Traditional Caramel Flan (also known as crème caramel) is a rich, sweet custard topped with caramel sauce. It may look fancy, but you can make it in just six easy steps!
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Growing up, my mother’s baked custard – a simple mixture of eggs, sugar and milk – made me feel loved in a way few things could. I remember watching her carefully slide the big aluminum pan of hot water into the oven, then gently place the glass dish of custard mix into it and shut the oven door. Then I would hover over the steamy oven, endlessly checking the time, while an excruciatingly long hour ticked away.
Toward the end of the baking, she would occasionally open the oven to test it for doneness with her favorite paring knife, shake her head and slide it back into the cloud of steam. When she was finally satisfied that it was done, she would pull it out, set it on a wire rack to cool, and tell me we couldn't have any until after dinner.
Sigh.
But it was all worth the wait. Each spoonful was a small, regal bite of perfection as it melted over my tongue in sweet, creamy satin bliss. I couldn't get enough.
Then I grew up and met Flan, Custard’s sexy Latin cousin.
Flan... caramelly brown, sensually sweet, and just a little mysterious - it was love at first bite. Now don't get me wrong: I still love a good home-cooked custard in the cold winter months, or when I'm feeling blue, but Flan… well, Flan just makes me tingle all over.
Sweet without being cloying and smooth in all the right ways, flan is far easier to make than you might think. There are, however, some tricks I've learned that can [literally] make or break your flan.
Tips for Making Perfect Caramel Flan
- Making the caramel - Don't sweat it if there are a few very small lumps in your caramel. Even after making this 100 times, my caramel had a few this time as a result of my running around my kitchen trying to Blog things at the same time I was making it. Not a problem: small one lumps will just melt and disappear when the flan bakes. Just try to avoid the big ones.
- Pouring the caramel - The pan you pour your caramel into must be hot so that the caramel doesn't set up before the bottom of the pan is evenly coated. (Hence the empty pie plate in the oven in Step 1.) Once poured, it is totally OK to set it aside for as long as you need. Don't worry if the caramel cracks as it cools: it will all come together when you baked the flan.
- Putting the flan in the oven - Put the large pan into the oven first, then set the custard pan in it. If you have a sliding rack, make sure everything is slid in at this point. Finally, add 1-inch of hot water to the outer pan.
- Unmolding Flan from pan - Allow the flan to cool for Exactly 10 minutes before flipping. No more, no less.
Perfect Caramel Flan
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
- ⅔ cup white sugar
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 6 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
Instructions
- Put an empty 8” or 9” glass pie dish into the cold oven and preheat the oven to 350° F (175° C).
- In a small stainless saucepan, heat the sugar over medium-low heat. Shake occasionally to distribute sugar evenly. You may slightly stir with a wire whisk while cooking, but don’t overdo it or the sugar will crystalize and clump. Continue to brown the sugar until it becomes a medium-dark golden brown.
- Remove the hot pie dish from the oven and immediately pour in the caramelized sugar, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan evenly. Set aside.
- In a blender, combine sweetened condensed milk, cream, milk, eggs and vanilla and blend on high for about a minute.
- Put a large pan or casserole dish (one big enough for your pie dish to easily sit inside of) into the oven. Set the pie dish with the caramel in the bottom into the larger pan. Carefully pour the blended mixture over the caramelized sugar.
- Add 1-inch of very hot water to the outer pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.
- Remove the pan from oven. Remove the flan from hot water bath and allow to cool at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Place a large plate on top of the flan, and Very Carefully flip it over. Gently tap the side of the dish to encourage the flan to release. Carefully lift the plate off the flan. If your flan is kind of wonky on the plate, gently push it over a little at a time with a spatula to center it. (Don't try to pull it.)
- Serve warm, or refrigerate and serve cold.
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.
Taking a Closer Look:
Step 2: In a small stainless saucepan, heat the sugar over medium-low heat. Shake occasionally to distribute sugar evenly. You may slightly stir with a wire whisk while cooking, but don’t overdo it or the sugar will crystalize and clump. Continue to brown the sugar until it becomes a medium-dark golden brown.
Steps 5 & 6: Put a large pan or casserole dish (one big enough for your pie dish to easily sit inside of) into the oven. Set the pie dish with the caramel in the bottom into the larger pan. Carefully pour the blended mixture over the caramelized sugar.
