Basic Spanish Flan Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Place a 9-inch metal pie dish into a deep baking pan; pour boiling water into baking pan to reach about halfway up the side of the pie dish.
• Pour 1 teaspoon water and 1/2 cup sugar into a heavy saucepan, place over medium heat, and constantly swirl the sugar-water mixture in the pan over the heat until sugar dissolves, melts, and turns into a golden-brown caramel syrup, about 10 minutes. Watch carefully, the sugar burns easily. Pour melted caramel into the warmed pie dish and gently tilt pie dish to coat the bottom with caramel.
• Whisk egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, 1/4 cup sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl until mixture is creamy and thoroughly combined. If mixture is foamy, skim foam off with a folded paper towel. Gently pour custard over caramel in pie dish. Cover baking pan with aluminum foil.
• Bake in the preheated oven until custard is set but still jiggles slightly when moved, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove foil and place baking sheet with water bath and flan in refrigerator to chill, about 2 hours.
• Remove pie dish from baking pan; run a knife around the edges of flan to loosen from pie dish. Invert flan onto a rimmed serving platter to release custard and let caramel sauce flow over the flan.

Steps:

• Lay out 6 flan molds or 8 oz. shallow dishes out in a row, or you may use a single 9" round tart pan or pie plate.
• Now, place sugar in saucepan and place directly over medium heat on the stove top. Watch closely and constantly stir. The sugar will brown and turn to liquid. (Do not add water or other liquids.)Watch closely and do not allow the sugar to scorch. Remove from heat and distribute the caramelized sugar equally across the bottom of the flan molds. The sugar will almost immediately harden, but once it is baked with the custard, it will liquefy and remain liquid.
• In a mixing bowl combine evaporated milk, whole milk, eggs and vanilla and whisk together until the eggs are mixed well. While mixing you may add a few tablespoons of sugar or honey to sweeten to taste. Distribute the custard mixture in the flan molds.
• Pour about an inch of water into a large roasting pan. Set on an oven rack and then place the molds in the roasting pan. (Do not allow water level to go over the side of your flan molds.) Carefully push in the rack and close the oven door.
• Set oven to 350*F. Do not preheat. Bake for one hour. Test for doneness by inserting a knife. If it comes out clean, then the custard has fully cooked.
• When done, remove individual flans from roasting pan and place on a rack to cool.
• Flan can be served slightly warm or chilled in the refrigerator.
• To serve, run a knife around the top of the flan where it is connected to the mold. Flip over the mold onto the serving plate and then jiggle the flan loose so that it falls in one piece onto the plate. The caramelized sugar will form a sauce over the flan. There will be hard sugar remaining in the bottom of the molds, do not attempt to scrape this out to add to the sauce. Serve and enjoy!