Crème caramel, flan and custard pudding are basically all the same thing. It is a simple baked dessert with only a few ingredients (egg, milk, sugar and vanilla), and you can enjoy it any time of year. What it is called depends on where the recipe comes from: Crème caramel (French), flan (Spanish), custard pudding (English); each has hundreds of recipes/variations.
Most recently I was invited to dine at a popular local Mexican restaurant where the flan was highly recommended. But it wasn’t very impressive. The caramel was a bit burnt and the custard was too sweet and overcooked (dense, eggy and with many holes). Our waiter and host were both so proud of their flan and eager for my compliment, so I told them it was pretty good and thank you.
Many Latin Americans use canned condensed milk, which makes the custard too sweet and dense. Also, many recipes call for egg yolks instead of just using whole eggs. It makes the flan denser and overly rich.
Of course, everyone has a right to enjoy any style of custard. However, my definition of crème caramel or flan (as I like it and as I learned in professional kitchens) is that it should be light and soft, not eggy or dense. If I want a richer and denser custard, I will make crème brulee or crema Catalana, which use heavy cream and egg yolks.
It is the lovely middle of spring now – a great time to enjoy the light and soft custard of crème caramel. My recipe has only 4 ingredients (milk, vanilla, egg and sugar). Remember that using more ingredients don’t make your cooking tastier. I believe simple is the best for home cooking, but please note that the oven temperature and cooking time have to be precise to achieve a beautifully light and soft result.
- 5 large eggs (about 1 cup)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (1/4 cup for the caramel and 1/2 cup for the custard)
- 2 cups whole milk or half & half
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and butter the ramekins.
- In a small saucepan stir together ¼ cup of granulated sugar with 2 tablespoons of water, then cook over medium-high heat until the caramel gets a nice dark brown color (about 4-5 minutes). Be careful when cooking sugar – once it turns brown it gets darker very quickly, and very hot. (Make sure nobody is around to distract you when making the caramel.) Immediately pour about 1 tablespoon of hot caramel into the bottom of each ramekin. Place the ramekins in a rectangular baking pan (13 inch x 9 inch x 2 inch) and set aside.
- In a saucepan, scald the milk slowly over medium heat. Do not boil.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg and sugar.
- In a thin stream, add the hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring constantly with whisk. Do not rush this stage or you will get scrambled eggs.
- Stir in the vanilla, and then strain the custard through a sieve before pouring into the ramekins.
- Add enough hot water to the pan to reach halfway up the side of the ramekins.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the custard is set around the edges but still soft and a bit jiggly in the center. Remove the pan from the oven but leave all ramekins in the hot water bath (this makes the custard continue cooking but keeps it from overcooking) and place on a rack for about 30-40 minutes. Remove ramekins from water bath and cover with plastic. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. Crème caramel should be good up to a few days in the refrigerator.
- Serve crème caramel with fresh berries as a garnish if you wish.
- To obtain additional flavor if you wish, add some lemon, orange peel or 1 teaspoon of earl grey tea in the milk to boil, then remove the saucepan from the heat and let steep for 10-15 minutes.
