Does anyone have a favourite recipe?
I haven’t made it before.
Here’s the recipe I use, from the famous French chef Roger Vergé, taken from a very old issue of the magazine “Master Chef” (don’t know if it still exists):
CRÈME CARAMEL
Ingredients
2 cups whole milk
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large egg yolks plus 3 large whole eggs
Grated zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup Grand Marnier
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Put 1/2 cup sugar into a small saucepan. Add 2 Tbsp water. Tilt to mix; do not stir. Heat on low till sugar is partly dissolved. Turn up heat. The sugar will melt and start caramelizing. Swirl until the caramel is golden; if crystals form on the side, wash them down with a brush dipped in cold water. Turn down the heat until caramel is deep amber. Carefully (caramel is extremely hot) pour into a soufflé dish about 6” diameter and swirl to coat bottom. Set aside.
Put the eggs, yolks, and zest into a medium bowl. Add 1/4 cup sugar and whisk till light yellow.
Pour the milk into a small saucepan with the other 1/4 cup sugar. Heat on medium heat (stirring to dissolve the sugar) till very hot. Do not boil.
Pour about 2 Tbsp of the milk into the egg mixture, stirring constantly while you do so. Repeat with about 1/4 cup milk.
Now slowly stir in the rest of the milk.
NOTE: Do not do the opposite and add the eggs to the milk…you would get scrambled egg! Stir in the Grand Marnier.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into the soufflé dish.
Put the dish into a 1-inch (or so) high baking pan, and pour very hot water into the pan around the soufflé dish so it comes up to about 1/2 inch.
Put the pan into the oven and bake 30 min, till you see a thin light brown ring around the circumference of the top of the flan. 30 min always works for me.
Remove from the oven. Take the dish out and set on a rack to cool. An hour later cover with clingfilm and refrigerate. When chilled run a thin knife around the inside edge of the soufflé dish. Invert a pie plate over the dish and quickly flip it over.
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Thank you.
Saving!
You’ll find “flan” on many Spanish dessert menus. I don’t like it any more than its French counterpart.
The Canary Islands version is Quesillo -
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@Phoenikia I made this recipe a long time ago; it’s delicious:
https://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/coffee-and-kahlua-flan.html
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Thank you!
Yes.
Thank you for the quesillo recipe.
Most of the former Spanish colonies also make flan, that they also call usually call flan.
I’m sort of wondering who decided to call that flat sponge cake topped with a layer of custard and fresh uncooked fruit flan, because that seems to only be considered flan in the English-speaking world.
The Portuguese make flan, too.
Some Portuguese bakeries here sell rather large trays of flan for a very reasonable $12.
The going rate for a single crème caramel at a Toronto restaurant is somewhere between $12 CAD and $15 CAD. Crème brûlée took over most menus about 30 years ago and crème caramel is less common than it once was.
My local French bakery, Bakery Pompette, sells a crème caramel in a jar for $7.50 CAD, which is pretty reasonable, considering the Italian competitor charges around $7 for a salt caramel budino or tiramisu that’s half as big. The only problem with my French bakery is that the caramel has been too burnt the last couple times, which is what is leading me to try and make my first crème caramel or flan! 
The cheap flans from the Portuguese bakeries seem to contain less cream and eggs, and more sugar.
Dr Oetker also sells an instant crème caramel mix.
There’s instant flan mix that’s available at Mexican stores.
On the Filipino tongue it comes out as “Leché plan.”
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Fan of flan here. I try to eat it as much as possible in PT and ES. Ubiquitous in both countries. But I make sure it’s “case(i)ro”/made on premisses, rather than industrial mass production kind of flan.
Unfortunately, Mexican version is far too firm. I think they add cornflour to the egg mixture. Probably would not break if dropped from a height. Have tried it 3 times in MX (twice restaurant, once in private, made by an acquaintance in Baja Sur. The same firmness.
Seeing flans here right now but not eating. 
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The Mexican recipe often uses sweetened condensed milk which is also going to lead to a much more dense result
This chocolate one uses cajeta
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The differences in all the many recipes boil down to 3 things, each of which has to do with the end texture:
(1) Eggs vs egg yolks vs mix of both (similar to any other custard or lemon curd) – richer vs lighter custard
(2) Milk vs cream vs both – same
(3) Additions such as condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream cheese, and milk powder – thick / sturdy result vs creamy / delicate (usually cream cheese is only found in Central & South American flans)
There’s also a difference in cooking methods – water bath vs no water bath. The Central & South American recipes care less about bubbling and overcooking because of the sturdier texture.
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I make a ‘Cuban’ flan that can bring strong men to their knees and make grandmas cry. My sister-in-law gave me the recipe. I double it and make a really huge one, once a year for Thanksgiving.
The basic recipe
5 eggs and the yolk of a 6th
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla extract. (or other extract. Sometimes I use 1 vanilla, and 1 almond extract. Or add more to taste.
Burn enough sugar in a pot big enough to hold all the ingredients. Swirl it around to get good coverage on the bottom and up the sides - as much as prudent. The pot then goes into the fridge until cracks begin to form in the burnt sugar.
Pour the ingredients into the sugar-hardened pot and place into an oven at 350 degrees. For a double portion, check it an hour in, and if not done, every 5 minutes after. With a single version, about 40 minutes begin to check. Toothpick should come out clean. The flan will still be wobbly but have some surface tension as well. Not overcooking is the key to a creamy texture inside.
Chill. Flip to serve.
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I have used this recipe as a base for chocolate “petits pots de crème”, by omitting the caramel and using instead 3oz of dark chocolate that is finely chopped and melted into the milk before it is poured into the eggs; everything else stays the same. Baking time is 20 minutes. It does not get flipped, but is eaten straight from the pot.
I make it in small Chinese teacups; I get 5 “pots”. There’s usually a bit of extra mixture left over; it’s an eminently drinkable treat for the chef!
Each pot consists of chocolate flan topped with a layer of chocolate mousse that forms on its own.
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A truc I’ve developed when making creme caramel.
After I make the caramel and have coated the mould, I use the same pan for heating the milk: a win, win, win. You use only one pan, the caramel pan doesn’t need to be soaked, the finished custard is enriched with the extra caramel flavor.
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Sunset Magazine has one recipe for flan in their Mexican Cookbook. An oldie, but a goodie. I haven’t made it in eons and the first time I made it, it was a cinch!. We drizzled a little Kahlua on the servings🤗
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Bon truc!
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