I tried to answer you as to how you can perfect your flan but a message popped up, that I should send you a personal message. So, I did. Let me know if you found it
Looks good!
I think the hard caramel at the bottom varies depending on what point the sugar was caramelized to, and also how much you used.
You can loosen it up either by sitting the custards in a warm water bath (doesn’t loosen too much) or what I do instead is pour a bit of boiling water in after unmolding the custard - to dissolve the hardened bit, and then it’s more sauce.
My mom has always steamed her caramel custard (in a PC, with or without pressure depending on what else she’s cooking - this was usually a last-minute add-on to use up “wasted space” lol) and she never has a hard caramel residue problem - probably because of the moist heat.
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Who asked you?
I read that streaming is hotter than an oven 180ºC with water bath, in my case.
So when I went down this rabbit hole, I cooked the same mixture half in the oven (with water bath) and half steamed stovetop simultaneously, just out of curiosity.
The steamed one (very gently - if one is bubble-averse) cooked much faster and had less caramel crystallized at the bottom. The baked one took 2-3x the time, and had more hard caramel at the bottom. The baked one may have been slightly denser (which makes sense when one considers evaporation).
They’re all delicious, though, it’s just a question of deciding what texture and sweetness you like.
I don’t have IP, recently I steamed a Chinese horse radish cake, it took me 3x the time indicated in the recipe. With the steam escaping in a stainless steel pot with cover, the heat inside the pot was not hot enough, it seems. I have so much problem with steaming that I avoid doing that! I started to read about the different temperature of each type of cooking. (If anybody has more information on that, I would like to read on that!)
I don’t have an IP either, just a stovetop pressure cooker. (Though when I made all those flans I was visiting family, and just used a regular pot with a lid that fit).
(Not relevant here, but if a steaming setup has a gap, you can wrap a kitchen cloth around the lid - tied on top, so nothing can drop to a flame - or crinkle foil around the rim. I do that sometimes for rice and biryani, especially if I’m not at home using my own cookware.)
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Good idea, thanks. I don’t worry about flame, induction here! Not even pressure cooker at home. This cloth tip can improve the “pool” situation on induction plate when steaming, which sometimes can alert the security and switches the plate off totally!
I like asian steam egg custard, quite close to the spirit of your steaming flan, but tons of bubbles formed.
Did you post your flan somewhere? Possible to have a close look?
@naf
In answer to your question “who asked you?” that I do not find here but in my email, I believe it has to do wot answering Rooster who had tried baking a flan twice, the first time picture shows it was very pale with no caramel, and second time, just a few days later, Rooster says it came out tasting better but did not look as nice.
Rooster’s final comment NOW I’M FLAN-D OUT!
,
when I started to answer Rooster , a message popped up that I should send it to him personally I am not sure of the exact words but it seems there has been too many communications of flan.
The Egg to Liquid Ratio controls how firm it sets.
2 Large Eggs per Cup of Liquid is needed to to make a Custard that can be unmolded.
Yes, exactly like those, just more quantity.
Took me a while to find the pics.
Turns out I also took a pic of the leftovers of the flan made by an Argentinian friend for a dinner party the same week, which is what inspired me to try. You’ll see that that one has lots of bubbles/holes and is also darker than any pictured here - it was delicious and intense and dense and rich, but she baked it a lot more than recipes suggest, and no one there cared about the bubbles.
My first few attempts - 1 egg versions, then 6 eggs.
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I used to steam food ( radish turnip taro cake, ) using my double layered aluminum pot. One trick to stop steam from escaping thru the lid as well as dropping into the turnip radish cake is to wrap the lid with a towel as well as fold the towel over the loaf pan if big enough, otherwise, cover the loaf pan with foil.
Since the boiling point of water is 212° F ( 100° C ) at sea level, the highest temperature at which steam can cook food is 212°F / 100°C . You can increase this pressure somewhat by placing steam under pressure, but in the home kitchen, expect steaming to occur right at or around the boiling point of water.
What I do when I was cooking these years ago when Bill (Rip )was with us as he was a celiac patient with gluten enteropathy is line my large aluminum 2 stack steamer with muslim as well as the loaf pan and a towel under the lid. That ways steam does not escape and does not make my loaf too watery as well as keep the hovering temp at around 100 degrees
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