Flan = FAIL... well... kinda...

Ok... so when I was putting together my Cinco de Mayo menu, I wanted to try dishes I hadn't made before. I thought flan would be nice. Who doesn't love caramel & custard right?

So after perusing the internet for a while, this is what I came up with.



Spryte's Flan ~ Take One
1 1/2 C white sugar
5 eggs
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 12oz can evaporated milk
1 TBLS vanilla
a little lemon zest (possibly where I went wrong?)

Preheat oven to 350F
Start by making caramel.
Pour the sugar into a saucepan over medium low heat and stir until liquid and golden.
Pour caramel into a 9 inch glass baking dish. (I used a deep dish pie plate)
Beat eggs; then beat in sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, vanilla and lemon zest.
Pour into baking dish.
Bake in a water bath. Carefully put baking dish into a roasting pan, fill roasting pan with hot water until it's about halfway up the baking dish. Carefully move to oven and bake for 60 minutes or until center is set.
Cool on rack to room temp, then refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
To serve, gently loosen edges with a knife and invert onto a rimmed platter.
Slice & serve.

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This was also my first time making caramel. I was a little nervous. I stirred it continuously and kept the temperature pretty low.

Also... I started out using a whisk. Don't do that. As the sugar starts to melt, it accumulates inside the whisk. I had to change to a spoon pretty early on.



Nice and melty.


When it's copper colored, pour it into the baking dish.


Now to make the custard.

First... I didn't beat the eggs alone. This could be mistake number 1.

I poured the milks and the eggs together and beat them at the same time.

Does that matter? I have no idea!

The only custard I've ever made was creme brulee, one time and honestly, that didn't set up very well. But it was so long ago, I have no idea how I made it.

Anyway... I threw the milks & eggs together and beat them.


Beat in vanilla and lemon zest


Now pour the egg mixture into the baking dish with the caramel.


Next it needs to go into a water bath for baking.

I don't have a roasting pan and my widest shallow baking dish wasn't wide enough to fit this pie plate.

So I had to put in into my GIGANTIC cast iron skillet. That weighs a million pounds on it's own, let alone with a full pie plate and filled with water!!

So put the baking dish into whatever pan is big enough to accommodate it.

Then put in enough hot water to go half way up the baking dish.


Now into the preheated oven for 60 minutes or until it's set in the middle.


Cool on rack to room temp, then into the fridge until thoroughly chilled.

To plate, run knife along the edge to loosen and invert into a serving plate with edges.

You want to use one with edges incase the caramel is runny (which is what you want)




The flavor of this flan was delicious. However the texture was weird. It wasn't grainy; it was almost like tapioca or something. A little chunky?

I dunno. Was it that I didn't beat the eggs first by themselves? Did the lemon zest do something funky?

It definitely needs work.

So... do you know how to make my flan creamy?