thick dark caramel forms. Make sure it does not burn! Pour carefully into a 5-cup baking pan and spread all over. Cool to room temperature, by then the caramel should have hardened.A simpler way, if your mold allows for it, just heat the sugar directly in the mold, and once it melts and turns a dark color, remove from the heat and spread on the bottom and sides of the pan.
2. Making the flan mixture
- Mix together egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and evaporated milk, stir to combine. Sieve to get rid of undissolved egg parts. Pour carefully into the baking pan, trying not to disturb the caramel layer.
3. Baking
- Bake in a hot water bath (bain Marie) in preheated oven to 320 ºF [160ºC] for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. Serving
- Remove from the oven and the water bath and cool to room temperature. Chill in the fridge. Loosen the edges of the flan with a toothpick. Place a serving plate on top of the mold (one which will retain the syrup) and invert. Serve still chilled.
Cook's Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated automatically based on ingredients listed. Please consult your doctor if you need precise nutrition information.
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More flan recipes
So, if you're not confused enough, let me help: many other random flan-like desserts turn up with the name flan in them. I have seen "flan de batata" (sweet potato), "flan de auyama" (with and without eggs, see below), "flan de pan" (see below), etc. However, if you just say "flan" this recipe should be what you expect (or very close to it).
If you feel like experimenting try these ones:
- Flan de Auyama (A pumpkin vegan flan-like dessert)
- Flan de Pan (a flan-like bread pudding)
- Flan de chocolate (chocolate flan)
- Flan de Café (flavored with coffee liqueur)
- Quesillo de coco (Coconut crème caramel)
- Flan de piña (Pineapple flan)
- Dulce de Leche Pudding (an eggless flan-like dessert)
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