Spanish Flan

Spanish Flan

Flan is traditionally an English dessert and is nothing more than a crème caramel, but by adding cream cheese and condensed milk and calling it flan we have Spain on a plate.

·         250g Castor Sugar – for the caramel lining

·         2 x Tins of Condensed Milk

·         2 x Tins of Full Cream Milk – using the condensed milk tins to measure it out

·         2 x Tins of Ideal Milk

·         12 x Whole Large Eggs

·         250g Sugar

·         10ml Vanilla Paste – or one bean split and the seeds scraped out

·         150g Cream Cheese – smooth is best and at room temperature

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 170 ͦC. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the cream cheese and vanilla till nice and smooth.  Add the condensed milk and whisk well to combine, then the milk and ideal milk before adding the eggs and sugar. Whisk till everything is mixed well. Set aside and make the caramel, place the sugar in a very hot non-stick pan and leave till a caramel has formed, never stirring but rather swirling the pan so all the sugar melts evenly. Pour the caramel in base of a large cake tin or mould and make sure you line the bottom and about 1 – 2cm up the sides of the tin (ramekin, mould) and leave to cool and set. Once the caramel is set pour the custard mixture through a sieve into the tin, this is just to keep any unmixed egg bits or cheese behind as you want a silky smooth end result. Place the tin in a bain-marie (water bath) and fill it with hot water that comes up about half way of the tin. Bake the custard in the centre of the oven for anywhere from 1 - 1½ hours. The custard is cooked once you can insert a knife in the centre and it comes out clean. It still needs to have a slight wobble to it. Remove from the oven and cool completely before refrigerating overnight. To unmould slide a very sharp knife along the rim of the tin ever so gently, place a plate over and flip it real fast. You want the custard to stay intact. Slice and serve as is.