A easy recipe for caramel flan. Creme caramel or caramel flan. A delicious and easy dessert recipe. This interesting dessert is pretty popular in different parts of the world. Everyone with their own variations and techniques. Flan is a rich and creamy dessert with a beautiful shiny caramel top. You could just keep eating away without realizing how quickly it’s all gone lol.

I have had different variations of this dessert especially at home. As a child I remember how my mom would make this dessert quite often when we had friends and family over. She would get all her cooking done and put the caramel flan on right at the end leaving it to chill in the fridge overnight. Moms flan was a recipe she learnt while she was at home growing up. She called it ‘pudding’ and it was made in a similar way to most other flan recipes using the common ingredients eggs, warm milk and sugar with a caramel top made from cooking water and sugar together. This was definitely her easy recipe for caramel flan!

More about this caramel flan

In this blog I’m going to share a Mexican flan recipe. I had this here in America a few times and in my opinion it’s the best flan just because it’s got more of that rich creamy taste and texture. Also another reason why I like this recipe is because the ingredients used are all ready to use like evaporated milk, condensed milk, eggs and vanilla extract…Mmm all the good stuff lol…well all the yummy stuff…

I just like to whiz this up when I’m in a rush and need a quick dessert that looks that much appetizing as it taste. And these simple ingredients are always at home ready to use.

The creme caramel/flan is cooked in a water bath, some people like to do that on the stove or in the oven. I like to use my moms technique which is such a time saver and that’s in a pressure cooker. ‘Yes’ a pressure cooker. It takes exactly ten minutes for the creme caramel/flan to cook and set. No wonder mom left this dessert to make right til the end. She would always be done in a flash….

To make the caramel flan

In a pan heat up some sugar, let that cook on a low heat until it turns to a nice brown color. Keep an eye on the pan so the sugar doesn’t burn and remember it’s super hot so don’t touch it and no stirring with a spoon either.

Transfer the sugar caramel into a fairly deep dish that you will be cooking your creme caramel/flan in. The dish needs to be oven proof or stove proof. Swirl the sugar caramel so the dish is evenly coated at the bottom. Let that sit while you make the custard.

In a fairly large mixing bowl add in the condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla extract. Using a whisk mix together until well blended for 1-2 minutes. Add in the eggs and again mix well until the eggs are well incorporated. The key is not to over mix as this will result in air bubbles in the flan.

Using a sieve pour the mixture into the dish over the sugar caramel layer.

At this point you can make a water bath. Use a larger oven proof dish which would fit the caramel flan dish in. Cover the caramel flan dish with foil and place into the larger dish. Pour hot boiling water into the larger dish and put into a oven to cook for 1 hour at an oven temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Another way to cook flan

Or you could use the much easier method using a pressure cooker. Using your pressure cooker guidelines/manual set the pressure cooker up. Arrange a tripod (this usually comes with most pressure cookers) into the pressure cooker and add in 2 cups of water. Sit the stove proof dish with the caramel flan on top of the tripod. Making sure the flan dish is securely covered with foil. Lock the pressure cooker and set to the higher setting. Turn flame to high and let the pressure build up and then turn flame to medium and set the timer for 10 minutes. That’s it!!

After 10 minutes turn the stove off and release the pressure using the natural release method (do this according to your user manual) carefully take out the dish and let that stand for a few minutes to cool down. Refrigerate overnight or for 3-4 hours before turning the flan out on to a serving dish.

To take the flan out use a knife to go around the edge so the creme caramel/flan will come out easily. Place a serving dish over the caramel flan dish and holding firming turn over so the flan falls onto the serving dish. If the flan doesn’t fall out then you might need to warm the bottom of the flan dish over a flame for a few seconds. Once turned over you will see that beautiful sugar caramel on top and its ready to eat.

Enjoy making this easy recipe for caramel flan!

Caramel flan can be made a day early to save time or you could make it on the day and chill for a few hours just before serving.