You may notice that I've made one large flan and two small ones. I did this for two reasons: (1) I know from experience that this recipe makes slightly more than my pie dish can hold, and (2) small flans tend to be more photogenic.
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Oh I love flan! I love the smaller ones not just because they are more photogenic, but because then you can claim that as a single serving. Right? 🙂 I'm making a flan for Cinco de Mayo and yours looks so delicious!
Beautiful photos! I also am a fan of Flan! I always try to get it when I can. Not a ton of places serve it. Looks like I might have to try my luck!
I love flan but rarely have it unless it happens to be on the dessert menu of a restaurant. Who knew it was (in theory based on your post) so easy!? I'm with Marlynn in making them all in "single serving" portions heh
Oh yum! I love flan (even if it makes me think of the Friends episode where Monica makes a birthday flan). I'm going to to have to try this...maybe it will be my Cinco de Mayo dessert!
I haven't thought about that one in years! ("Sorry - we're on a major flan high!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgkO6WbBDj8)
Custard was one of my first favorite comfort/special occasion foods... thanks for that memory! I don't think I've ever even had flan. I'll have to try it!
I haven't made flan since high school, but back then it hugely impressed everyone at dinner!
I've always yearned for a good flan recipe! As a latina, I sometimes wonder how I am even making it through life without this stuff. It looks delicious! I look forward to trying this recipe out. Thanks for sharing, cheers!
Oh my! This looks delicious and sinful! YUM!
Oh my goodness - what a perfectly gorgeous flan. I'm drooling over it and hope your tips allow me to be as successful at the sugar carmelizing as you are - I've been notoriously unsuccessful at that step.
Not much of a flan fan myself... but that could be partly because I've never successfully made one. LOL Might just have to give it another try using your tutorial! 🙂
Yum! I'll bet it's been 20 years since I made flan. I need to change that because I love it! Pinned, Yummed and Stumbled!
I've been making creme caramel for the last few months but have a lot of issues after it is flipped. It seems to deflate in the middle once flipped. It still tastes really good and creamy but its a mush, I use equal parts evaporated milk and heavy cream with 4 whole eggs and 2 yolks. I use the water bath method to bake at 325F. I use a 6 by 3.5 souffle dish for baking. I usually bake it between 45-60 minutes. Yesterday I attempted to make it again and this time I used the souffle dish plus a ramekin. I thought maybe the issue is its too heavy to flip over and thats why its falling apart. So instead of filling the souffle dish all the way, I filled it 3/4 of the way and put the rest in a ramekin. I baked the one in the souffle dish for 55 minutes and the one in the ramekin for 45 minutes. I refrigerated it for 24 hours and flipped them today. For the first time the one in the souffle dish came out firm and sturdy and didn't fall apart!!! SUCCESS!! But the one in the ramekin cracked in the middle after it was flipped. I was really surprised because I thought the ramekin one would be better. So now I'm wondering what went wrong with that one?? But I'm still not sure why I was unsuccessful every time after flipping it. And each time it was the same issue - deflation in the middle.
Any suggestions, solutions, comments?
Thanks so much for taking the time to outline your problem so carefully. A few things came to mind that you may want to consider:
First, are you testing the flan before taking it out of the oven? A knife, inserted one inch from the center should come out clean. If it isn't done, the center will fail. Also, I'm a little concerned, because flan shouldn't "inflate" much: it is a custard. It will rise slightly as it bakes, but the "fall" shouldn't be particularly noticable, and certainly not dramatic.
In my experience, flan must be flipped right after you make it. I let mine cool 10 minutes, and then flip it by placing the serving plate directly on the top of the pan I've cooked the flan in, and turning everything over together in one fluid motion. The flan pan ends on top and the plate I want the flan on ends on the bottom. Never "flip" the flan onto the dish by just turning it over onto it. The farther the flan has to move, the more chance there is for structural damage.
Finally, like many things in the kitchen, custard is basically a science experiment. If your ratio of protein molecules to liquid is off, it will not hold. The recipe on this post creates a strong network of protein molecules that effectively hold the thickened custard together. Maybe you could try our recipe and see if it holds together better for you?
Hope this helps!