Baked Flan

Most Helpful Positive Review

This recipe was very good and simple to prepare. Here's 2 suggestions - don't make this in a blender or you'll have to do it in 2 batches. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer and it worked well. I beat the eggs first, then added the remaining ingredients and beat it on speed 5 (medium) for about 2 min. Also, remove it from the water bath immediately upon taking it out of the oven or it will overcook while you think it is cooling.

My husband is half Cuban and said that as far as taste and texture goes, this is as good as he remembers from his Grandfather or Abuela. I, too, really liked the taste and texture. It was very smooth and creamy and was the best flan I've had by far. The issue that I had though was with the directions being incomplete. The recipe didn't indicate at what point or how you got the flan onto another dish or if it should be cooled first. And when I poured the hot sugar into a cold dish it quickly became hard and stuck in the bottom of the pan. So I would follow the advice of another reviewer and carmelize the sugar in the pan you plan to use or make sure you're swirling the dish you're baking it in while you're pouring the sugar. After you cook it let it cool completely before you transfer it to a serving plate. Which you can do by putting your serving plate on top of the cooking dish and then turn it over. Maybe those instructions aren't there because it is assumed that everyone knows that but I'm sure there are some that don't. Having said that, the instructions for carmelizing the sugar were very helpful and I didn't have a bit of problem with that. I would give this recipe 5 stars for taste and 3 stars for incomplete instructions.

I have another recipe I normally use for flan, but didn't want to use all canned ingredients because I had some cream to use up. I tried this recipe and we really liked it. Based on the reviews and by comparing to my normal recipe I changed a few things. I only carmelized 1/3 cup sugar and used 6 eggs instead of 5 because I needed to use up some eggs. I used my immersion blender to mix it up - easier cleanup. I also find it easiest to carmelize the sugar in my baking pan - saves dishes and eliminates the problem of it hardening up too fast. Just sprinkle the sugar all over the bottom of your baking pan and place pan on stovetop over the lowest heat setting. As pan heats, sugar will melt and using hot pads you can tilt pan until it is all melted and a nice brown. Remove pan and set aside to cool as you mix other ingredients. I wouldn't use a glass dish for this because if your dish is still too hot, when you add the cold or cool ingredients, your dish may crack. I always use an 8 or 9 inch steel or aluminum cake pan and set it in a 10 inch cake pan for the water bath. One more thing...mine wasn't done in 50 minutes, so I loosely placed a piece of tinfoil over the pans, slightly tented and cooked an additional 20 minutes until my knife came out clean after inserting in the middle. If you like flan, you will like this recipe. Very yummy!!