*Caramel Flan / Cream caramel

Call it Cream Caramel,Flan,pudding or anything,,it is one awesome desert just right amount of sweet (not too much not too less).This desert has different versions in different parts of world. Cream Caramel to the french, Flan to those in Spanish speaking countries and Leche flan in Philippines.I never tasted this desert until one potluck at my office from my co-worker with Philippine origin, thanks Gia for introducing me to this heavenly desert.When I say heavenly,I really mean it from bottom of my heart.So I tried this on Valentine's Day 2010.Until then,my only experience with them was salivating over them on foodie magazines and google images.To me, it always looked one of those desserts that were tricky and fiddly to make. I was always curious as to how the caramel didn’t stick to the moulds and how they managed to keep their shape after you popped them out. To my utter surprise both caramel and custard were very easy to make.I was nervous about removing them from the moulds.But after a mini hot water bath of 15 seconds,they easily inverted into the serving plate to swim in the pool of sticky caramel syrup.

So here is the recipe of this wonderful desert which I'm sure is simple enough for any one to make.

Ingredients for caramel:

1. Water -- 1/2 cup
   
2. Granular sugar --1 cup

Procedure for caramel:

1. Before you start making caramel, keep your baking dishes ready and set them aside.
2. Caramel is the most sensitive thing to do in the entire procedure,if you miss by few seconds the syrup becomes bitter. So watch out when you make the syrup.
3. Add 1/2 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a sauce pan and let it shimmer(watch carefully) until it just gets the amber colouring.
   
4. Take it out of heat and pour to cover the bottom of the baking dish with caramel.Remember the carammalization happens even the pan is off stove hence don't delay pouring.

Ingredients for Flan :
The following amount will be just enough to fill a small oval baking dish and three small tart moulds.

1. Egg Yolks - 5
   
2. Whole Egg -2
3. Evaporated milk - 1 can (370 ml)
4. Sweetened Condensed milk - 1 can (250 ml)
5. Vanilla essence - 1 tb sp

Procedure for Flan :

1. Pre heat the oven.
   
2. In a bowl pour 2 whole eggs, 5 egg yolks, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla essence and just give it a blend.I used electric hand blender. Be careful not to over beat, since we don't want a lots of air Incorporated in the egg mixture, just let the ingredients mix well with each other.
3. This was the easy thing :) now pour the egg mixture in the baking dishes which were previously coated with caramel.
4. And the next step is to bake the flan,we have to keep the baking dishes in a shallow pan with 1 inch deep hot water so that the flan doesn't bake hard and also gets the right texture.
5. Cover the pan with aluminium foil and make some slits on it for the steam to escape.
   

Flan in glass bake ware :

Flan in Aluminium moulds :

1. Bake it 250 degrees for half an hour.But you might need to check on them ,start after 15 minutes, peek into the foil (be very careful) and look in after 5 minutes.You shake the pan little bit and there should be no wimpling on the top,it should be settled but definitely not hard.
2. After they come out of the oven we need to refrigerate them. It is a must at least for 3-4 hours.
3. Take them out of the refrigerator, slide a knife around the edges to loosen the flan from the surface of the moulds and put it upside down in your serving platter. And you will be surprised to see the melted caramel on top of your flan making the sauce for your heavenly desert.

Note in the below pictures, how porous is the flan baked in aluminium moulds where as the flan baked in glass bake-ware has smooth outer surface.However the inside will be same in both cases.So doesn't matter if you bake in glass or aluminium mould.Just go ahead with whatever available at that moment.

Flan from Glass Bake-ware

Flan from Aluminium mould

Try this awesome desert and I would be more than happy to hear how it came out.Enjoy.... :)