I love custard and custard style desserts. While I do enjoy creme brulee (I love breaking into the crisp sugar topping!), my first love will always be leche flan. It’s a thick, sliceable custard! Plus it is super duper easy to make!
There are only 4 ingredients, eggs, condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla extract.
Ingredients:
12 egg yolks
1 14oz. can of condensed milk
1 14oz can of evaporated milk
1 tbsp of vanilla extract
Caramel Sauce:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water (if you like a thinner sauce, add more water)
Preheat the oven to 375F
You need to make the caramel sauce first.
In a medium saucepan, boil together the sugar and water. You want the sugar to get brown and carmelize. Once it is the color you like, pour it into your leche flan mold.
In a large bowl, beat all the yolks. Mix in the milks and vanilla extract. Pour this mixture into the leche flan mold with the caramel sauce. *Be sure the mold is big enough so that the leche flan mixture does not come right to the top. You want about an inch of room from the top.*
Place the mold into a larger pan that has high sides. Pour hot water into the pan so that the hot water comes up to level as the leche flan mixture. Cover with aluminum foil and put in the oven. Bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Test the flan to ensure it is cooked by inserting a clean toothpick or knife in the middle of the flan. If it comes out clean, your flan is cooked!
Let your flan cool completely. Slide a knife around the flan to loosen it from the mold. Place a large plate against the top of the mold and quickly invert the mold onto the plate. A few gentle taps on the bottom of the mold should help release the leche flan on the plate.
* My recipe creates a SUPER eggy flan. If you don’t want it that egg, you could decrease the yolks to 4 yolks and 6 whole eggs.