- Today, we're making one of my favorite desserts.
It's flan.
Also known as creme caramel,
this easy Latin dessert has an indulgent custard base topped
with an easy but delicious caramel.
If you like this flan,
make sure you like and subscribe.
Hey, you're watching "Preppy Kitchen,"
where I, John Kanell,
teach you how to make delicious homemade dishes
to share with your family and friends.
First off,
decide what pan you're gonna use for your flan.
I'm using an eight inch round.
You could use a bigger one
or you could use several smaller pans.
Even a loaf pan will work for this.
Then we're gonna make the caramel.
In to a large pan,
I'm adding three quarters of a cup
or 150 grams of granulated sugar.
To get that wet,
one quarter of a cup or 60 ML of water.
You can swish this around a little bit
but here's the deal.
Caramel has to be left alone.
You cannot mix it and stir it.
So after you've added the water,
we're gonna place this on heat
and the only thing you're gonna do is have
a pastry brush and some water
to wash the sides of the pan down.
That's it.
Do not mix.
Okay, let's put this on medium-high heat right now.
Place your sugar over medium-high heat
and then brush the sides down a with a pastry brush.
You're just gonna watch to make sure it doesn't burn.
You want this to be a beautiful golden color
and it doesn't matter if it's unevenly golden.
And now as things start getting golden,
you can wash the pan down if needed.
You don't want it to scorch at the edge and burn.
I have like a hotspot so I'm gonna swirl this around
just a little bit.
Okay.
We're gonna take this off heat right now.
Pour our caramel in to the pan.
Be very careful as this is quite, quite hot.
It's probably about a 300 or so degrees.
It's entered the hard crack stage.
And if you need to,
you could definitely just use a spatula
to carefully get the rest of the caramel out.
This is a waste not, want not situation.
Twirl the caramel around so it gets to the edge.
Now we're gonna set it aside to cool.
It'll cool really quickly into a hard candy
but after the caramel bakes with the flan,
it'll liquefy and be just beyond decadent.
But for now,
let's set it aside.
I'm starting my flan with an optional ingredient
that adds a lot of creaminess and body,
and that is cream cheese.
I keep it here to get it to be nice
and room temperature really quickly
when I forgot to set it out earlier.
Today we're using eight ounces of cream cheese.
Our goal is to cream this up
and I just wanna show you this.
This is a little dot of caramel that fell on the counter
but it's already hardened into candy.
So that is probably nice and cool already.
There's no need to wait around.
We're gonna cream this until, you know,
it's kinda broken up and ready for some eggs.
Now we're gonna crack six eggs into here
and mix as we go.
Flan is one of my childhood treats.
My mom would make it quite often.
It was like her dessert that she really enjoyed that's easy.
My dad's favorite go-to dessert was rice pudding.
I liked the flan better.
All right.
I have two eggs in here.
I'm gonna mix this up until smooth
and then continue this process
until all the eggs are in there.
I'm going two at a time,
but you can do them one at a time or whatever you'd like.
Cream cheese adds so much flavor
and really makes this a bit more substantial.
You can omit it,
but if you're using the cream cheese,
you might have little lumps,
which are not your friend when you're making a custard.
I'm gonna show you how to get rid of those
after the eggs are all in.
If you're following best practices,
you would crack the eggs
into a separable bowl one at a time,
just in case there happened to be a bad egg in the group.
I risked it.
Cream this up until it's nice and smooth,
everything's incorporated,
and (mixer whirring) you don't see any lumps.
That looks pretty good.
We have three more ingredients left.
Sweetened condensed milk,
evaporated milk, and vanilla.
Start off with that evaporated milk.
(can plopping)
Didn't want that to happen.
One can of evaporated milk.
In you go.
Nothing happened.
One can of sweetened condensed milk.
This stuff is just heaven in a can.
I like to add this to my coffee in the morning
for a special treat.
It's really, really good.
Get it all out there.
I find the sweetened condensed milk adds enough sweetness
that there's no additional sugar needed
but if you have a real sweet tooth,
you could definitely add in a tablespoon
or two of sugar to this.
Lastly, we have one tablespoon,
15 ML of a nice vanilla,
Ooh, one tablespoon exactly.
In you go.
Mix this up until it's nice and smooth.
So as you can see,
my caramel has hardened.
It is a beautiful stained glass,
amber color, really pretty,
and I cannot wait to enjoy this.
I'm doing one optional step,
which is to strain everything through a sieve.
I just don't wanna have any cream cheese lumps.
Let's see if there were any.
Pour that onto your caramel.
Oh my gosh.
Wait 'til you see this.
Do you see this?
So many hidden lumps.
I'm really glad that I strained this through.
Our flan is ready to bake at 325,
but we're not just gonna toss this into the oven.
That would be a disaster.
You want your custard to cook really gently
with a nice, even heat.
So we're gonna place this into a large roasting dish.
(kettle whistling)
We're gonna pour some boiling water into here.
Although if you want,
it could just be really hot water.
I wanna have this covered about halfway or an inch.
This is gonna be a really nice way
to provide an even heat while this cooks
so your custard is silky throughout and not hard and eggy.
Okay, that's great.
We're gonna carefully put this into our oven
that's been preheated to 325 Fahrenheit.
It's gonna cook for about 50 minutes, maybe 45.
It should be jiggling gently when you wiggle it.
In you go.
My flan's has been chilling for about two hours
and when it came out of the oven,
it had a juggle in the center,
but right now that jiggle is totally gone.
It's ready to invert.
You're gonna wanna use a thin, sharp knife
and run that along the edge carefully.
So you don't wanna rough the flan up too much.
You're really just skirting the edge of the pan.
This will help it invert really easily.
If you've been chilling it,
you probably need to dip this into some warm water.
Just the bottom,
because the caramel gets really thick when it's refrigerated
and you're gonna want to have it be nice and thin
so it flips out the right way.
And now have your plate ready.
It should be one with a lip
so the caramel doesn't fall away into nothing.
Invert that onto the plate.
Flip it over.
Now tap the bottom.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
And it's done.
(pan tapping)
You can do this too.
There.
It just, it just made contact.
Okay, now lift it up.
Ah, look at that beautiful flan.
That is amazing.
I love the caramel on there and it's the perfect height.
We're gonna cut into this right now.
I am so ready for this bite,
but before I take it,
if you like this recipe,
check out my Latin playlist.
All my favorite Latin desserts in one playlist for you.
That is a creamy, dreamy dessert that words cannot describe.
I really hope you get a chance to make this recipe
and I'll see you in the next video.