(no subject)

[octette]

my mother loves flan, so i made it for her for mother's day. i did a lot of internet searching, and all the flan recipes i found were super complicated, or had ingredients in them that made me suspicious. finally, i turned to the cookbook i used to teach myself how to cook when i was a little kid: mccall's, from 1968. this recipe is quick and simple, and easy enough for a novice to do successfully.

it came out absolutely perfectly -- my mother loved it, and it looks beautiful.

recipe for flan, from 1968 mccall's cookbook
(i've rewritten the instructions, but did not change the ingredients.)

1 quart baking dish
big baking dish the 1 quart dish fits inside with room to spare (for a water bath)
4 eggs (beaten)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup very hot tap water
3/4 cup sugar

preheat the oven to 350F.

heat the sugar over med-low heat until it melts and turns ambery-golden, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

pour the caramel sugar into the quart-sized baking dish, and swirl it around until it coats the bottom and the sides. set it aside to let it cool.

mix the condensed milk with the eggs and hot water. once that's beaten together, add the vanilla. beat a little more, then pour the mixture into the baking dish on top of the caramel.

put the quart-sized baking dish into the larger dish, and fill the larger dish with an inch of hot water.

bake for about an hour, or until a knife inserted 1/2" in the center comes out clean. (mine took 65 minutes.)

take out of the water bath and let cool for 2 hours. then invert onto a dish and pour the caramel out on top.

Comments

[cypher]

Wow, that sounds delicious and simple! I will have to give that a try this weekend. :d

[octette]

i hope you like it! my tip: do not refrigerate it until after you've inverted it onto a plate. the caramel comes off surfaces pretty easily with very hot water, but still! who wants to scrub a pan like that? :)

[acelightning]

There are a few things that are different about the way I make it. First, I pour roughly equal amounts of the caramel into individual custard cups. Second, I use regular whole milk instead of hot water. Third, I chill the cups in the fridge for several hours at least - the caramel absorbs water out of the custard, and most of it comes out neatly when you invert the custard on a serving plate (and you can easily scrape the rest out with a spoon). This is really one of the easiest desserts there is, and everyone thinks it's exotic and that you're a marvelous cook ;-)

[octette]

seriously! it's really super easy, and yet everyone was damn impressed -- much more so than when i spent, like, six hours making a triple layer chocolate-peanut butter cake!

[acelightning]

Is it just me, or does this journal seem to be rather fond of recipes involving sweetened condensed milk? ;-)

[marahmarie]

Adding to mems...I'm all into trying my Reading page's recipes lately...this one sounds so yummy and simple...thanks!

[octette]

enjoy!! :)