How to Make Caramel Flan

Okay! We are going to make Caramel Flan. This is a basic caramel flan that I like to make. It's kind of a -- flan is kind of a South American thing, but pretty much everybody has their version of flan which is a basic custard. In French, you have creme brulee, and like Spain you have flan, down in Mexico and South America, they have a flan, but it is a little bit heavier. I am going to crack nine eggs. Actually I am going to crack -- I've got three eggs, three whole eggs, and then I am going to do six, just the yolk. So the yolks are going to give it kind of a little bit more richness. Then you want to keep some of the whites in there, because the white is what's going to bind it and hold it together. So I have got three whole eggs, and you want to just separate the yolks up, the rest of the six eggs. This is like a really easy thing to make, and it's super sexy when you put it out on a plate at the end of it. It's another one of those make ahead desserts, that's actually supposed to be made ahead. This is what we are going to do, we are going to make a caramel, then we are going to put it in the bottom of our little cup, little cup or ramekin, and then we put in the custard. So the egg whites you can toss, we don't need that. So to make the caramel, I have got a hot pan. What we need to do is put some sugar in there, maybe a half-a-cup of sugar. Just put it right in the pan. You want the pan hot. Then, add a little water. You're just going to cook that until it turns into a light brown. I also like to add a little bit of lemon to it. Kind of freshens up the flavor and it helps it to dissolve. So we are going to cook that till it gets brown. In the meantime, I have got a little bit of vegetable oil. You can also use that spray, like vegetable oil spray, but these little cups are great. But, you can also use -- you can use like a muffin pan is good. But, if you could find these little kind of like foil cups, they are fantastic. I like them because you don't have to wash them, they are going to be this nice. But, we are going to cook that with some oil, keep an eye on your caramel because it will turn from light brown to black quickly. Light brown is good, but black is not as good. So we are coating our little cups here. Now, the recipe, we will make eight, eight of these guys. Well, while that's going, what I am going to do is continue with our custard here. Get my egg mixture, two cups of milk, and two cups of heavy cream. We need six ounces of sugar. Caramel is starting to kind of thicken up, you could see. It's just kind of starting to change color. So we want to keep an eye on that. I am going to blend up my custard mix with my trusty immersion blender. You want this just to combine because I don't like them have the little bubbles. A lot of the times you get flan and it's got the little bubbles inside, and then it gets all kind of broken up and looks like sweetened scrambled eggs. I like to have like a very custody, consistency all the way through. So if you mix this too much, it's going to get a lot of bubbles suspended in there. In the meantime our caramel is coming around nicely. See, it's turning a little bit yellow. That's about right. It's a very sensitive thing. If it gets too dark, then your custard will be really better and stronger. I am going to just put a little bit of caramel on the bottom of each cup, just enough to cover. The beautiful thing about this dish is it makes its own sauce. It's like you can make it ahead, make it the day before, and keep them in the refrigerator. There we go. Now, be careful because this stuff is hot. I know people who have had like surgically repaired from spilling hot sugar on themselves. It's like lava. As you see, it will continue cooking. So you can't like say okay, it's reached the proper color like this, it's got this nice amber color. I think, I will take it off the fire, and leave it. Say no, because there is so much heat built up inside of that sugar, that it will just keep cooking and it will burn. So you've got to time it so that as soon as the caramel is ready, you put it right in the cup, and then the cup, it will stop cooking in the cup, but these cups are hot. I mean this stuff, this stuff is like lava. Okay, so I have got my little cuppies, and I have got a pan, shallow pan. What I am going to do is put my cups in here. Then, take my custard, and I am going to ladle them in there. Fill the cup almost to the top. Like I said, you can use like a regular like a glass ramekin. But, these work better, I will show you why in a second because it's a lot easier to get them out at the end. It's cool too. You will see. So we are going to cover up that caramel. Now, what's going to happen is, when I cook these, the caramel is going to setup very gently. I mean the custard is going to setup very gently. That caramel is going to stay solid on the bottom. So I am going to cook it and it's going to kind of liquify the caramel and it's going to cook the custard. Then, I am going to put these in refrigerator for at least an hour until they get chilled, and the condensation on the inside of these cups is going to melt the caramel and turn it into a liquid, and then the liquid will sauce the dish for you. Makes for a really cool presentation. And although you have to work ahead of time, it's really easy. I mean, these ingredients are simple. You can also put a little bit of vanilla in here if you want to flavor it with vanilla. Now it's a very sensitive dish. The caramel is very sensitive in handling that. Also when you are cooking this at the end, you have got to be very careful, because if it cooks too much, the eggs inside of the custard are going to tighten up and it's going to break. So it's going to turn it in scrambled eggs. So what we want to do is cook it in a water bath. The best way to do this is, first, I put my cups in here like you saw, then I fill them. Then, I am going to put the water in. Otherwise, your cups are floating around in the water. So you are going to fill it till they're about half way up. Then, I am going to put this on the fire, just for a second to bring the water to a simmer. Because if you stir with the hot water, it cooks more quickly. Next trick. Again, this is like very simple, just like what four, five ingredients. But, there is a couple of little techniques that if you don't use them correctly, you could screw it up or at least it won't be as good as it could be. So I got my water moving in here. Next, cover with some foil. Then I want to poke holes all in the foil because if you don't -- so we want this to cook very gently. We have got this delicate custard and it's got just enough egg white in it to hold it together. So if you don't cook it just right, it's going to break or it's not going to even setup at all. When I poke all these holes in the top, that allows the moisture, the steam to escape. So otherwise, the condensation on the top of the foil is going to collect and then the water is going to drip into the custard, and dilute the custard, and the custard will never setup and solidify. So it's kind of a very fine line. It needs a little bit of steam to cook the top. If you don't use the foil, then it's too rough, and the top cooks too quickly. But, this works perfectly. I have cooked about hundred thousand of these suckers this way. I am going to put this in a very low oven, 250 degrees. When you cook that about a half-an-hour, you want to check on them. Just peek under the foil, check after 15 minutes, and like every 5 minutes after I would say, if you shake the pan a little bit, there should be no rippling on top. It should be solid, but you don't want it to be like hard. It's kind of a touchy little thing. So after they come out of the oven, we need to refrigerate them, it has to be done. Because otherwise, if it's not chilled, firstly, when you turn them out, they are going to -- and secondly, you want them to be in the chilled, so that the caramel on top, it's actually in the bottom, but it will end up on top. So that is going to dissolve from all the condensation inside of here, and liquify and make the sauce for you. There, plate, you got your -- this is chilled. These are cooked already at the restaurant. They have been setup. Turn it out, take a little knife, just poke a little hole on top, and that releases the sauce. You can just see how the sauce will kind of shut out, then you pick that up. You've got a beautiful flan. Very cool!