Making Flan at Home

Couldn't find a dedicated flan thread - just a few scattered referances, so I thought I'd start one here. Both of my in-laws have Celiac's and this year I decided to do individual pumpkin flans for our Christmas dinner dessert. We've done flourless chocolate cake and creme brulee in the past, so I wanted something a bit different. While I've baked tons of flan professionally, I'd never done it home. I was fairly confident that the texture was correct, but there's always something a bit scary about unmolding the first one. Fortunately, these did turn out well. I used to bake fresh pumpkins for this recipe, but in the interest of time-saving and convenience I used canned pumpkin this time. It worked just fine in terms of both texture and flavor. To serve, I garnished with some candied pepitas and pomegranate seeds. Here's some pics taken throughout the process. I'd love to hear about others experiences with making flan at home.

Nice post--and some mighty nice looking flans. Thanks for sharing.

Indeed, beautiful version of flan... your choice of garnishes made the final dish look great and I imagine the whole combination of flavours tasted great as well. I'd like to give the dish a try myself.

Antonius

They look fantastic and I'd love to try it myself. Any chance you're willing to share your recipe Lynn?

Hi,

I'm happy to share, but I don't really have a "recipe" other than the ingredient list. I'll do my best here to sketch it out, but if anyone has additional questions feel free to post here or PM me.

Pumpkin Flan Custard:
3/4 cup sugar
5 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups 2% milk
1 1/4 cups evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin (if using fresh cooked, be sure to drain well. Watery flan = no good. Unless you're trying to use up a bumper crop of pumpkins, just use canned.)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
pinch ground nutmeg

First, for the caramel - I do this by sight. For the six individual flan cups, I cooked 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of water and wound up with just a tad too much caramel. Dissolve the sugar in the water and then crank up the heat. A gas stove is key here. I'm sure it can be done w/ an electric burner, but you'll really have swirl the pot often to keep it cooking evenly. Have a cup with some water and a pastry brush handy. At the first sight of a sugar crystal forming around the edges, using the brush wash down the sides of the pot with some water. The crystals will disappear. Do that as often as necessary. You can google the proper tempature for a candy thermetor reading of when the caramel is done for flan. Just remember, it looks darker in the pot than it will when you start pouring it out. If you pour it out too soon, you won't have the rich caramel flavor and color you want. If you wait too long, it will be bitter. It's the most challenging part of making flan, but with practice you'll be able to do it in your sleep. It helps to have another person available as you are pouring it into the mold/s so they can tilt the caramel around the sides. This makes it easier to unmold the finished flans.
For the custard, whisk together the sugar, eggs, and salt. Heat the milk and evaporated milk to a scald and then gradually add the hot milks to the egg mix, whisking. Whisk the spices into the pumpkin. Add the milk/egg mixture to the pumpkin. Fill the prepared flan cups with the custard and bake at 350 degrees in a water bath for approximately 1 hour. They are done when they jiggle like Jello when moved. Again, it's all about the practice. A few batches of undercooked/overcooked flan and you learn.
Cool them to room temperature on a rack, then cover with platic wrap and refrigerate. These are best served within 1-3 days of making.
We really did enjoy these - hope all that try them do as well!

LynnB wrote:... I'd love to hear about others experiences with making flan at home....

Great thread, I love making flan, it is so easy and satisfying. I use this recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... lan-108137

but I do not bother separating the eggs, I just whip everything up in the blender. It is even better if you substitute cream for the milk.

Lynn, I usually make my caramel a bit darker than yours, as my husband prefers the almost-burnt taste. I'm the only pumpkin fan in the house, so it's plain flan for us.

Cheers, Jen