Flan is pure nostalgia for me. My Tex-Mex mom made it often, blending all the milk and eggs in a blender, agonizing over the caramel, and then shrieking if it unmolded with a crack in the center. Kid-me didn’t care about the aesthetics of the flan, I just wanted to taste the custard on my tongue. For my birthday, we’d stick candles in it and watch ’em jiggle. I’d wash it down with, like, 14 Dr. Peppers. I had a sophisticated palate.
Nowadays I spend the holidays with my sister. We always make flan for Christmas dessert because it’s so light and airy after a heavy meal. After our mom died, we searched for her recipes but only found bits and pieces. (Lessons in grief — you’re always trying to fill in the blanks. You won’t, but you’ll damn sure try.)
Thankfully, we’ve finally found a recipe that solves my mom’s broken flan woes. This recipe, from the brilliant Nik Sharma and his wonderful cookbook The Flavor Equation, makes the smoothest, most perfect flan I’ve ever had, and I’ve searched far and wide. When we first nailed the flan, we shrieked with delight. (I love making flan with someone else because when you flip the pan, you want another person to cheer when it thwomps out perfectly in a pool of caramel.)
Nik Sharma grew up with a similar “caramel pudding” in India, he writes in his cookbook, sweetened with jaggery and eaten on hot Bombay summer days. In his book, he walks through each recipe’s techniques, and they’re as educational as they are foolproof and delicious. If you’re a fan of Cook’s Illustrated-level food science nerdiness, buy the dang book! It’s amazing.
So, what makes a perfect flan?
* The caramel will be golden amber. Not too light. Not too dark. Be impatient or patient, depending on your nature.
* Cream of tartar will help the caramel from crystallizing due to science (please don’t ask me to explain it).
* The custard will be smooth, not full of air bubbles. Every step of the way, stir like you’re moving in slow motion. No blenders here.
* The custard should be set but not firm. Start checking after 45 minutes.
* Bain-marie is necessary, sorry. Yes, it’s annoying to pour boiling water into a baking pan and all that, but it’s what cooks the custard to its smoothest potential.
* It’s homemade. A cracked, bubbly flan is still perfect if you made it for me.
In The Flavor Equation version, you can infuse the milk with toasted hazelnuts. I did that one year, and it was lovely and subtle, but the nostalgia in me prefers it milky and simple. Sharma also suggests using hazelnut creamer, and it got me thinking about the untapped baking uses of coffee creamers.
Anyway, onto the flan.
Holiday Flan
Recipe adapted from “Hazelnut Flan” in Nik Sharma’s The Flavor Equation.
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
¾ cup sugar (150 grams)
2 cups whole milk
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
¼ teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
Make the caramel:
In a small saucepan, combine ¼ cup water and cream of tartar, and pour the sugar in the center (Sharma’s great tip to avoid it sticking to the pan sides). Cook over medium-high heat until the sugar starts to caramelize, 6-8 minutes. When it looks like your ideal shade of caramel, a moody amber in my case, pour it into an 8-inch round cake pan and quickly rotate the pan so the caramel coats the bottom.
Baking prep:
Preheat the oven to 325°F and put a kettle or a pot of water on to boil. Dig out a 13” x 9” baking dish that’ll fit your cake pan, and a wire rack to fit inside it. (Or get crafty with foil or a kitchen towel, just something to keep the cake pan elevated.)
Make the custard:
Clean out your trusty caramel saucepan and fill it with the milk, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and salt. Warm it up over medium-high but don’t let it boil. We don’t want milk skin. Remove the pan from the heat.
Crack the eggs into a large bowl and use a spatula to break the yolks and gently stir the eggs — this tip from Sharma is game-changing because if you rigorously whisk them you’ll create dreaded air bubbles in the flan. We want silky smooth. Slowly add just ½ cup of the warm milk mixture, incorporating it gently with the spatula. Slow motion flan. Enjoy the process. Keep adding the milk in segments, slowly, until it’s all incorporated. If any lumps happened, strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve.
Assemble and bake:
The caramel hardened in the cake pan, isn’t that cool? For even more perfect flan insurance, hold the spatula over the caramel and slowwwwly pour the custard over it like a milk waterfall. Cover the cake pan with two layers of foil to make sure it’s fully covered.
Place the flan on the wire rack inside the baking dish and pour the boiling water from the kettle into the baking dish until it’s halfway up the flan pan’s sides. (If I need more water, I put the kettle back on and add it to the pan in the oven.) Carefully transfer the baking dish of boiling water and precious flan to the oven and bake for 45 to 60 minutes. Peel back the foil to see if the custard is set and has a slight jiggle (too much jiggle = it’s watery, keep baking).
Use mitts to remove the flan pan from the baking dish and let it cool somewhere in the kitchen. Refrigerate overnight (covered with foil) so it really sets.
Flip n’ serve:
Remove the foil and carefully run a long, sharp knife around the edges. Place a rimmed plate/platter over the flan dish and tell your sister to start filming. Get both hands on the dish and quickly flip it. Tap the bottom of the flan dish to let the flan know its time has come. Slowly lift the pan and marvel at your beautiful creation. Use a spatula to remove any remaining caramel in the pan.
Slice and serve. A little sherry would be nice.
P.S. 10 wonderful holiday rituals and three no-fuss recipes to make during the holidays.
